Vol. VI 



1909 



''•"I Jackson, In the Banon River Valley, N.Q. 24I 



Jird {PtilorJiis victoricB), which was perched on an upright stick 

 about 4 feet from the ground. He was a handsome creature, a 

 regular scrub aristocrat, and I spent something Hke an hour, 

 motionless, watching him. Sooth to say he was almost as still as 

 I, but not quite as silent, for every now and then he would open 

 his bill widely and utter a long, harsh note, which I can only 

 describe as a screeching or choking " Ya-a-s'' ; this performance 

 was varied by a constant combing of his glossy plumage, and 

 often, when rendering his cry, a quick movement of the wings, 

 which were opened and arched forward, then slowly folded 

 into position again. He had no looking-glass before him, yet I 

 think he was fully conscious of his handsome personality. I 

 was just congratulating myself over the conviction that the 

 sitting female could not be far away, when he took flight suddenly 

 in a flash of gleaming colour and with that peculiar soft, silk- 

 rustling noise characteristic of the flight of his kind. He 

 returned, almost directly to his sentinel perch, thus still further 

 impressing me with the idea of a nest close at hand. This 

 deceptive conviction drove me to a stiff climb of several adjacent 

 trees, but as I could neither see the female nor hear her call, I 

 came to the conclusion that she was probably sitting not far away, 

 but screened by the practically impenetrable tangle of under- 

 growth. Later I was again inclined to doubt this, as I heard 

 another Rifle-Bird answer the call a long way off, and as the 

 male bird is lazy and ungallant enough to let the female build 

 the nest, while he takes the easier task of general watchman, I 

 altered my opinion in the case, and reckoned that the bird I had 

 watched was simply one of a newly-mated pair intent on 

 house-building. I had noticed this peculiar division of labour 

 on the part of the PtilorJiis during my visit to the north-east of 

 New South Wales in 1899, and I think the same practice would 

 probably mark the Queensland species. However, in order to 

 waste no chances, I carefully marked the spot, in hopes of a later 

 visit. 



^ Whilst thus vainly looking for the Rifle-Bird's nest in the 



network of lawyer vines, I found three nests of the Little Green 

 Pigeon (Chalcophaps chrysochiora), which were built on the 

 springy bed formed by the massed vines and placed at a 

 height of about 10 feet from the ground. One of them 

 contained a solitary egg, which, as the clutch properly is two, I 

 was loth to remove. Quite close by I had another but more 

 exciting find — in the forked limb of a large-leaved stinging-tree, 

 close to the trunk and about 9 feet up, I found a nest v/hich 

 looked somewhat like that of the Cat-Bird, though perhaps a 



I little smaller. It was impossible to climb the tree itself, as one 

 touch of leaf or stem is like a sear from a hot iron, so I 

 scrambled up an adjoining tree and had a look in the nest 

 from a higher vantage point. Alas for my hopes ! it was 



