230 Macgillivray, Along the Great Barrier Reef. [ 



Emu 

 |_ist Dec. 



ON THE MAINLAND. 



Returning to Somerset early, we go down to what are known as 

 open pockets — tracts on which there is open timber without under- 

 growth, which intersect the scrub. We first come to a Shining 

 Starhng {Calornis nietalHca) rookery. These birds only started 

 to build about a fortnight previously. They usually choose a 

 tall, lightly-foliaged Eucalyptus, known locally as the " Moreton 

 Bay ash." The nests are pensile, somewhat rounded structures, 

 about 8 to 12 inches in diameter, constructed externally of vine 

 tendrils and pieces of wild vine, lined internally with strips of the 

 paper-like bark of Melaleuca leucodendron. The first-comers hang 

 their nests amongst the leaves at the extremity of the branches, 

 and these nests are often so clustered together as to coalesce, 

 their combined weight bending the limbs downward. Later 

 comers build further in along the limb until the whole tree is a 

 mass of nests. Such a tree, when the birds are building, presents 

 a very animated scene, the continual chatter of the birds and the 

 quick darting flight of so many sprightly and glossy little forms 

 to and from the tree making it pleasurable to one to watch 

 them. In the same tree one often finds, hanging in an outlying 

 fork, the bag-like nest of the Helmeted Friar-Bird {Tropidorhynchus 

 bticeroides), and, after careful search, the thin, cradle-like nest of 

 the Yellow-bellied Fig-Bird {Sphecotheres flaviventris), through 

 which the eggs can easily be detected from below, or occasionally 

 the nest of the Drongo [Chihia). These species seemingly prefer 

 to nest in company. The last three especially often occupy a 

 tree quite apart from the Shining Starlings. No doubt this is 

 for their mutual protection, as many suitable trees near are often 

 unoccupied. At this time of the year the principal food of the 

 Starlings seems to be the mace covering the wild nutmeg, the 

 ground under their rookeries being littered with the nutmegs 

 passed after the mace has been digested. These birds nearly 

 always lay three eggs to each nest, rarely two — at least, that is 

 the conclusion come to by Mr. M'Lennan and by myself after a 

 careful examination of a number of nests. On the same after- 

 noon we examine several other Calornis trees, and hear the 

 loud, sharp whistle of the Albert Rifle-Bird {Craspedophora alherti) 

 in the scrub. 



Next day we are out before breakfast to observe a Manucode 

 {Phony gama gouldi). We see and listen to him calling from 

 the top of a high tree in some thick scrub — no easy matter, as the 

 openings in the scrub by which one can view the tree-tops are 

 few, and even at this early hour the atmosphere is humid, like 

 that of a glass-house. We come across the nest, containing two 

 eggs, of the Little Shrike-Thrush {Pinarolestes rnfigaster), supported 

 at about 3 feet from the ground by two slender, single-stemmed 

 bushes. We go to listen to the loud whistling note of a Shrike-Robin, 

 and watch him disporting himself amongst the vines and trees, where 

 the Wood Fantail {Rhipidnra dry as) is also flitting about. The 

 Rifle-Bird is again heard, and on returning to breakfast we come 



