258 Jackson, In the Barron River Valley, N.Q. [isf^une 



new fern of most interesting habit and growth ; it was attached 

 to a tree, and resembled more than anything else a bunch of 

 long, green^ flat bootlaces, measuring, in fact, as much as 4 feet 

 in length. This was beside a play-ground of the Tooth-bill. 

 The list of pests seems to grow every day. Bandicoots — or, as 

 the aborigines here call them, " Bcn-o-o" — infest the place, so 

 also do the large white-tailed rats, and these make a great mess 

 in our camp stores in a most exasperating way ; large March- 

 flies pester and sting during the day since the heavy rains ; and 

 in the moist, warm nights slugs, snails, and leeches invade one's 

 place, and even person, and do not increase one's comfort. 



8th November. ■ — Still in Tinaroo camp. Two more play- 

 grounds of the Tooth-bill were found at the outset of the 

 day ; these were only about 36 yards apart, in rather an open 

 part of the scrub, and probably belonged to a pair of birds, and 

 were close to the spot where I had recently seen a pair of the 

 birds perched in a tree. This seemed promising. of developments, 

 so I made up my mind to an all-day vigil, and chose a tree with 

 an accommodating fork from which I could watch them through 

 my binoculars, away from leeches and smothering scrub-itch. 

 Did you ever try watching birds, or anything else, in scrub 

 through glasses from 7 a.m. till half-past 4 in the afternoon, and 

 up in a tree .'' It is a punishing job — arms, eyes, and back ache 

 intolerably with the strain and cramp of enforced stillness in an 

 awkward position. However, my labours were not without 

 reward. I saw a link which told me that the birds had, or were 

 building, a nest not far off, and that they would soon be 

 breeding. Most of the time while I watched them they would 

 hop down from their singing perch, flirt with a leaf, and fly 

 back again to their old post and old performance of mimicry of 

 bird, cicada, or what not. Cramped in bone and muscle, I 

 returned to camp more satisfied, and more determined than 

 ever to soon solve the mystery of the nidification of these 

 most interesting birds. I have often watched them at their 

 early morning leaf-cutting, sawing away cleverly at a 

 thick-stemmed leaf like that of the crow's-foot elm 

 {Verbetiacecel). Finally the serrated bill would triumph, and 

 off the persevering " upholsterer " would fly to add another 

 bit of carpet to his bower. I am now inclined to think 

 that this toothlike serration has nothing to do with the 

 collection of food, but I got ocular proof of its employ- 

 ment in the leaf-collecting, and have heard the " snip " when 

 the bird has succeeded in severing the stem. Their habits are 

 curiously regular. They always seem to lift the leaf by the 

 stem only, thus avoiding any damage to its symmetry ; in fact, 

 they appear to have a strong taste for form and neatness. They 

 feed on a red berry collected from a shamrock-shaped pod,* 



* Have so far been unable to obtain the botanical name of this. — S. W. J. 



