BLUE-BELLIED DORIKKET. 
quieten, the cooing of the Pigeons lasting about an hour longer. Then, with 
darkness, all is quiet till the moon rises, when a few Pigeons can be heard 
until dawn. The night is calm, with light fleecy clouds crossing the face of 
the moon ; great shadowy bird-like forms flit by, and one crossing the moon 
reveals the form of a flying fox. At earliest dawn, when the mangrove belt 
is still a dark mass, the Lorikeets bestir themselves and begin their 
screeching again. With a very little more light they are all astir and, 
rising in a dense wheeling, whirling and screaming host, soon head off to 
the mainland. As the last Lorikeets are leaving, the advance guard of 
the Pigeons begins to move off in small flocks.” 
On the Eyre Peninsula, South Australia, Capt. S. A. White has recorded 
{Emu, Vol. XII., p. 5, 1912) : “ Were nesting in great numbers ... in 
the hollow gums. Seen in all stages, from young with grey down to fully 
fledged birds ready to leave the nest ; also fresh eggs.” 
This is the south-western limit of the range of the bird. 
In Vol. XIV., p. 138, the same worker also noted large flocks passing 
over at Mallacoota, Victoria. 
Under the name Trichoglossus septentrionalis Macgillivray wrote {Emu, 
Vol. XIII., p. 155, 1914) : “ The only pair of ‘ Blue Mountains ’ noted in 
the Gulf flew past the Brook Hotel, twenty miles from Burketown. At 
Cape York they were very numerous in all the open pockets, feeding on the 
blossoming eucalypts and other trees and nesting freely in the spring in the 
hollows of tea tree, Moreton Bay ash, or bloodwood, usually at a height of 
about 50 feet. Nesting operations commenced in August and continued until 
January. A single nest was, however, found in April. The invariable 
clutch was two. Thirty nests were examined by Mr. M’Lennan containing 
either young in all stages or eggs.” 
Barnard had previously recorded {Emu, Vol. XI., p. 22, 1911) from 
Cape York : “ Great numbers seen. Several birds, out of numbers shot, 
were in very poor plumage, while others were breeding. Found several nests, * 
each containing two young birds, and one with clutch of two eggs, on 22nd 
October, 1910. Measurements: {a) 1.0x0.84, ( b ) 0.96x0.84. This species 
breeds in holes in Eucalyptus and Melaleuca trees, in forest country. Nests 
placed from 1 foot to 18 inches down in a horizontal limb. Habits similar 
to that of Trichoglossus novcehollandice (of which it is the Northern repre- 
sentative) ; feed on the blossom trees.” 
From the Austr. Mus. Spec. Cat., No. 1, Vol. III., pt. i., 1911, I extract 
the following notes. Mr. Grant has observed: “While collecting on behalf 
of the Trustees of the Australian Museum, in 1888-9, in the Cairns and 
Herb er ton Districts, North-eastern Queensland, Trichoglossus novcehollandice 
21 
