s are about twenty feet in diameter and from ten to
fifteen feet high. Several pairs of birds generally unite in their
construction.

When the mounds are completed the birds burrow holes in the centre and
deposit their eggs, which are left to be hatched by the moist heat
engendered by the decaying vegetation. Forty or fifty brick-red colored
eggs as large as those of a turkey are sometimes found in a single nest.
Both the eggs and the parent birds are excellent eating.

The Australian bee-eater, a bird of attractive plumage, is found all
over the northern islets of the Barrier Reef. It has a long, sharp
curved bill and two long, narrow feathers in its tail. Its beautiful
green plumage, varied with rich brown and black, and vivid blue on the
throat, makes it an attractive bird.

The sea-anemones of the Great Barrier Reef are remarkable for both
beauty of color and structure; some of them measure four or five inches
across the expanded disk. In Torres Strait are seen brilliant
sea-anemones around the border of whose disks are jewel-like clusters.
These beautiful sea animals present the appearance of delicately tinted
flowers adorned with the most exquisite gems.

Starfish and sea-urchins of all descriptions are found in immense
numbers. The five-rayed varieties of starfish are universally condemned
as insatiable foes of the oyster family, and the oyster cultivators
destroy all they can find. To dismember the body of the starfish by
pulling off the finger-like rays does not kill the animal, for not only
does each fish produce new rays but each ray will produce a new
starfish. The predatory starfish fastens itself to both valves of the
oyster, forces them open, and consumes the fleshy part. It is
destructive not only to oysters but to clams, mussels, barnacles,
snails, worms, and small crustacea as well.

The variety of sea life about the great reef is legion. Among the
bivalves the most remarkable for the size and weight of the shells are
the tridachna and hippopus. In some localities they are so numerous that
their shells have been burned to make lime. A pair of tridachna valves
often weighs several hundred pounds.

To the naturalist the Great Barrier Reef is an object of special
attraction.

CHAPTER XXV

THE GOLD FIELDS OF AUSTRALIA

The name Australia, like that of California, conjures up in the mind
visions of gold; and the story of the gold excitement in both is very
similar. January 24, 1848, was