64 Macgillivray, Ornithologists in North Queensland. [,sf"^ct. 



some sailing managed to reach Lloyd's Island before dark on the 

 29th, a distance of over 40 miles. 



Lloyd's Island is a large island in the bay of the same name, 

 and on it Mr. Hugh Giblett, a gentleman engaged in the heche- 

 de-mer and sandalwood industries, has his home and keeps 

 supplies — the only place on that part of the coast where such 

 can be obtainecL 



Mr. M'Lennan returned to his camp on the Pascoe on the 31st 

 July, and resumed his quest for Eclectus and other birds. After 

 about a month spent in searching the scrubs and open forest 

 country along the river, he elected to walk overland to Lloyd's 

 Island. This he did, arriving there on the 29th August, after 

 a rough trip. 



Owing to the difficulty of procuring supplies on the Pascoe 

 River, and acting on Mr. Giblett's advice, he decided to shift 

 camp to the Claudie River, a small stream which takes its origin 

 from the Nelson Range, whose highest peaks, Mount Dobson 

 (1,820 feet) and Mount Nelson (1,587 feet), are densely clothed 

 with timber and form the angle round which the Pascoe makes 

 its turn to the sea. The Claudie runs from here in a south- 

 easterly direction, and empties itself into Lloyd's Bay, about 

 six miles south of Mr. Giblett's island home, and directly behind 

 Mount Tozer (1,953 feet), the highest point of the Tozer Range. 

 Like all or most of the rivers on the peninsula, the Claudie is 

 lined for about two miles from the mouth with mangrove swamps, 

 which extend along the coast for about the same distance in one 

 direction. These swamps are filled and emptied by the rise and 

 fall of the tides. Behind these are tea-tree swamps or shallows, 

 more open than the mangrove swamps, and mostly dry, or nearly 

 so, in the winter and spring months, and well filled, during the 

 rainy season. The country behind these again is low-lying, sandy, 

 lightly timbered with eucalypts, banksia, melaleuca, and other 

 trees, with a stunted undergrowth of tea-tree and other shrubs 

 and herbaceous plants. The flats further up the river are 

 covered with tropical forest — ^great trees of various kinds, whose 

 stems rise to a height of 60 or 70 feet before branching and 

 forming, with climbing plants of many kinds, a dense canopy 

 overhead, through which the sun's rays rarely penetrate. Many 

 of these plants flower profusely, and there is an abundance of 

 fruit of every size, shape, and colour, affording a plentiful food 

 supply for numberless fruit-eating birds. 



The roof of this jungle is a world in itself, out of sight and 

 reach of the man who walks below, except where, at the edges 

 or along the river banks, it slopes down to earth or water's edge, 

 festooned by climbers whose foliage and inflorescence show 

 infinite variation. There i^ a bird-life of this roof ; some birds 

 keep under it in the shade of the scrub, and others, again, 

 keep to the floor, which is usually carpeted with a thick layer 

 of fallen leaves. Growth and decay are alike very rapid, and 

 fallen trees, limbs, and other debris soon disappear, and the gaps 



