Vol ^x^vii.j jviacgillivray, Ornithologists in North Queensland. yy 



sand- banks. Next day he proceeded up the river to a mission 

 station, and was recommended by the superintendent to go to 

 the Watson River, a tributary of the Archer, as a boat could get 

 up about 40 miles, and there was a number of fresh-water swamps 

 and good camping-places along its banks. On the way up 

 several crocodiles were seen, and one shot. A sandalwood 

 landing-place was reached on the 2nd June, and here it was 

 decided to camp. The cutter went back and a dinghy was 

 retained. A dingo was shot during the night as it was investigating 

 the boat. Mr. M'Lennan's description of the country along the 

 river is as follows ; — " The banks for about 10 miles from the 

 mouth are thickly fringed with mangroves ; behind the man- 

 groves are big stretches of open plain and shallow, rush-grown 

 swamps ; and beyond these again are low ridges covered with 

 messmate, bloodwood, and numerous other trees. Above the 

 mangroves and beyond our camp there are narrow fringes of 

 light tropical scrub. The river flats are thickly covered with 

 stunted bloodwoods, cabbage gums, ironwoods, paper-barks, 

 wattles, and other trees. Around the lagoons are' casuarinas and 

 paper-barks ; the ridges the same as lower down. No open plains 

 or large swamps." 



On 6th June he notes, on returning from a long walk: — "The 

 carcass of the dingo came floating past, with a crocodile shepherding 

 it ; then just about dusk Alf was fishing from the dinghy, and a 

 crocodile came to the surface about 30 feet away, and lay 

 watching him. 1 grabbed the rifle and put a bullet into its head, 

 and down it went out of sight." 



On the 7th, after lunch, he started to skin some birds collected 

 during the forenoon, but soon had to desist owing to a sudden 

 attack of fever ; took some quinine. His remarks are : — " I 

 thought it was malaria, but have since concluded that it was 

 dengue. Spent a wretched night ; could not sleep. The fever 

 abated a bit towards morning. 8th June. — Felt very sore and 

 stiff, bad headache ; took some more quinine and stopped in bed. 

 9th June. — Still feeling pretty bad. Alf went off up river to get 

 some birds for skinning. I shot a Micrceca near camp, and was 

 just starting to skin it when Alf came back to tell me that a big 

 crocodile was asleep on the bank half a mile up the river. I got 

 the rifle and went up with him. The crocodile, a hideous brute 

 over 16 feet long and 2 feet 6 mches across the belly, was still 

 in dreamland. I could not get a shot at the head, so I put a 

 bullet in behind the shoulder from a distance of 20 feet. It 

 plunged into the river, swam up stream a few yards, then across 

 to the other side and sank. I waited for some time, but it did 

 not show up again. Returned to camp with a severe headache, 

 and skinned the Micrceca." 



On the following night he " heard a dingo prowling round the 

 camp ; it sneaked away when I got up. I waited a few minutes 

 till it came back, and I put a bullet into it. It crashed away 

 through the grass for a few yards, then uttered its death-howl.'' 



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