^°''ijy"] Queensland Notes-, 40 



fine tea-tree bark. We watched a certain pair of these l:)irds 

 build a nest and rear their young, and afterwards saw a Dove 

 take possession of the nest. The Dove has since returned and 

 reared a second family in the old nest of the Fantail. 



" The Channelbill, also the Black and Speckled Cuckoos,* visit 

 this district always bafore the rain, about October. Our notes, 

 extending from 1915, give their arrival dates as about 5th October, 

 and not, as Leach says, with the floods. These birds never come 

 with the floods ; they arrive well before that period, and depart 

 when the floods are over. The Black Cuckoo is a noisy gentleman, 

 and howls his ' Coo-ee ' all night long. Miners who work night- 

 shift often vow vengeance on him for keeping them awake. The 

 Speckled Cuckoo lays her eggs in nests of the Leatherhead, and 

 I have often seen keen battles for the privilege. The Australian 

 Roller always comes here after the first rains and stays until the 

 Cuckoos depart. He seems very fond of sitting high on a dead tree. 



" The Sanguineous Honey-eater visits this district about the 

 same time as the * Jan-da-berry,' and I often see the little ' Red- 

 head,' as the children call it, flitting among the trees. Then, 

 when the tea-trees are in blossom, the Blue Mountain Lorikeets 

 come here in millions, followed about a week later by the Friar- 

 Bird (Leatherhead). The Lorikeet is much the quicker flier of 

 these two birds. 



"In regard to late nesting, I noticed only recently a nest built 

 of long grass-seeds woven neatly together and suspended on a low 

 bush. Two fairly large mottled eggs were in it at the time, and 

 yesterday {2gth April) there were two young ones. This nest 

 belonged to birds we know as ' Australian Canaries.' 



" I am pleased to say that, since the certificates of the Gould 

 League of Bird-Lovers were distributed here, fewer birds have 

 been destroyed. The chief offender was always, the ' new 

 chum.' " 



Ways of Emu. — In a recent discussion in the Brisbane press on 

 events of 50 years ago, an old colonist contributes the following 

 interesting notes on Emu : — • 



" Before I was 20 years old I had charge of the Emu Holes 

 cattle station, Mookii River (pronounced Mukhi). Emus were 

 fairly plentiful on those plains, and I have now and then run one 

 down. No ordinary horse could run down an Emu in a long 

 chase the same as he would a dingo or a kangaroo, if you did not 

 bustle along at first. After going about a mile the Emu would 

 put up his head and go steadily for a few hundred yards, and 

 seem to take a second wind, then stretch out his neck and lay 

 himself out to go ; and he would, too, and keep it up. The horse 

 would be run down before the Emu. The way to catch an Emu 

 is to lay up your horse's neck so that the Emu cannot tell what 

 sort of an ' animal ' it is. I have often got within a hundred 

 yards of them by walking straight towards them, so that they did 



* Probably male and female of Eudynamys cyanocephala. — A. H. C. 



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