162 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



time and scraped out and renewed every year as the breeding 

 season came round. I was told that the Talegalla also used the 

 same nest renewed year by year the same way. We shortly after 

 found another nest, but it was on the steep side of the island, 

 and .was kept from going down hill by a Ficus tree, as the 

 sticks and leaves had been scraped into a hollow formed on the 

 upper side by two roots, but the mound was very small, being 

 about 1 8 inches in diameter; no heat was generated, and only 

 one fresh egg was taken out. While quietly watching birds in the 

 scrub, the Megapodes came quite close to us, and their note was 

 very similar to a young cockerel trying to crow. They roosted at 

 night on the topmost branches of the trees, one having its roosting 

 place close to our camp. We saw no snakes in our rambles, and 

 only one small lizard, which we caught on the beach just above 

 high water mark. We got back to the camp about eleven, and 

 again noticed the pair of Rifle Birds in the scrub close to us ; 

 .they seemed very f-^arless, the hen bird especially so. We left 

 again during the afternoon and scrambled over the island, still 

 searching for the nest of the Rifle Bird. A fair number of the 

 birds showed themselves, but it was a difficult thing to discover 

 any nests in such thick vegetation, and we thought our task a 

 hopeless one. Once we came across a large nest built of leaves, 

 and, thinking it might be the one we wanted, one of us sat down a 

 short distance away and watched it quietly to see if any birds 

 came to it. A male Rifle Bird soon put in an appearance and 

 uttered its grating kind of note. It clung to a vine and went 

 through all sorts of antics, one favourite position being to stretch 

 its expanded wings above its head until the tips touched, and 

 then hiding its head behind them and bending its body from one 

 side to the other. After 2oing on for about a quarter of an hour 

 it flew away, and a Black Butcher Bird (Cracticus quoyi) alighted 

 close to the nest and after some time flew on it, and on driving 

 it away and climbing up to the nest it was found to belong to a 

 pigeon, and had an egg in it, which the Butcher Bird had ap- 

 parently just broken. It is evident that during the breeding 

 season these birds must destroy a large number of the pigeons* 

 eggs, as we often found broken eggshells on the ground which 

 had not been hatched. One of the birds was shot for a specimen. 

 Shortly after returning to the camp, we again heard the female 

 Rifle Bird near us, so determined to watch her movements. Mr. 

 Barnard went to one side of the small patch of scrub and I went 

 to the other ; we soon saw the bird with a piece of moss in 

 her mouth, which she kept dropping and catching again before 

 it reached the ground ; but after we had remained quiet for 

 some time she darted into the scrub near to Mr. Barnard, 

 and a few minutes afterwards he came round to where I 

 was stationed and asked me to look in the crown of 



