262 Jackson, In the Barron River Valley, N.O. [,sf7une 



enough to keep me up. During the afternoon I treated my 

 camp-mate and our dusky attendants to a Httle object lesson by 

 taking them to see the rare White-faced Robin's nest, which 

 was then in course of building. 



13th November.— It was reception night last night ! Our 

 first visitor was a Channelbill, which inflicted its rather monoton- 

 ous serenade on us till the hour of midnight. Bandicoots then 

 arrived, and conducted active investigations into our camp and 

 equipment ; it does not exactly conduce to sleep to hear these 

 animals rattling round among the tucker-boxes, and to reflect 

 that the next day you may be dinnerless. These queer little 

 fellows are very fond of salt ; in the morning we found that they 

 had exploited our salt beef for the sake of this (to them) unusual 

 delicacy. The air of the scrubs was oppressive after the 

 recent heavy rains, and more than anything else resembled the 

 hot chamber of a Turkish bath. This day I found a nest of the 

 magnificent Allied Fruit-Pigeon containing one egg, but the 

 event of the day was the shooting and dissection of two Tooth- 

 billed Bower-Birds. Curiously enough, they were alive with 

 scrub- itch, which had eaten torturing sores into them under the 

 tail and coverts. As a precaution, before handling them I 

 plunged them into boiling water. Both were females, and each 

 contained two small eggs in a soft condition and of yellow 

 colour ; the measurement of one of these was duly recorded as 

 .44 X .28. I preserved all four in formalin. It was evident that 

 these birds would have laid in about ten days, as there were no 

 other eggs in the ovaries, and, after minute examination under 

 the rays of my electric lamp, it was evident that both eggs were 

 in each case fertilized and that they carried small yolks. I 

 preserved the heads of both birds, in order to make scale 

 drawings of the tooth-like serrations of the bills. The bird itself, 

 seen closely and measured, is found to be smaller than the Spotted 

 Cat-Bird, which is known to the aborigines as " Chigua-ah." It 

 is somewhat strange that these two birds, both females and 

 carrying fertilized eggs, were shot at play-grounds not more 

 than 120 yards distant from each other. I regard this as a very 

 noteworthy fact. Birds of the bower-constructing habit 

 generally somewhat isolate themselves from all but their 

 mates, but these two females were near neighbours. I 

 may also mention that the crop of each bird was full of the 

 small black seed to which I have alluded as being found 

 in the droppings under the singing-sticks at the play-grounds. 

 It rained in the afternoon, but out we went, and in a very 

 short time got fairly covered with leeches, ticks, and scrub- 

 itch. However, we had a measure of compensation in finding 

 two Log-runners' nests, each perched picturesquely in the cup 

 of a bird-nest fern {Aspleniuin nidus), which in turn was 

 growing, in its most usual fashion, on a tree-trunk. I gathered 



