THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
returning to the same spot. It is a shy, suspicious bird, and one well 
calculated to try the patience of the shooter, who may follow it in a 
small brush for an hour without getting a shot, unless he has as keen 
an eye as the native to whom I was indebted for first pointing it out 
to me. According to the natives, who know it by the name of ‘ Quatawur,' 
it lays three white eggs in a hole dug by itself in one of the large 
ant-hills of red clay which form so remarkable a feature in the neigh- 
bourhood, some of them being as much as ten feet in height, with 
numerous buttresses and pinnacles. I believe the bird also inhabits New 
Guinea ; for at Redscar Bay, on the south-east side of that great island, 
in long. 146° 50' E., a head strung upon a necklace was procured from 
the natives.” 
Broadbent, writing of the “ Birds of Cardwell and Herbert River (N.Q.) ” 
[EmUy Vol. X., p. 235, 1910), recorded : “ November : Common in all 
the scrubby mountain gullies and on the small scrubby creeks near the 
mountains in the Cardwell district. These birds come here about November 
and leave in February and early in March. They bore a hole into small 
ant-hills (termites), and lay four round white eggs. They look beautiful 
in their native state, flying about and showing their handsome white tails. 
A very shy bird, and hard to find in the dense scrubs where they five. 
Ver}^ common at Cape York.” 
Barnard’s notes from Cape York read {Emu, Vol. XI., p. 24, 1911) : 
First observed on November 23, 1910, and a few' days afterwards plentiful 
in the scrubs, but did not commence to burrow into the nests of the 
white ants (termites) until the end of December. These Kingfishers are 
migratory, but it is not known where thej’' go. The first set of eggs was 
taken on 12th January, 1911, and a few' daj^^s later large numbers could 
. have been secured. The birds bred in the termites’ nests, both on the 
ground and in the trees. Upwards of 50 nests have been examined by me, 
and the maximum number of eggs in a clutch was three. During the 
period of incubation the long white tail-feathers of the brooding bird 
become much worn, or are broken off.” 
These notes were absolutely confirmed by Macgillivray (the younger) 
{Emu, Vol. XIII., p. 161, 1914) at Cape York : “ This species puts in its 
first appearance at the end of October or beginning of November, at or 
just before the commencement of the wet season, and soon starts nesting 
operations. For this purpose a low termite’s nest on the ground, in the 
scrub, is chosen, and a hole, wdth nesting-chamber at the end, drilled 
into it. Occasionally a termite’s nest in a tree is utilised, up to a height 
of ten feet. The termite’s nest chosen is always an inhabited one, never 
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