64 
The Queensland Naturalist. 
March, 1935. 
length to the point of loba- above, margins not serra- 
tion of the label! um. There late, 
the 2 outer ones end in 
abruptly outcurved points, 
the median one dropping 
suddenly to the level of the 
labellum and continued 
along the mid-lobe. 
Mid-lobe of labellum very 
broad, only slightly concave 
above, its margins very 
minutely serrulate. 
Stigma oval. Stigma narrowing upwards. 
NATURE NOTES FROM THE CENTRAL 
DAWSON RIVER. 
(By Mrs. Mary House, Theodore, Central Queensland) 
Near sunset, on August 1st, I saw three little black 
and white hooded robins, one in a yellowwood tree, the 
other two playing about the grass. The male robins of 
this species {Melanodryas cucullata) are clearly white 
and black, the white being under the base tail, two wing 
patches and on the abdomen. The female plumage is 
more of a brownish-grey. They live on insects. 
On August 2nd, in the early morning, three snowy 
sulphur-crested cockatoos performed their toilets on the 
central snag of our swimming hole ; they had an excellent 
mirror beneath them. A few wood duck (named geese) 
had retired to the shadows under the dark she-oaks that 
surround three sides of the pool, and were quietly resting. 
Across the smooth stone landing-place on the eastern side, 
big boulders overhang an expanse of reddish water. Here, 
hundreds of fairy martins were coming constantly in and 
out, resembling a swarm of bees. The graceful, undulat- 
ing flight of these tiny avians shows them one moment 
high in the air; at the next skimming along the surface 
of the water, taking an occasional wing-dip. Some per 
formed ablutions on the pool's edge, along with the 
plover-like little sand-pipers (red-kneed dotterels) that 
ran glidingly about, now wading in the shallows, now 
rising with clear pretty whirring notes — between a 
“ whirr” and a “rattle!” One can see the martin's bottle- 
shaped nests, dozens of them, and there are more in the 
caves beyond. Last season’s floods overwhelmed a 1 ! built 
here. 
Above me, in a high dead tree, two herons are perched, 
The one uppermost has dark long legs, a dark spoon-bill, 
elongated crest feathers, and is white save for a black 
