2i6 Macgillivray, Along the Great Bayyier Reef. [^^.j 



Emu 

 Dec. 



Along the Great Barrier Reef. 



By (Dr.) Wm. Macgillivray, K.A.O.U., Broken Hill, N.S.W. 



After the Brisbane session, accompanied by Dr. E. H. Dobbyn, 

 I parted with the other members of the Royal Australasian 

 Ornithologists' Union at Gladstone, when they were leaving on 

 the expedition to the Capricorn Group — islands at the southern 

 extremity of the Great Barrier Reef — and embarked on the 

 Wodonga (8/10/10) for Cooktown, intending to explore orni- 

 thologically some of the islands at the northern end of the Barrier 

 Reef — nearly a thousand miles from the locale of the Capri- 

 corns. A vexatious delay of 8 days occurred at Cooktown before 

 we could get a suitable boat, and the fact that we had to return 

 by the Aramac on 8th November, or wait three weeks longer, 

 curtailed our actual cruise amongst the islands to a little more 

 than a fortnight. 



AT COOKTOWN. 



On the morning after our arrival in Cooktown we were awake 

 early and heard the voices of birds outside our hotel. These proved 

 to be the Yellow-bellied Fig-Bird {Sphecotheres flaviventris) and the 

 Yellow-eared Honey-eater {Ptilotis lewini) {analoga ?), both species 

 being quite numerous in the street trees. We went out before 

 breakfast for a short ramble, our way leading through a group 

 of cocoa-nut palms east of the town, where there was a scattered 

 undergrowth of lantana and balsam of Peru, in flower. A pair 

 of Lesser Golden Plovers {Charadrms dominicus) was flushed from 

 a vacant town allotment. More Fig-Birds and the Helmeted 

 Friar-Bird {Tropidorhynchiis huceroides) were seen. After break- 

 fast we followed the main street south from the town until we 

 entered a patch of tropical scrub. Here we noted, high in the 

 trees, especially those in flower, the Brown-backed Honey-eater 

 {Glycyphila modesta), Yellow-spotted Honey-eater {Ptilotis analoga), 

 Helmeted Friar-Bird {Tropidorhynchus huceroides), Yellow-throated 

 Friar-Bird {Philemon citreogularis), and Sun-Bird {Cinnyris 

 fyenatiis), a large Moreton Bay chestnut, flowering on trunk and 

 branches to their extremities, being a favourite alike of birds 

 and gorgeously hued butterflies. The Fruit-Pigeons Chalcophaps 

 chrysocklora and Ptilopus ewingi were disturbed from some of the 

 trees, and the Yellow Oriole {Oriolus flavicinctus) also was seen, 

 and its loud note constantly heard. In the afternoon, in a patch 

 of cajaput trees, we flushed the Leach Kingfisher {Dacelo leachi) 

 from a hollow. Several more Golden Plovers were noted on 

 vacant pieces of ground in and about the town. Many seemed 

 to be in pairs, the male in full plumage. 



One day we walked out to the Annan River, about 4 miles south 

 of the town, and noted on the way many Lorikeets {Trichoglossus 

 nov(B-hollandi(i) feeding on the blossoming trees, together with 

 other honey-loving forms, such as Fig-Birds, Friar-Birds, Sun- 

 Birds, and White-throated Honey-eaters {Melithreptus alhigularis). 



