April,! Kershaw, A Naturalist in Northern Queensland. 179 



A NATURALIST IN NORTHERN QUEENSLAND. 



By J. A. Kershaw, F.E.S., Curator of the National Museum, 



Melbourne. 



[Read before the Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria, gth Nov., 1914.) 



{Continued from page 172.) 



On the Gth January the weather cleared sufficiently to enable 

 us to remove to a camp a few miles down the river, our object 

 being to work the extensive mangrove and tea-tree swamps.' 



The country here consisted of fairly open forest, the lower- 

 lying parts forming great swamps, in which grew thick forests 

 of the Paper-bark Tea-tree, Melaleuca leucodendron. Bordering 

 the river for many miles are the mangrove swamps, consisting 

 chiefly of the white mangrove. This species grows to a height 

 of 30 or 40 feet, the rather slender and perfectly straight stems 

 being branched only at their tops, and bearing a large, round, 

 orange-like fruit about four inches in diameter. These swamp 

 areas are inundated with each rise of the tide, and more or less 

 drained again as the tide recedes, leaving the surface covered 

 with a thick, sticky mud, through which protrude the short, 

 pliable pneumatophores or breathing tubes of the mangrove. 

 As we splashed our way through water and mud among the 

 closely-growing trees, the inrushing tide raising the water knee- 

 deep, numbers of large mangrove crabs dropped off the tree- 

 trunks and scrambled into their holes in the slimy mud, while 

 in the more open spaces butterflies of various kinds, including 

 the brilliantly-coloured Mangrove Blue, Arhopala amytis, flitted 

 to and fro. Several species of birds were noted, chief among 

 them being the gorgeously-plumed White-tailed, Yellow-billed, 

 and Mangrove Kingfishers, which frequent these localities, 

 the latter never being found far from their vicinity. Just 

 outside the mangroves, and among a densely-tangled scrub, 

 were some of the finest examples of the Fan Palm yet met with. 

 These were growing in a great mass in swampy ground too 

 difficult to penetrate, and varied in height from 3 to 30 feet. 

 Several species of moths, including Euchromia irius and 

 Tigridoptera mariana, and some unknown species, were taken 

 among the darkened mangroves, but the rising tide and 

 myriads of mosquitos did not permit us to delay. 



Bordering the edges of these swamps we occasionally came 

 on broad, deep water-holes margined with almost impenetrable 

 scrub, palms, and ferns, in which we disturbed several crocodiles, 

 which, suddenly startled, splashed into the water, leaving a 

 long trail to mark their progress. Along the banks of such 

 holes and near the river these reptiles build up their nest- 

 mounds, in which they deposit their eggs. While wading 

 through the swamps care had to be exercised to avoid these 



