April,"! Kershaw, A Naturalist in Northern Queensland. i8i 



were found. These birds, which have a beautiful musical note, 

 build a very neat, open, cup-shaped nest of very hne grass, 

 with at times fine tendrils, usually placed in a small shrub 

 three or four feet from the ground. Otiiers, such as the Shining 

 Flycatcher, Piczorhynchns ■nitidiis, Boat-billed Flycatcher, 

 Machcerirhynchus fiaviventer. Northern Fantail, Rhipidiira 

 isura. Yellow Oriole, Oriohis fiavicinctus, Lovely Wren, Maliirns 

 amahilis, &c., were also taken, while in the open country, on 

 the opposite side of the river, was secured the rare Blue-cheeked 

 Parrot, Platycercus amaihiisicB. 



Close to our camp was discovered an old and deserted 

 bower of the Fawn-breasted Bower-bird, Chlamydera ccrvini- 

 ventris, and on the following day a fresh one was found, 

 built in the shelter of some thick scrub. The sides of the 

 bower were formed of small twigs, closely and securely 

 packed, about 15 inches long and 12 inches high, separated 

 at the top, the base, of similar material, extending at either 

 end a little distance from the upright sides. Both entrances 

 were decorated with numbers of brightly-coloured berries about 

 half an inch long, some bright green, others dark l)lue, while 

 others were placed here and there among the toj)s of the 

 upright twigs forming the sides of the bower. A couple of 

 feet from either entrance was a small heap of the faded and 

 discarded berries. This bower was carefully removed intact, 

 and is now in the National Museum. The measurements 

 of the old bower were : — Length of walls, 15 inches ; height, 

 12 inches ; space separating upright walls, 3 inches ; thickness 

 of material forming walls — on one side 6 inches, on the other 

 not more than 3 inches. The platform approach extended at 

 one end 15 inches, at the other 4 inches. The whole structure 

 was so compactly and firmly constructed that, although an 

 old one, and saturated with the recent rains, it could be lifted 

 bodily by the upright walls without injury. 



Later on we dug out several burrows of the Elephant Beetle, 

 Xylotritpes, numbers of which we found in the vicinity of our 

 camp in the loose, sandy soil. These burrows were easily 

 recognized by the large heap of soil piled up outside the 

 entrance, which measured about two inches in diameter. 

 Many of the burrows opened up were over 18 inches deep, 

 winding somewhat as they went down and ending in a small 

 rounded chamber filled with a good handful of gum-leaves, 

 among which the female deposits her eggs. In several of these 

 chambers we found a single female, and in one three small 

 whitish eggs of a long oval shape, deposited among the vegetable 

 debris. Apparently the burrow is excavated by the female 

 only, as no males were found. The eggs are hatched by the 

 moist heat of the decaying vegetable material, upon which, 



