224 
CHISHOLM, Yeppoon-Byfield Excursion [ Th f a ® mu 
near the mouth of a tidal creek adjacent the township. Here 
the most notable bird was a Warbler, undoubtedly Gerygone 
cantator, the merry little fellow that is so abundant on the South 
Queensland coast. Song, appearance and behaviour were all 
akin to the southern bird. Mathews has set up a Gerygone from 
Cairns, under the meaningless name of Ethelornis mouki, and 
placed it somewhere between G . cantator and G. laevigaster. Its 
validity, however, seems doubtful upon consideration of the 
northerly extension of cantator and upon reference to skins in 
the Australian Museum. 
AT THE CAMP-OUT. 
With anticipations re-kindled by the sight of the Sun-Birds, 
the Fairy Warblers, the green tree-ants, and other tropical 
creatures, the visitors left for Byfield late in the morning of 
October 22. Two or three went ahead in the luggage lorry, 
leaving the main body to cover the 25 miles in a big motor 
charabanc. It was a handsome and an easy-running car, but the 
lamentable road proved almost too much for such a big vehicle. 
With a little less luck, indeed, the present story might have been 
a very different one. Twice the brakes failed and the bulky 
car ran backward when attempting inclines. On the first occa¬ 
sion it chanced to run straight instead of dropping over a culvert, 
and on the second occasion a rear wheel backed up on a cutting, 
causing the car to cant dangerously with almost the whole party 
packed inside. After that most of the trippers negotiated the 
“pinches” on foot. Our friends of Byfield certainly deserve a 
better road, but it would surely have been misguided generosity 
to advertise their need through a batch of broken necks. 
Three hours of travelling through dry forest country brought 
the party to By field,. There, on the banks of a pretty creek 
bearing that name, stood a miniature village of canvas awaiting 
occupancy, and in the middle distance was a group of cordial¬ 
looking people, constituting, as it appeared later, most of the 
population of the district. The compliment paid the visitors by 
the local residents in thus attending at the outset was but an 
earnest of the hospitality that came later. Not content with 
having erected comfortable sleeping tents, with good bush 
stretchers, and a thoroughly adequate dining room (with the 
trunks of tall palms for seats), the men of the locality were 
always on hand to act as guides and render general assistance. 
In this respect the help of Messrs. W. Mortensen, F. Richter 
and others was invaluable. On the first morning in camp, for 
instance, Mr. Mortensen arrived at 4.30 o’clock with his motor 
lorry, and took a party of twelve visitors several miles off to 
Polka Creek, there to enjoy the dawn chorus of the birds. Simi¬ 
larly, various young men of Byfield left their fruit farms to take 
the naturalists to points of interest which might otherwise have 
