November, 1922 
The Q iee ; sland Naturalist. 
1 19 
travelled into his work by a train that passed Toowong at 
7 a.m., so he must have left home at a very early hour, for 
he lived some miles from the Oxley station. He went home 
about 5 p.m., and this was repeated every day, including 
Sundays. If I may express an opinion, Mr. De Yis was a 
very able man, chiefly among fossils,* but of too retiring 
a disposition to make a museum popular. He loved his 
work, and practically died in harness.” 
The Price Fletcher quoted above was a graphic writer 
on popular natural history. He is long since deceased, but 
his mantle has fallen upon his daughter, Miss J. A. 
Fletcher, a Tasmanian school teacher, who knows birds 
very well and has written several Nature-books for children. 
Of Fletcher, Mr. Brenan writes: — 
“ ‘A Bush Naturalist ’ was, I believe, in the early part 
of his life a farmer in Victoria, lie succeeded Major 
A. J. Boyd as agricultural editor of the Queenslander in 
1887 or 1888. Fletcher loved Nature, particularly birds, 
lie lived for a time in a house near Captain Simpson's 
gate, down past the entrance to the Mount Coot-tha reserve. 
There were many birds there at that time, as Simpson’s 
Scrub was then standing. I remember the Satin Bower- 
birds used to steal nearly all Fletcher’s tomatoes. 
Fletcher’s notes contained from time to time some very 
taking items. I remember one, 4 Flight perfected— the 
Spine-tailed Swift’; another, ‘How 1 got up Mount 
Kosciusko’; also an account of how he got down again. 
What struck Fletcher as remarkable was the finding of a 
pair of Australian Larks right on the top of the mountain. 
I wonder what he would say if he could see the place 
to-day ! Another interesting item was his description of 
the White Corella in Central Queensland. Fletcher left 
us about the time Gresley Lukin gave up the management 
of the Queenslander , when the latter was probably the best 
weekly in Australasia. He went South, but has since gone 
-West.’ ” 
We pass now to three gentlemen, happily still with us, 
who constitute a distinct link between the men of old and 
the present day, and to whom I offer the tribute of youth. 
1 refer to Messrs. 11. Illidge, J. O’Neil Brenan, and 
II. Tryon,t none of whom was born in Queensland, but all 
of whom have resided here for varying periods up to sixty- 
three years. 
* De Vis described, in ‘the ‘‘Annals of the Queensland Museum.” 
No. 6 , pp. 3-20, a number of fossil birds taken on Dr. J. W. Gregory ’s 
expedition into the interior of Australia. 1901-02. 
f All three were present at the reading of this paper. 
