March, 1923 
The Queer sland \^aturalist. 
25 
an adult pair, and at t'imes the buff and brown young- 
ster^, but 1 don't think they breed every year. The old 
birds used to percb for hoiire at a stretch on the big 
guui trees of the liill overlooking the water, and T wont 
easily forget my disgust when I heard for the first time 
their voiees. I can’t call their singing anything but 
quacking. 1 am told that this eagle does not dive for 
fish, but often I have observed the bird sitting drenched 
and ini'iserable on a beacon or post in the bay. They did 
not look as though they had enjoyed the dip. so I thought 
they may have misjudged their distance in picking up 
fish and gone right in. The whistling eagle (Haliastur 
sphenurus) and white-headed sea eagle {HMucosiermus) 
patrol the mud flats between Dunwich and Amity, and 
nest, together with the crows and mangrove bitteims, in 
the big old mangroves along the 'shore. The oriole and 
figbird nest on the island, too, but 1 think the drongo 
goes to the hills to nest and only comes back in the 
autumn. Mr. lliidge does not mention the koel cuckoo 
in his li-^t; that bird is often seen, and ofteuer heard, 
nowadays. The orange-backed wren was nesting near 
Roe’s camp last October, and I hear the silvery blue' 
wren is also in that locality. If so, it must have crossed 
the water at last. The sianguiueous honey-bird is plenti- 
ful all over Stradbroke, and makes a charming colour- 
scheme as it hangs head down from the honey cones of 
the banksi'a bushes. 
Itirds obft'erveld 011 Stradbroke Island, opposite 
Southport, during three days at Christmas, 1922: — Yel- 
low robin, grey thrush, rufous thrush, rufous whistler, 
little brown honeyeater, white-cheeked hone^'cater and 
white-naped honeyeater, leatherheads, briusii wattle birds, 
pied caterpillar eaters, gerigone cantator, white eared 
flycatcher (nest located by IIjGO, aziu'e. aancto-is, Macleay 
and sordid kingfishers, white-s;hafted fantail, Willie Wag- 
tail, butcher birds (craeticus and nigra), kookabm'ras. 
peaceful dove, welcome swallows, stone plovers, spur- 
winged plovers, fig birda, crows, grauculou's Avliite- 
throated pigeon, koel and pallid cuckoos, white-headed 
tree runners, pee wees. Of the s'hore bird^: — Godwits, 
ibis, curlews, ^vliimbrel. teirn, gulls, sea eagles, herons, 
pelicans, egrets, bitterns, cormorants, oyster catchers, 
and dottrels, together with a mumber of snake birds. 
