7o6 NESrS A^'D eggs of AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 



triangular clump of these trees, we slung our hammocks between the 

 intervening stems and barricaded with thick boughs the two exposed 

 sides, while on the third side we built a huge fire. After the bugg>' 

 was drawn up and the horse secured, we were all safe and snug for 

 the night. 



In Western AustraUa I had the opportunity of examining two 

 Lipoa egg mounds, one of wliich appeared to be deserted, notwith- 

 standing it was the laying season. One in particular was very interesting, 

 from the fact that it had been scooped out preparatory to receiving 

 the eggs. Tliis mound was not in mallee. but in a scrub of a mixed 

 nature, near Geographe Bay. The whole mound resembled an inverted 

 cone, or miniature crater, and measured about forty feet in circum- 

 ference at the base ; the rim of the crater, so to speak, being about 

 twenty feet round. A pei-pendicular line from the level of the rim to 

 the inside bottom was three feet, including one foot below the surface 

 of the gi-oimd. Unfortunately, some time previous to my visit, the 

 poor hen bird was accidentally caught in a wallaby trap and killed, 

 which accounted for the unfinished state of the mound, and also pi-oves 

 the theory I hold (in opposition to many intelligent observers of oiu' 

 mallee blocks) that only one pair of birds frequents the same mound ; 

 or else, if more, why did the depositing of eggs not proceed, seeing it 

 was full season or near the middle of November? 



To conclude, I may give good Gilbert's original and uiteresting 

 nesting account (omitting one or two speculative eiTors) of the Malice 

 Hen in Western Australia, as it appeared in Gould, and dated from 

 the Wongan Hills, 28th September 1842: — "This moiTiing I had the 

 good fortune to penetrate into the dense thicket I had been so long 

 anxious to Adsit in search of the Lipoa's eggs, and had not proceeded 

 far when the native who was with me told me to keep ai^ood look-out, 

 as we were among the ' Ngou-oo ' hillocks ; and in half-an-hour after 

 we found one, around which tlie bush was so thick that we were almost 

 nmning over it before seeing it. So an.xious was I to see the hidden 

 treasures within that in my haste I tluxw aside the blackfellow and 

 began scraping off the upper part of the moimd. This did not at all 

 please him, and he became very indignant, and at the same time 

 making me understand ' that as I had never seen this nest before, 

 I had better trust to him to get out the eggs, or I should in my haste 

 and impatience certainly break them.' I therefore let him have his 

 own way, and he began scraping off the earth very carefully from the 

 centre, throwing it over the side, so the mound very soon presented 

 the appearance of a large basin. About two feet in depth of earth 

 was in this way thrown off when the large ends of two eggs met my 

 anxious gaze. Both these eggs were resting on their smaller apex, and 

 the earth around them had to be very carefully removed to avoid 

 breaking the shell, which is extremely fragile when first exposed to 

 the atmosphere. About one hundred yards from this first mound we 

 came upon a second, rather larger, of the same external form and 

 appearance ; it contained three eggs. Although we saw seven or eight 

 mounds, only these two contained eggs ; we were loo earlv ; a week 

 later and we should doubtless have found more. To give you an idea 



