Vol. VIII 



1 909 



j Jackson, In the Barron River Valley, N.Q. 265 



and preserving skins of the Golden Bower-Bird and other local 

 species. The latter brother met us the same day, later, a few 

 miles away, and informed me that he had a number of blacks 

 assisting him in his search, and also that he had found a Tooth- 

 bill's nest on the 7th November, containing two eggs resembling 

 those of the Spotted Cat-Bird, save that the colour was of a 

 much darker shade of yellowish-brown. He described the nest 

 as a somewhat frail structure, like that of a Fruit-Pigeon, so 

 that, taking this as corroborative evidence, I was confirmed in 

 my opinion that the new stick nest which Mn Frizelle and I had 

 located at the rear of our camp a few days before was un- 

 doubtedly that of the Tooth-bill. As Mr. G. Sharp was first in 

 the field in the Evelyn scrub, and had, so to speak, a pre-emptive 

 right in the locality, I did not feel that I should trench on his 

 area, and contented myself with asking him, if he had the 

 opportunity to select one of the huge and wonderful bowers or 

 play-grounds of the Golden Bower-Bird, to do so and send me 

 word, so that I might come up again and photograph it. This 

 he kindly undertook to do, and in return I promised I would 

 forward him, later, some of the resultant photographs. After 

 thanking Mrs. Hull and Mr. Sharp for their hospitality, we 

 drove back to Herberton. On the following morning we left 

 that place, and, after a hot and excessively dusty drive, reached 

 Atherton about mid-day (i8th November). 



ATHERTON. 



To-day (19th November) I had a nasty touch of fever, and I 

 awoke ill-refreshed and with the consciousness that work of any 

 sort, outside or in, was hopeless, so made up my mind to rest 

 for a day in Atherton, and to work the local scrubs the 

 moment I felt equal to the task. 



The following day (20th November) I had quite a reception. 

 Several naturalists called to compare notes with me on the 

 subject of the Tooth-bills ; they, too, had been puzzled and 

 baffled in their attempts in the scrubs to glean anything of the 

 nesting habits of these birds. They said they could find almost 

 any other nest except that of the Tooth-bill. 



To-day (21st November) Mr. W. E. Bevan and myself visited 

 a compact belt of scrub of close on 400 acres not far from 

 Atherton, and in the course of our explorations located 15 

 Tooth-bills' play-grounds, many of which were carelessly kept. 

 One of these was quite unique. They are always pretty well 

 cleared, but this one was " empty, swept and garnished." As 

 for the usual carpet of leaves, it was so uniform, and the spaces 

 between the leaves so even, that one would have imagined them 

 to have been laid down by rule. It was evidently a new play- 

 ground, as there were no rejected leaves outside. The locality 

 was close to the edge of the scrub, and as we sat and listened to 



