Vol. XVI I 

 1917 



J Campbell .\yiv Bartssard, Birds of N. Queensland. J-i 



nearly incubated, as the owners became very solicitous at our 

 approach to take a photograph. 



Ninox lurida. Red Owl. 



Spiloglaux boobook lurida. 



In the Queensland ^Museum there is a small Owl, evidently collected 

 by the late Kendall Broadbent, and labelled— " New Athene ; s,\\oi n 

 on the bank of Meunga Creek, eight miles from Cardwell, in a dark, 

 thick scrub. Bill and cere lead colour ; eyes yellowish-white ; toes 

 and bottom of feet white ; claws black. May 14th, 1886." 

 (Dimensions in inches — length, ii; wing, 8; tail, 5; tarsus, i^.| 

 There is also another specimen from the Musgravc marked " female " 

 (?), which is a trifle more reddish on the back, with round white 

 spots on the upper wing coverts, otherwise upper surface uniform. 

 Tail not barred like that of boobook. 



These skins are similar, if not referable, we believe, to Ninox lurida, 

 which De Vis described in 1889. However, we obtained similar 

 skins — a female at Cardwell, and a mated pair in the Kirrama Range. 

 The pair was obtained in a curious way. We, were proceeding through 

 the range single file, when in a scrubby gully we heard some scolding 

 Honey-eaters. " A snake or an Owl," we thought. Investigation 

 proved the latter, and a pair of small reddish Owls was the prize, 

 which we judged to be a distinct species, and not a sub-species of the 

 familiar boobook. It is the smallest Owl in Australia, and apparently 

 the bird figured by JNIathews in his " Birds of Australia," vol. v., 

 pi. 262, above the name of Spiloglaux boweri. Locahty, in the letter- 

 press, is mentioned as Cairns. But how came such a classic as the 

 author of " The Birds of Australia " to displace De Vis's lurida— \h.p 

 exact bird from the same region, Bellenden Ker district ? 



Ninox peninsularis. Cape York Owl. 



Hieracoglaux connivens peninsularis . 



Heard a bird calling " Woop, woop " at night on Goold Island, 

 and flushed one during day on the mainland behind Cardwell. 



Ninox (rufa) humeralis. Rufous Owl. 



Rhahdoglaiix queenslandica . 



Observed along the water-courses near Cardwell ; appeared to be 

 fairly numerous. Notes on the taking of the pair of type eggs of 

 this bird have already appeared in The Emu (vol. xvi., pp. 159, 160, 

 with illustration;. See also Plate II. with this article. 



Ninox hunievalis is a good variety, being slightly smaller and much 

 darker in coloration than A', riija, from the Northern Territor}-. 

 Moreover, the Territory birds have their tails tipped with brown. 

 The male of the Cardwell birds had a pronounced white tip to its 

 tail, while the tip of the female's tail was light brown. 



North, who examined a specimen from the Herbert Gorge, stated 

 it could not be distinguished from typical examples of N. humeralis 

 obtained in New Guinea. 



Triclioglossus septentrionalis. Northern Blue-bellied Lorikeet. 



Friclioglossus novcehollandice septentrionalis . 



A common bird on the coastal country and the table-land, feeding 

 in the flowering eucalypts, chiefly the so-called " blue gum " (£. 

 tereticornis) in the former locality and the poplar-leaved gum {E. 

 platyphylla') in the latter. These Lorikeets were also fond of fossicking 

 the red " bottle-brushes " of the Callistemons that flowered by 

 streams. 



