October, 1931 
The Queensland Naturalist 
5 
reported having noted the following species: — Butcher 
birds, both black throated and grey. Blue-faced Honey- 
eater, whose face was almost turned to red from feeding 
on the flowers of the Moreton Bay chestnut ; Pale-headed 
Rosella parrots ; Noisy and Little Friars ; Grey crowned 
Babblers, whose stick nests were noticed here and there ; 
Black backed Magpie, adult and immature; Koel and Pal- 
lid Cuckoos; a pair of Double-barred Finches; Welcome 
Swallows ; Fairy Martins, the latter apparently nesting 
in a concrete drain under the Railway Line ; an Oriel or 
two ; and, of course, many Peewees. 
Prof. H. C. Richards, D.Sc. (Queensland University), 
gave a Lecture on — 
VOLCANIC ACTIVITY IN THE PACIFIC OCEAN 
REGIONS. 
It was first first of all pointed out that a fairly effici- 
ent definition of a volcano is that it is merely an opening 
between the surface of the earth and the heated interior. 
This brings geysers and hot springs within the category of 
volcanoes. The erroneous idea of a volcano as a burning 
mountain was considered and it was shown that a volcano 
does not burn in the ordinary sense of the word, and that 
the mountainous, mass of material is one of the effects of the 
volcanic action. 
The general characters of volcanoes were discussed 
and the various strains and stresses to which the earth is 
subjected were pointed out. It was shown that those por- 
tions of the earth’s crust which had experienced earth 
movements, comparatively recently, were just those regions 
which were affected by volcanic activit} r . It appears that 
wherever the earth’s crust becomes weakened there is a 
better opportunity for the pent up forces within to give 
expression at the surface. 
The true margin of the Pacific Ocean, which is marked 
by what is known as the “ Girdle of Fire,” has been sub- 
jected to comparatively recent folding movements, and is 
one of the best known and longest recorded lines of weak- 
ness of the earth’s crust. Where this line of weakness, on 
the Western Pacific side, has been interseded by another 
in an. E.W. direction in the neighbourhood of the East 
Indies, at Krakatoa, in one of the most intensive volcanic 
explosions known, took place in the early eighties. 
Volcanic activity is only one phase associated with the 
movements of molten lavas. The cycle of phases being : 
