April, 1928 
6 7 
The Queensland Naturalist. 
time she just stayed in the same position we left her in, 
then quite suddenly she stretched her long neck as far 
as she could, and turning round quickly returned to the 
water hole. It was no wonder our fowls were disturbed, 
as the creature is* anything but beautiful to look upon 
with her long neck that reminds one somewhat of a black 
snake. Also the awkward way she raises herself to 
crawl along is anything but graceful. 
Just a fortnight after this the fowls once more told 
us something strange was about, so again we investigated, 
.and this time found the tortoise busy digging a hole to 
lay her eggs in. ( Such a muddy mess and still more mud 
being added as the tortoise dived her foot into the hole 
and fetched out more mud. The land round is very 
dry, but she carried water and used it to moisten the 
, earth as she worked. We watched her for quite a long 
'while and she worked away with one foot until she 
must have got tired, and then changed over to the other. 
It seemed to us she dug until it was impossible to reach 
further and then began her egg laying. This part of 
the business seemed to be got ov^er very quickly, as the 
eggs came in quick succession, and as each fell into the 
hole she put her paw in and seemed to tumble the egg 
about in the mud a bit and then push it back. They 
seem to lay from 9 to 12 eggs, as we have dug up several 
nests, ancl these are the average contents. After .she 
has finished laying she scratches all the mud back into 
the hole, and very often it is almost impossible to notice 
anything lias disturbed the ground at all. We timed 
one to see the length of time it took, and it was three 
hours from start to finish. This speed was fairly good, 
I think, as the work was all done with the back feet, 
and she could see nothing. 
0 
HONOUR FOR Mr. R. ILLIDGE. 
At a meeting of the Entomological Society of 
Queensland, held at the Queensland University 011 the 
20th October, Mr. R. Illidge was elected an Honorary 
Member. Some time ago the constitution of the Society 
was amended to allow for the election. of a limited num- 
ber of honorary members, and Mr. R. Illidge is the first' 
to be elected, honorary membership being conferred on 
him in recognition of his outstanding services to ento- 
mological science in Queensland. 
