704 NESTS AXD EGGS OF AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 



mouse-coloured ponies bowl us along the liigh road towards the South 

 Australian border ; now passing through lovely open timbered country 

 clothed with gi-ass up to the cattle's knees ; then, where the timber had 

 been reclaimed, there were acres upon acres of waving conifiolds, 

 which, judging 'by theii- rich gi-cen colour, betokened a bountiful 

 harvest. 



En mute, by previous agreement, we picked up an industrious 

 selector, who formed his first acquaintance with the Mallee country 

 and Mallee Hens some twenty years before. He was to be our guide, 

 and a very able one he proved. 



After crossing fine pine ridges, then a " crab-hole flat," we entered 

 the mallee on the Lawloit Range. To call it a range is a misnomer, 

 for it is merely a series of undulating rises or ridges of a reddish 

 gravelly ironstone fonnation, and almost waterless, covered with a 

 small variety of mallee f EucaJyptux gracilis) and other scrubs, notably 

 melaleuca, &c. It was a most beautiful sight from the bugg\' seat to 

 gaze on the face of this perfect sea of foliage, with here and there 

 patches of lovely malice blossom (prematurely blown by ciTatic season- — 

 it generally blooms in May), appearing like curling wave crests, while 

 in the troughs we saw the melaleuca (M . wilsnni ) all ablaze with rich 

 magenta flowers. Such is the home of the curious Mallee Fowl. 



Having secured the ponies, we dashed into the scrub, our selector 

 friend leading, threading the bushes like a blackfellow, parting the 

 bushes first with one arm and then the other. I followed suit as well 

 as I could, but I soon found that " familiarity breeds contempt," and 

 much poetry, for me at all events, was knocked out of the scrub when, 

 in my enthusiasm, I came in contact with prickly bushes — hakea. — 

 and another ugly variety, which caused me to part with fragments of 

 my clothing, and even my flesh. My other friend took matters more 

 easily, cndeavom-ing to shoot a small species of Honeyeater, which 

 abounded hereabouts, for identification. It proved to be the Wattle- 

 cheeked fPfilotix rrfititia. Gould). 



Running down a small water track, we stinirk a Lipoa or Malice 

 Hen's mound. It was situated between a clump of mallee and among 

 some melaleuca bushes (M. iinornnffi ). The sand}' soil was swept up 

 cleanly for yards around, even to the uncovering of the roots of the 

 scrub for two or three inches. Some conception may be formed of 

 the size of the mound when the dimensions, by actual tape measure- 

 ment, were ten feet across by a1x)ut two feet in height, or thirtj' feet 

 in circumference, the whole mound being equivalent to a displacement 

 of about one hundred and fifty cubic feet. The apex of the mound 

 was slightly concave, with a few twigs and sticks thrown across it, 

 evidently by the bird, to obscure detection. Sticks on the nest are 

 always a sign that the bird has begun to laj'. 



We commenced to scrape, on all fours, like so many dogs. The 

 sand was dark-grey, intermixed with minute fragments of dead malice 

 and other foliage. Tliis mixture was exceedingly loose, and we 

 experienced no little difficulty in preventing it running back again 

 towards the centre. The mound unfortunately contained only one 

 egg. The temperature of the .sand about this egg, by F.ihrenheit's 



