68 
The Queensland Naturalist. 
April, 1922- 
ful about Torres Strait* — but the purposes of this dis- 
cussion will be served by beginning with the exploratory 
records of Britishers. In this respect, we find without effort 
a link with no less a naturalist than Gilbert White, of Sel- 
borne. Thomas Pennant, LL.D. — after whom our Pennant’s 
(•Crimson) Parrott was named — was a constant correspon- 
dent of the famous old Englishman ; and he is the Pennant 
who figures so freely in Banks’s Journal. Banks, one of 
the most notable scientists of the reign of George III., and 
his great leader, Captain James Cook, were the first Brit- 
ishers who had aught to do with the birds in the area 
that is now Queensland. Neither was an ornithologist, but 
when the Endeavour sailed along these shores in the good 
year 1770 they took, very naturally, a practical interest 
in all they saw. It is to Cook that we are indebted for 
various bird-names 011 features of our coast — to wit, Bus- 
tard Bay, Eagle Island, and Pelican Island. The Bus- 
tards taken in' the Central district were voted by the 
voyagers “the best birds we had eaten since we left Eng- 
land,” and “in honour of the feast we called this inlet 
Bustard Bay.” 
The reference to Eagle Island (which lies near Cook- 
town) is rather curious. Cook says: “We found here the 
nest of some other bird, we knew not what, of a most 
enormous size. It was built upon the ground, and was no 
less than 26 feet in circumference and 2 feet 8 inches high. 
Banks’s description is similar, and he adds, “The only 
bird I have seen in this country capable of building such 
a nest seems to be the Pelican.” (That “seems to be” was 
a wise precaution on the part of the botanist.) 
Fired by these notes, and probably marking also the 
fact that the voyagers differentiated between this nest and 
one of an Eagle, seen on the same isle, an impetuous 
American professor rashly conjectured the huge nest to 
be that of Dinornis , the gigantic New Zealand bird, known 
only by its fossil remains. How long these conjectures 
raged is not clear, but forty years later Maegillivray, of 
H.M.S. Rattlesnake , laid them to rest by pointing out 
that no struthious bird would make a nest of the kind, 
nor would a flightless land bird of great size inhabit an 
* The early history of Cape York and the Strait is very fully dis- 
cussed in ‘ ‘ Northmost Australia, ’ ’ a splendid historical work by the 
late Dr. R. Logan Jack, published posthumously this year; it was : 
not available when the present p'aper was written;. 
t P 1 a t y c ere u s pen nan t i . 
