NARRATIVE OF THE CRUISE. 
535 
when on the wing. On one of the excursions a large brown Owl ( Ninox boobook) was 
shot ; it was sitting at daybreak in the fork of a large tree, and the native guide espied it 
at once. 
The great prize at Cape York is, however, the Rifle Bird ( Ptilorhis alberti), one of the 
Birds of Paradise. It is velvety black, except on the top of the head and breast, where 
the feathers are brightly iridescent with a golden and green lustre, and in the tail also 
are two iridescent feathers. The bird lives in the woods, where the trees and under- 
growth are twined with creepers, and does not frequent the higher forest trees much, but 
the tops of the shorter sapling-like growths and masses of creepers binding these together., 
The call of the bird consists of three loud shrill short whistling notes, the third some- 
what louder and shorter than the first two, followed by a similar but much lower 
pitched note. This is the full call of the bird, sometimes only two notes are uttered 
before the low note, and sometimes only a single whistle. The call is most striking 
and peculiar, and, guided by it, one steals gradually through the wood,* treading 
cautiously upon the dead leaves, and trying to creep within shot of the birds. The 
call is uttered usually only at intervals of several minutes ; it is very easily imitated 
by whistling, and thus a call may often be elicited, and the bird’s whereabouts 
discovered. The bird is extremely shy, and the snapping of a dead twig is sufficient to 
scare it, so that it requires great patience and perseverance to shoot one. One may often 
approach within 15 or 20 yards of a Rifle Bird, and stand gazing into the thick tangled 
mass of creepers overhead, where one knows that the bird is, without being able to get a 
glimpse of it, until at last it darts out. The bird takes short rapid flights from one part 
of the bush to another, the rounding of the front of the wings giving it a peculiar 
appearance when on the wing. The blacks pointed out the red fruit of the Areca Palm 
as the food of the bird, and abundance of the seeds of this palm were found in the 
stomachs of birds shot. The male in full plumage is indeed a splendid object ; the 
female and the young birds of both sexes are of a dull brown colour, as is the case with 
all the Birds of Paradise. 
When walking in the woods in search of birds, a slight rustling in the fallen leaves 
may attract one’s attention, upon which the black guide becomes greatly excited. It 
is a pair of the Mound Birds ” ( Megapodius tumulus), which are disturbed and are 
seen running off like barn-door fowls, and when thus luckily hit upon are easily shot. 
Several “Brush Turkeys” ( Talegalla lathami) were shot during the stay at Somerset, 
and the huge mounds thrown up by them were common objects at the borders of the 
scrubs, but the season was not far enough advanced for them to have commenced laying 
eggs (see PI. XXI.). A brilliant Bee-eater ( Merops ornatus) was common at Cape York, 
and to be seen seated, as is the wont of Bee-eaters, on some dead branch, and darting 
thence from time to time after its prey. A little Ground Pigeon (Geopelia), not much 
bigger than a sparrow, was also abundant. A species of Swallow-shrike ( Artemius 
(nakr, chall. exp.— vol. i. — 1885.) 68 
