Nov., 1928 The Queensland Naturalist. 101 
When in the scrubs at night with your lamp you will 
often come across what appears at first glance to be a 
ball of fluff or wool. On looking closer you make it out 
to be a bird. The feathers are puffed out all round, so 
that the head and tail are completely hidden. The birds 
appear to be sound asleep, and you can place your hand 
over them and lift them off their perch before they move. 
The habit of puffing out the feathers is evidently a pro- 
tection against snakes, as a snake w attempting to take 
hold of a bird in this position would only get a mouthful 
of feathers. 
A very beautiful bird is the silver-tailed kingfisher 
(Tanysiptera sylvia). This bird is also a migrant, and 
was supposed to cross from New Guinea, but the late 
Mr. A. J. North, of Sydney, once informed me it had 
never been found in New Guinea. Probably it comes from 
the Dutch portion. It is a day bird, yet it crosses at 
night. I was told by men of the pearling boats, that the 
birds often come to the lights on the boats, a proof they 
cross at night. They cross to Queensland in November, 
and at once get to work tunnelling into the small ter- 
mites’ mounds that are found on the ground all through 
the northern scrubs. During nesting operations the beau- 
tiful tail feathers get broken off, but are replaced at the 
next moult. 
Red-necked Rail (Rallina tricolor). — This is a scrub 
bird and is never found in the open. For a long while 
there was a lot of confusion over the eggs of this rail, as 
nests with pure white eggs and others with spotted eggs 
were found, and both were supposed to belong to this 
rail. The late Mr. Kendal Broadbent, who did a lot of 
collecting in northern parts for the Queensland Museum, 
was of the opinion the eggs belonged to different birds. 
This proved to be correct. In 1911 Mr. W. McLennan, 
who was collecting for Dr. W. McGillivray of Broken Hill, 
and myself, who was collecting for the great bird man, 
the late Mr. H. L. White, of Bell trees, New South Wales, 
were able to solve the problem. Mr. McLennan found a 
nest containing spotted eggs, and secured the bird. This 
proved to be the Rufous-tailed Moor Hen. 
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