Data Cumpbell’s No. of 
No. 
A.J 
Book. 
Eggs. 
THE JACKSONIAN OOLOGICAL COLLECTION. 
bird, which I found at Booyong, the cast off skins of the following snakes were used in profusion, viz., 
Black Snake (Pseudechis porphyrviacus), Carpet Snake (Python vaviegata), and the Death Adder (Acan- 
thophis antayctica). No doubt these skins are utilized for the purpose of scaring away other birds, scrub 
rats, and various nest-robbing animals from the nests. The eggs are glossy, of a beautiful rich 
flesh ground colour, and, like those of the two following species, are marked with longitudinal streaks 
of reddish-brown and purplish-brown, and possess quite a hand-painted appearance. They greatly 
resemble those of the sumptuously plumed Red Bird of Paradise (Pavadisea vaggiana) of New Guinea, 
with the exception that those of the former are a little smaller. I had the pleasure lately of examining 
in the collection of the Macleayan Museum, at the Sydney University, an egg of the latter species 
taken in New Guinea. In the Richmond River scrubs we noticed the Rifle Birds of Paradise frequently 
Our Camp in the Booyong Scrubs, Richmond River, N.S.W., in 1899. Reading from the left the persons 
are—W, M. Parker, I. J. Foster,and W. McEnerny. The white cross denotes the position of our first 
find of the nest of the Rifle Bird of Paradise, from which clutch data No. 557 was taken. 
devouring large yellow centipedes, which are collected in the hollows of trees, and the only time 
that I noticed one of these birds on the ground was when a female dropped a huge centipede, and flew 
down to pick it up. Strange to say we only saw the hen birds go into the hollows in quest of insects, 
the handsome males never doing so; but we have known a hen to remain ina cavity for nearly half 
an hour, and then finally make an appearance again with a centipede in her bill, which she would give 
a few hard raps on the limb, and then swallow, the tail end of it wriggling as it slowly disappeared. 
The fact that the female goes into these openings hunting for food, and remains there so long, helps to 
throw some light upon the story told by the aborigines to the late John MacGillivray and others. These 
natives may, at some time or other, have climbed up to a hollow from which they saw a female fly, 
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