102 
The Queensland Naturalist 
November, 1940 
I can only estimate as at least a mile of the river 
flats, and the number of birds as many hundreds, possibly 
thousands, distributed evenly over the area and feeding 
as usual. 
I have since on several occasions seen gatherings of 
these same birds, at the same time of year, autumn or 
early winter, even to seeing them in many scores where 
I now live at Graceville, when some of our trees would at 
nights be supporting quite a large feathered population. 
Mrs. Herbert Curtis, of North Tamborine, a keen 
nature student and photographer, who first mentioned the 
matter to me, saw a large gathering of these birds in the 
neighbourhood where she lives. 
Mr. J. Colclough, taxidermist, Queensland Museum, 
reports having seen a similar gathering on the Nudgee 
Flats. 
The next species that T particularly noticed was the 
Friar bird, or Leatherhead ( Philemon corniculatus ) , in 
the State Forest at Barakula, north of Chinchilla, on Hell- 
Hole Creek ; here it seemed that every tree (mostly 
eucalvpts) accommodated a dozen or more, the total 
number must have run into thousands, and the noise of 
their chatterings was simply deafening. 
About three years previously I had seen a large 
number of these birds at Graham’s Creek, on the Mary 
River, but these may have been incidental to a plague of 
caterpillars on the grass, and every stump, fence post and 
tree was occupied by well-filled and silent leatherheads. 
Whether the caterpillars were merely co-incidental to a 
collection of the birds, or the birds had collected to feed 
on the caterpillars I cannot say ; T do not even remember 
the time of the year. 
On the TTpper Albert River, near to the spot where 
our Club has had two annual camps, I saw, in 1935 [ 
think, a collection of black-backed magpies (Oymnorhina 
tibicen ), and in one glade of 150 to 200 yards there were 
some thirty or more of these birds for several days. These 
are rarely seen in more than pairs, and usually at no 
closer intervals than about half a mile. 
At Muekadilla, on the Western line, in May, 1936, 
on the block of land comprised and occupied by the hotel 
and bore, with hot medicinal baths, an area of two or 
possible three acres, I counted some thirty black and 
white fantails (Willie wagtails) ( Ehipidura leucophrys). 
Although these are common birds, they are rarely seen ip 
