vc.xxiv.-] SHARLAND, North Keppel Island 
229 
their wings (to say nothing of their abominable screeching) was 
like the thundering of distant surf or the passage of a high wind 
through trees. At sundown each day the “foxes” passed over 
our camp on their way to feeding-grounds; their numbers then 
seemed to run into millions. A much more heartening sight 
was the presence of a fair number of koalas (native bears) in 
trees about the locality. 
The conduct of the camp throughout was excellent. A cook 
had been taken out from Rockhampton, and “waiters” were ar¬ 
ranged by roster, with the energetic G. H. Barker giving ^general 
oversight as secretary. On Saturday night, October 25th, we 
gave a lantern entertainment, lecturettes, etc., to the good people 
of Byfield, and on the following day the return journey to Yep- 
poon was made. There the party split, chiefly into two bodies, 
one to visit the Keppel Islands and the other to spend a few 
days on Tambourine Mountain, south-east of Brisbane. 
Visit to North Keppel Island 
By M. S. R. SHARLAND, R.A.O.U., Hobart. 
The Keppel Islands, consisting of North and South Keppel, 
and many rocks and islets, lie some ten or twelve miles off the 
coast opposite Yeppoon, in Keppel Bay. The day following the 
return from camp at Byfield a party of twelve set out in a 
fishing boat for the northern island in the hope of adding to their 
list of birds species that frequented the open sea and the shore. 
It was a warm/ sunny day, and the voyage to the island was 
delightful. Many Wedge-tailed Shearwaters skimmed the ocean 
and came close to our boat, while several Pied Cormorants were 
observed en route. We landed in a small bay towards the 
northern end of the island on the beach of which was seen a 
solitary Pied Oyster-catcher, which flew away uttering his piping 
note, while a Silver Gull and several Crested Terns were some 
distance out. 
North Keppel Island is approximately five miles in length by 
about one and a half miles in width at the widest part, and is 
covered with a thick growth of low eucalyptus scrub, palms, and 
a little mangrove. On the ocean, or eastern, side, the hills and 
the tops of the cliffs are bare of vegetation except thick coarse 
grass, well over a person’s ankles, in which Pipits and Brown 
Quail were flushed. Members explored almost every part of 
the island in the four or five hours at their disposal, and found 
several birds nesting, including the Boobook Owl, Bar-shouldered 
Dove, White-headed Sea-Eagle, Quail, Forest" Kingfisher, and 
others. One of the party captured a young, but almost full-grown 
Stone-Plover, who was made to pose for enthusiastic photo¬ 
graphers. On a rock jutting out into the sea a disused nest of 
a pair of Osprey was found, and the birds were flying overhead. 
