280 Jackson, In the Barron River Valley, N.Q. [isf'j 



Emu 

 uiie 



This nest, first found being built on loth December, appears 

 now to be deserted. I cannot understand why, unless the " tilt " 

 which it had, presumably the result of the recent storms, 

 forced the birds to quit it. Found a nest of the Flower-pecker 

 or Mistletoe-Bird {DiccBum Jiirundinaceuvi) to-day close to the 

 camp. Sphecotliercs stalkeri is plentiful. 



To-day (23rd DecemberJ I visited a large play-ground of the 

 Queensland Bower-Bird [Chlainydodera oricntalis), which was 

 situated in the open forest country about 10 miles from the 

 camp. After waiting patiently for some hours for a cloud to 

 come along and obscure the too powerful rays of the sun, I 

 secured my photograph. ( Vide illustration.) The bower was 

 beautifully situated under a blossom-laden bush of the pink 

 BoHgainvilka. Here some 25 years previously, during the 

 Herberton gold rush, stood a half-way house, long since burnt 

 down. The old jam tin which will be seen on the right in the 

 photograph will be useful in acting as a scale to the picture. 

 The decorations consisted of glass of various colours, bones, 

 lumps of red resin from the eucalypts, seeds, flowers from the 

 Bougainvillea, and numbers of bleached snail-shells, &c. In the 

 passage of this bower I noticed numerous pieces of small, flat 

 glass, which the birds had placed between the upright sticks, in 

 precisely in the same way as we would slip letters under a cord 

 in a letter rack. 



Busy photographing nests to-day (24th December). Last 

 night one of our natives met with a sad end. While asleep in 

 his camp a limb of a tree fell and struck him on the head, 

 causing instantaneous death. Falling limbs are one of the 

 greatest dangers to the naturalist while in these dense scrubs. 

 I had to be always on the alert. 



By appointment I went to Atherton to-day (Christmas Day) 

 and met Mr. George Sharp, who was on his way to Sydney, 

 having just arrived from the Evelyn scrubs. He informed me 

 that he and his sixty natives had succeeded in finding 30 

 odd sets of eggs of the Golden Bower-Bird and two sets of 

 those of the Tooth-billed Bower-Bird. I entered into negotia- 

 tions for the purchase of all the specimens which he and his 

 natives had collected during the past three months in the Evelyn 

 scrubs. This transaction was ultimately accomplished, and 

 these specimens (including types and co-types) are all now in 

 the possession of Mr. H. L. White, of Belltrees, N.S.W. The 

 majority of the specimens, with many others taken by myself, 

 are now displayed in Mr. White's fine Australian oological 

 collection. It was really extraordinary to find that the eggs 

 discovered of the last two species of Bower-Birds should turn 

 out to be devoid of markings ! In the case of the Golden 

 Bower-Bird the eggs are of an immaculate white ; those of the 

 Tooth-billed Bower-Bird (really a Cat-Bird) are simply of a 



