February, 1934 The Queensland Naturalist 
1 
were found in the long grass. Then quite suddenly they 
disappeared. Could the cause be placed to the fact that, 
at the time of their disappearance the country was 
overrun with domestic cats gone wild, also a plague of 
the so-called “Native eat,” “Dasyurus? These latter 
were in such numbers I poisoned forty in one month. 
Soon after the pigeons disappeared the cats van- 
ished. 
We made numerous inquiries, but the replies all 
were the Squatter pigeons have gone. What causes these 
sudden disappearances '? Take the immense flocks of The 
Western Flock pigeon. They suddenly disappeared, and 
they had thousands of miles of country in the interior 
where there were few whites and no stock to disturb 
them. 
Yet it is only recently a few have again appeared in 
the West. 
Perhaps if the good season’s return the birds may 
again increase, but I am afraid we have reached the stage 
when the birds will keep on decreasing, and only im- 
ported ones, such as the starlings and sparrows, birds 
that have adapted themselves to the civilised conditions, 
will increase. 
NATIVE ORCHIDS AT THE WILD FLOWER 
SHOW— SEPTEMBER, 1933. 
By Geo. H. Barker. 
One of the most pleasing features of this year’s Wild 
Flower Show was the wealth and variety of the display 
of our Native Orchids, both terrestrial and epiphytical. 
It has been a good year for these plants and those of us 
who have specimens in our gardens of Bendrobmm sped- 
osum (the common “rock lily”) have noted how well they 
have flowered this year as compared with former 
occasions. There seems to be some cycle in the lives of 
these plants that is responsible for these good seasons, 
of their flowering, but whether it is just a matter of 
weather or not, it is impossible to say. This year the 
same good season has been apparent in the bush, for the 
early blooming Caladenias and Pterostylis were in greater 
profusion in certain localities known to the writer than 
was the case last year at any rate. Judging by the quan- 
tity of Duiris , Caladenias and Prasophyllum sent from 
Fraser Island it must be a veritable garden just now, and 
no doubt the botanist would have found other species in 
