Vol.VIII 



1909 



] Jackson, In the Barron River Valley, N.Q. 26? 



field which bears his name, and which lies near Cooktown, to 

 the north of Atherton. 



Visited the scrubs to-day (22nd November) again, but found 

 nothing special to report on. It is no wonder that the growth in 

 this region is luxuriant. Passing over a deep-banked creek to- 

 day, I noticed that the red volcanic soil is at least 25 feet deep. 

 I saw a very striking sight during the morning in a huge flock 

 of Sulphur-crested Coc\^di\.oos {Cacatua galerita). Their appear- 

 ance, perched at a distance, gave the effect of a capping of snow 

 to the trees, and after they flew down from the trees it appeared 

 as if suddenly a snow-storm of newspapers had fallen from the 

 clouds. The beauty of life here is remarkable. I never saw 

 anything more gorgeously striking than the butterflies which 

 fluttered on the edge of the scrub ; they were beyond description 

 for beauty and brilliancy of colour. I daily renewed my 

 acquaintance with the hard, round nuts of the candle-nut tree, 

 so common in all these scrubs. These nuts are strewn all over 

 the ground in the scrub throughout the whole district. 



23rd November. — A blazing hot and dusty day in Atherton. 

 I hunted a Black-headed Log-runner from a nest up 20 feet into 

 a tree. This was the first time I noticed one fly up like this ; 

 these birds appear to make their home entirely on the ground. 

 Only saw one play-ground of the Tooth-bill occupied to-day, and 

 for the first time heard one of these birds mimicking the note of 

 the Victoria Rifle-Bird. When I came to the spot at which I had 

 previously located a pair of Rifle-Birds, I heard their note again, 

 and there and then decided to climb up and examine some of the 

 stag-horn and bird-nest ferns which grew on the tree from which 

 I had flushed the female, but without success. The female Rifle- 

 Bird is a regular strategist ; she fools and beguiles the unwary 

 enthusiast into following her about a quarter of a mile, till she 

 has him exasperatingly enmeshed in a tangle of lawyer vines, 

 and then with a turn of her tail she wheels and darts back in a 

 direct line, leaving her victim talking bad French and picking 

 thorns out of his tortured anatomy. This has often been my 

 experience. On the way back to Atherton I saw several small 

 " willie-willies " or whirlwinds taking dense columns of red dust 

 up into the air from the heat-dried roads. In conversation to- 

 day with Mr. John Donald Ross, who has been at work in the 

 cedar scrubs at Evelyn, on the Herberton Range, estimating the 

 standing cedar, &c., for the Government, I learned that he had 

 when there seen many of the Golden Bower-Birds and found a 

 number of their large play-grounds of sticks ; in fact, when I 

 was in the Evelyn scrubs a few days before, I had been close to 

 the place where they existed and had not been aware of the fact. 



24th November. — I was in the scrub again at the early hour 

 of 5.30 a.m. I worked back along the timber '^''ack till I arrived 

 at the spot where the Rifle-Birds baffled me the day before. 



