The Queensland Naturalist. 
77 
April, IQ22. 
of the favourites of the Australian town and bush; yet 
one finds an early Queensland writer using this harsh 
quotation at Jack’s expense — 
“At once there rose so wild a yell 
As all the fiends from heaven that fell 
Had pealed the banner cry of hell.” 
“Appalling as the ravings of a madman” is his further 
description of the famous laughter. “One never learns 
to laugh with it or at it. It strikes upon the ear with a 
wild clash, increasing every moment in exasperating 
intensity, and ends in a prolonged sardonic chuckle, as 
though in cynical comment on the ways of man.” What 
a pity this outburst could not 'he translated to the Kooka- 
burras! They would then have much to laugh about. 
However, the same writer is persuaded to observe later 
that it was “ worth a journey from the other side of the 
world to see Black Swans preening their feathers, White 
Egrets sitting like marble figures in the trees, and Blue 
Herons standing at the edges of the reeds, all in a Hood 
of sunshine at midwinter noon.” 
But 1 digress. Further consideration of land expedi- 
tions brings us to the distinctive work accomplished 
through the agency of A. C. and F. T. Gregory. These 
gentlemen, after doing much hard work in West Australia, 
accepted a commission from the British Government to 
examine the country between the Victoria River (North- 
western Australia) and Moreton Bay. They started from 
the town of Brisbane on 12th August, 1855, the party 
comprising eighteen persons, among whom were the 
brothers Gregory (commander and assistant), F. von 
Mueller (later a famous botanist), and J. R. Elsey 
(surgeon and naturalist). 
It is with Elsey that we are chiefly concerned. A. C. 
Gregory himself, although his Journal* is little more than 
a record of dates and distances, was a keen naturalist, but 
it was Elsey who collected many new birds for Gould to 
describe, and supplied much valuable information. His 
'‘finds” included many of our beautiful Finches; indeed, 
he supplied practically all of these birds that did not come 
the way of Gilbert and the men of the Beagle . Elsey 
did not accompany Gregory on his second expedition in 
search of Leichhardt (1858) ; he returned to England, 
and later went to the West Indies, where he died about 
1860. His work is finely tributed by Gould under the 
* “Journals of Australian Explorations by A. C. Gregory and 
F. T. Gregory: ” Government Printer, Brisbane, 1884. 
