The sun-birds are searching the lemon blooms. The breast of the gay,
assertive little bird is far richer in tint than the brightest of the
lemons. A minute ago one perched on a ripe fruit as if to shame it by
contrast, and the fruit has since seemed a trifle dull of tint, and with
light-hearted inconsequence the pair are now probing narrow throats of
papaw flowers. The ground has been too much overgrown with grass and
weeds for the comfort of the little green pigeons which come strutting
down the paths for seeds and crumbs. Dry soil, which may be easily
scanned and scratched, is more to their liking, so they keep to the
forest, where in some places the undergrowth of wattles is so dense that
the sun may not visit the ground, and the bare places glitter with seed.

When rain was seriously deficient, proof was given that some proportion
of the wattle seeds eaten by pigeons are not digested. In the crevices of
logs supporting the water-trough, which proved to be a popular
refreshment spot of many species of birds, clamorous with thirst, seeds
were deposited, and when the rains came the trough was fringed and
decorated with pinnate leaves of sprouting wattles, some of which grew so
strongly, notwithstanding the absence of soil, save that which occurs
from the slow decay of seasoned bloodwood, that if summary measures had
not been taken the trough might have been embowered. The season seems to
have been too damp for the night-jars, though quite to the taste of all
species of pigeons. In the course of a few minutes the voice of the
timid, tremulous, barred-shouldered dove came from among the
yellow-flowered hibiscus of the beach, while the pheasant-tailed pigeon
sounded its rich, dual note, the red-crowned fruit pigeon tolled its
mournful chime, and the guttural of the magnificent fruit pigeon--often
heard, but seldom seen--came from the jungle close at hand. Not one of
these birds was visible, nor was the fluty-voiced shrike thrush, which
answers every strange call and mimics crude attempts to reproduce its