^gf J Kershaw, A Naturalist in Northern Queensland. 117 



rough and ready meals. Following along the coast until mid- 

 day, we anchored of! the shore for the purpose of landing some 

 stores on the beach for some blacks employed by Giblett to 

 gather sandalwood in the back country. We spent an hour 

 or so on the broad sandy beach, but, beyond numbers of the 

 small, coiled, chambered shells of the well-known cephalopod, 

 Spirula peronii, and some broken nautilus shells, there was 

 little of interest to be found. The country was flat and 

 marshy, and covered with dense mangroves, among the branches 

 of which were suspended dozens of nests, large and small, of 

 the green ant, (Ecophylla smaragdina. The ants themselves 

 were everywhere — on leaves and trunks, logs, and on the 

 ground. One could not rest in peace, and more than once we 

 had to hurriedly discard portions of our clothing to rid our- 

 selves of them. Among the mangroves we saw Leach's King- 

 fisher, the Sun-bird, and a Robin which we could not identify. 

 In some shallow brackish water among the trees were numbers 

 of fish, including very large examples of the Barramundi, while 

 the small mud-skipper, Periophthalmus, were darting about 

 among the mangrove roots. Here, also, I saw our first 

 specimens of the beautiful mangrove blue butterfly, Arhopala 

 amytis, but, as our collecting material was packed away on the 

 boat, we had to content ourselves with admiring them at a 

 distance. The day was intensely hot, especially so in the 

 mangrove swamp, and we were glad when we resumed our 

 voyage. As evening came on hundreds of the White Torres 

 Strait Pigeons were seen fljnng from the mainland in small 

 groups towards the various small islands, where they camp 

 and breed. 



Lloyd Island was reached a little after midnight, where we 

 were welcomed by Mr. W. M'Lennan, who had come across 

 from the mainland to meet us, and it was not long before we 

 were enjoying a few hours' sleep on the open beach. Soon 

 after daylight we started off to explore the island. Lloyd 

 Island is about a mile long and half a mile wide, situated about 

 a mile from- the mainland, from which it is separated by very 

 shallow water. The sheltered side is bordered with a thick, 

 dense - belt of mangrove, Rhizophora mucronata, growing 

 luxuriantly in the shallow water, behind which the island rises 

 steeply to a height of 200 feet. Parts of the hills are well 

 timbered, the remainder being bare, but fairly well grassed. 

 On the exposed ocean sides the shores are very rocky and 

 broken, the only small sandy beach on the eastern side being 

 thickly strewn with pumice, broken shells, and coral. Like 

 several of the other islands visited later, the rocks along the 

 shore are thickly covered with very fine oysters, Ostrea nigro- 

 marginata, to which we did ample justice. About the centre 



