No. in 
A. J. 
Data Campbell's No. of 
No. Book. Eggs. 
Bama ss «2 
THE JACKSONIAN OOLOGICAL COLLECTION. 
down, and causing the wings to make an extraordinary noise resembling the rustling of a piece of new 
silk ; then he would suddenly turn round and round, and every few seconds make quite an unusual 
sound, resembling the faint croaking of a frog. The ordinary note of this bird is a very loud rasping- 
like screech, and resembles a prolonged guttural “ y-a-s-s,” which is repeated twice, followed by a 
lengthened interval of sometimes fully half an hour or more. Adverting to the nest again, from 
which the set under notice was taken (data No. 557), I would like to explain that its construction was 
entirely the work of the hen bird, and we never yet saw a male near a nest during building operations, 
or even afterwards when the female was sitting. She is not fed by the male while on the nest, as far as 
I could see, but has to go and feed herself, and perhaps this is another reason why so many snake skins 
are placed on and around these structures, for it seems quite feasible when we take into consideration 
the fact that they have to leave them for such a long time during their hunt for food. This makes it 
appear more evident that the skins are really utilized as a means of protection, as already stated, and 
not for decorative purposes. I have known the hen to leave the eggs at 10.30 in the morning, and not 
return till nearly noon ; this I witnessed in company with W. McEnerny before we took the other set 
of 2 eggs on the 20th of November ; and when she returned after our long wait he climbed up the pole 
to the nest, and she actually allowed him to put his hand right upon her before she flew off again. The 
hen leaves the nest between ten and eleven in the morning, and goes to feed, and then again between 
four and five o’clock in the afternoon. The reason I used a long pole, secured with ropes, in the scrubs 
when robbing the nests of this Bird of Paradise, was simply because the trees in which the nests were 
placed were always enveloped from the bottom to the top in such a mass of tangled growth of the sharp 
and treacherous Barrister (Mezoneuvon Scortechinii) and Lawyer vines (Calamus australis), that they were 
rendered quite impossible to negotiate in the ordinary way. Two nests found were built on top of old 
ones of the same kind, and another was placed eighteen inches away from the new nest; this proves 
that they certainly build year after year in the same tree. The nest under notice, which contained the 
set of eggs taken on the 2nd of November, 1899, was composed of leaves and great quantities of the 
green climbing fern (/olypodium serpens) already mentioned, being neatly lined with thin glossy fern 
stems, also fine vine tendrils, and festooned with cast off snake skins. It measures 10} inches across (when 
green) ; egg cavity 3} inches across, and 1} inches deep; depth of nest, overall, 5 inches. We also 
saw these birds in the rich Don Dorrigo scrubs of N.S.W., in October of 1898, but did not succeed 
in finding any trace of their nests there. 
VICTORIA RIFLE BIRD OF PARADISE, 
Ptilorhis victoria, Gould. 
(This bird was named after our late Queen Victoria). 
This is a very handsomely marked set of 2 eggs, which were taken by R. Hislop in the scrubs 
of the Bloomfield River district, North Queensland, on the 14th of September, 1898. They 
are very like those of the latter species, only these are smaller. They have the same beautiful flesh 
ground colour, and are marked with the longitudinal streaks of reddish and purplish-brown, being superb 
specimens. Like the latter species this bird also uses large quantities of cast off snake skins (epidermis) 
in the protective decoration of its nests. (See A. J. Campbell’s book, at foot of page 75). This hand- 
some species frequents the dense scrubs on the coast of North Queensland, the Bloomfield River 
district being about its northern, and the Herbert River scrubs its southern limits. It seems to build 
very often in the Fan Palm (Pandanus pedunculatus), right at the trunk of the tree where the fronds 
join, and is sometimes well hidden amongst the fibre, the nest being placed much lower down, than that 
of the large Richmond River species of North-eastern New South Wales. I received this rare clutch 
through the courtesy of A. J. Campbell, of Melbourne. I look forward with very great pleasure to 
some day visiting the haunts of this handsome bird in the Bloomfield River district, also the Barnard 
Islands of tropical Queensland, as wellas the far northern representative, PA/orhis alberti, which is to be 
found inhabiting the rich scrubs near Cape York, at the extreme northern part of that State. Specimen 
A. of the set measures = 1'22 x 0°87. Specimen B. measures = 1°24 x 0°88. 
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