192 IN AUSTRALIAN WILDS. 



Day after day we scrambled through the scrub or 

 strolled along the river. The wild luxuriance of the 

 vegetation was amazing, and our botanist was em- 

 barrassed by riches ; the entomologist was in the same 

 happy position. We bird-lovers had fewer species to 

 study, but were more than content. Regent-Birds 

 [Sericulus chrysocephalus] were not numerous, but 

 several pairs frequented a palm grove near the town- 

 ship, which also became our favourite resort. We 

 never tired of gazing at the palms, with their grace- 

 ful fronds and clusters of coral-red fruit. And there 

 were lilies, orchids, ferns, and a host of other plants, 

 all beautiful. Along the river Forest Kingfishers 

 [Halcyon macleayi~] were fairly numerous, but a nest 

 of the species was not discovered until we searched 

 in the palm grove. The Kingfishers had drilled a 

 hole in a Tree-ants' [Termites'] clay nest, which was 

 plastered against the trunk of a Cedar some fifteen 

 feet above the ground. In the north, Kingfishers of 

 several species, notably the White-tailed [Tanysiptera 

 sylvia] , nest in Termites' mounds. 



Once only, on the Tweed, I obtained a glimpse of 

 the Rifle-Bird [Ptiloris paradisea] , the most 

 southerly representative of the Birds of Paradise. I 

 was walking along a forest pathway, paying more at- 

 tention to butterflies than birds, when a rustling sound 

 made me look up, just in time. A male Rifle-Bird flew 

 right over me, and disappeared among the palms, 

 twenty yards ahead. I ran down the track, but was 

 not favoured with another view of the glorious bird. 

 The adult male Rifle-Bird is thus described by Gould : 

 "General plumage rich velvety black, glossed on the 

 upper surface with brownish lilac; under surface 

 similar to upper, but all the feathers of the abdomen 

 and flanks broadly margined with rich olive green; 

 feathers of the head and throat small, scale-like, and 

 of a shining metallic blue-green; two centre tail- 

 feathers rich shining metallic green, the remainder 



