August, 1937. The Queensland Naturalist. 
51 
Ornithology. — In regard to its birds the park takes a 
very high place, not merely for the number of the species 
included in it, which is in itself large, but in respect of the 
rarity or interesting characteristics of a number of the 
denizens of its scrub or rain-forest. 
Commencing with the lyre birds, the champion mimics 
of Australia, if not of the whole world. One or two 
observers of my acquaintance, who should be in a position 
to know, say that both species, Menura novae hollandiae 
and alberti, are to be found here, one in the denser scrub, 
and the other around its thinner margins ; at all events 
alberti is there in considerable numbers, though being 
extremely shy, they are not seen by everybody. 
These beautiful ground birds, with their wonderful 
powers of imitating any sound or call, and who build a 
large nest on a rock ledge or in a tree fern are now too 
well known to need any lengthy description. 
Then the rufous scrub bird, Atrichornis rufescens , 
quite a mite in comparison with the last, but resembling it 
in some of its characteristics (Chisholm describes it as al- 
most a miniature lyre bird). It is also a scratching ground 
bird, has a bristly tail, which it carries wrenlike, upright 
on its back, is extremely shy, builds a domed nest on or 
near the ground, and darts rapidly about under bushes 
and windfalls, calling chit-chit-chit loudly, and has, con- 
trary to early observers’ statements, been known to fly 
several yards at a time. First seen in 1865, and found in 
the park by Chisholm in 1918-19, the species is confined to 
a small area in south-eastern Queensland and north-eastern 
New South Wales. One other species, A. clamosus, the 
first found was in a small area in south-western Australia 
and is- now believed to be extinct. It seems strange that 
these birds should be only found in two small areas so far 
apart, possibly isolated by climatic or other changes of 
long ago. 
The log runner, Orth onyx temmincki, the bird with 
straight claws, is essentially another ground bird, having a 
spiny tail. The colour is brown, the male having whitish 
undersurface and the female the throat and chest rust red. 
Its noisy call quick-quick, is typical of its movements 
which are very rapid. The spiny tail is used as a rest 
when scratching, in which Chisholm says it lies almost flat 
on its breast at times with wide spread feet. The nest is a 
domed structure on the ground or on a convenient log. Like 
the Atrichorni this bird in its two species is only known in 
two places nearly 1,000 miles apart, the species in question 
and O. spaldingi in a small area in North Queensland. 
Pitta versicolor , known as the noisy pitta, is a beau- 
tifully coloured bird, in green, black, buff, blue and scarlet; 
