268 Jackson, In the Barron River Valley, N.Q. [isfTune 



Here I took up my position for another long watch, and was just 

 settHng down to it when the female flew past about 15 feet 

 over my head and alighted on a limb close to a clump of 

 bird-nest fern. At first I took it to be a Bower Shrike-Thrush 

 {Colly7'iocincla doweri), hut the long, curved bill revealed it as a 

 female Victoria Rifle-bird. The time seemed to pass slowly, yet, 

 timed by my watch, it was only a quarter of an hour that she sat 

 on her perch and ruffled and cleaned her plumage in a way that 

 convinced me that she was just about to take to her nest. The 

 psychological moment came when she swiftly disappeared into the 

 hollow of a bird-nest fern behind her. I felt sure I had really 

 found the nest, and it was my first find of a long-coveted and rare 

 species. For nearly 20 minutes I kept my eyes on that patch of 

 fern, and the bird never left it, so, feeling satisfied that it was in 

 truth the locality of the nest, I walked over and struck the tree a 

 smart blow with my tomahawk, but no bird flushed. Finally I 

 cut a long, thin sapling, stripped it, and reaching it up, rustled 

 the leaves of the fern-clump, and then, to my delight, out flew 

 the bird, like a flash, into the scrub. I at once lashed my mirror 

 to the end of the sapling, and held it over the centre of the fern- 

 clump, endeavouring to get a reflection of what was below, but 

 the exact angle was hard to obtain. However, at last, after 

 much patience and many shiftings of the small mirror to all 

 conceivable angles, I got one flashing glimpse of two eggs. Up 

 the tree I sprang, forgetting heat and fever and everything else, 

 and was rewarded with a pair of handsomely striped eggs, very 

 like those of the New South Wales species {P. paradised), taken 

 by me in the Richmond River scrubs in November, 1899, only a 

 little smaller. The nest was situated about 25 feet from the 

 ground, was not very large, and had been rather loosely con- 

 structed of dead leaves, rootlets, &c., and closely resembled 

 that of the Bower Shrike-Thrush, previously referred to, save 

 that it was much less compact. It measured about 7 inches 

 across, and the cup part was about 2^ inches deep ; the lining was 

 similar to that of the nest of the New South Wales species above 

 alluded to, and comprised fern-roots and thin yellow fern- 

 stems. There was no cast-off or " sloughed " snake-skin about 

 the fern-growth, but on the nest itself there was a small portion 

 of one, and under the eggs I found several large belly scales 

 belonging to a cast skin. The nest was also decorated with 

 green sprays of a climbing fern {Po/ypoditaii), the leaf of which 

 is small and thick and similar to that of the fern used in the 

 same way by the New South Wales species. It is a fern which 

 creeps upon and clings to the trunks and branches of the 

 scrub trees. The eggs were somewhat incubated. The ground 

 colour is of a pale flesh-pink, the markings consisting of longi- 

 tudinal streakings of rich reddish-brown and purplish-brown. 

 The measurements are : — {a) 1.32 x 0.87 inches; {b) 1.27 x 0.87 

 inches. 



