THE JACKSONIAN OOLOGICAL COLLECTION, 
even days. W. McEnerny assured me that no person had been near the tree containing the nest 
g my absence, and according to my instructions no gun had been fired in that neighbourhood. 
So with the full determination this time of taking a set of eggs from the nest (8 days since I last climbed 
up), I again erected the pole and ascended ; but how my heart dropped when I found the nest filled 
level to the top with dead leaves (induviez), and different to any of those on the trees towering above the 
nest. I did not know what to do; had the birds abandoned the nest ? was the question, or had they 
filied it with the leaves for their own purpose? which no doubt would be their object, thus keeping 
intruders away until they were ready to lay, and so give the nest a desolate effect. No doubt that this 
is the precaution the birds had taken for doing so. I took some of the dead leaves from the nest with 
a pair of forceps, and compared them with 
those on the trees growing in the immediate 
surroundings, but found none to corres- 
pond withthem. I was then satisfied that 
the birds had placed them in the nest 
themselves. I then left it for seven days 
more, and after hearing the birds screeching 
early one morning behind the camp, having 
been silent for that time, I erected the 
pole, and after securing it with three ropes, 
climbed up to the nest and found in it not 
‘dead and twisted leaves,” but instead two 
magnificent eggs, which were quite fresh. 
It was a glorious sight to look into the nest 
this time, when I took those two lovely 
specimens from it, and knowing they were 
the first and only pair then recorded to 
science, made me feel as though I had 
suddenly and unexpectedly inherited some 
big fortune. I was all excitement. ‘This 
took place on the 2nd of November, 1899, 
and it was only very great patience and 
perseverance that won for me these highly 
treasured specimens. ‘The tree was then 
cut down, the nest and eggs replaced 
in their natural positions, and then photo- 
graphed. This handsomely-plumed bird 
is the most southern representative of the 
A peep into the nest of the N.S.W, Rifle Bird of Paradise, in its 
magnificent Birds of Paradise, and is chiefly natural position in the dense Lawyer vines, 
confined to the rich scrubs of South-east (About one-fifth of the natural size.) 
Loc., Booyong Scrubs, Richmond River district, N.S.W. 
Queensland and North-east New South ; 
(See data No. 557,) 
Wales, its southern limit now being about 
the Manning River district, where a few may be found. ‘The first bird ever seen was supposed to have 
been shot by a convict named Wilson, in 1823, which was described by Swainson in 1825 ; and it seems 
very remarkable that the first recorded set of their eggs (data No. 557) was only taken in 1899, seventy 
six years afterwards. The males sometimes breed before their full and beautiful livery is donned ; the 
plumage prior to the transition stage being brown, and similar to that of the female. At Booyong I 
succeeded in procuring one of these partly-plumaged males, whose upper surface is similar to 
the females, with one or two black feathers appearing about the back of the neck, and some of the 
brownish primaries becoming dusky-coloured. On the under surface the arrow-shaped markings on 
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