MK)A. 103 



From Melbourne, X'ictoria, Mr. G. A. Keartland wrote me:— "The Mallee-fowl ( Lipoa 

 ocellata) has a very wide range over the most arid parts of \ictoria, Central and North-western 

 AustraHa. At Knill, in the former State, I saw many of their mounds in Mallee scrubs, but the 

 birds were \ ery wary and required the exercise of much patience to get a view of them. On 

 one occasion f disturiied a pair from a ploughed field on the edge of the Mallee. In Central and 

 North-western Australia the mounds were in Mallee, Tea-tree or Acacia scrubs. I saw the 

 tracks and found feathers of the birds, but could not spare time to make an extended search. 

 They appear to li\e quite independently of water." 



Mr. C. lirnest Cowle, who was for a number of years stationed at Illamurta, Central 

 Australia, and who has travelled over the greater part of the central portion of the Australian 

 Continent, has sent the following notes from Belair, South ,'\ustralia : — " Occasionally we came 

 across the mounds of the Mallee-hen { Lipoa ocdlata), hut I had no opportunity to study them 

 at leisure, my occupation preventing me from making any delay. These birds are shy, and 

 generally fluttered off before we got to close quarters, through the noise made by our horses. 

 They fly rather clumsily and noisily in the low scrub. The nesting-mounds appear to be used 

 year after year, although some looked as if they had been deserted. I expect the birds using 

 Ihem had been wiped out, there were none in the neighbourhood of my camp, but I saw them 

 in various places, sometimes on the sandy plains, and again in Eucalyptus scrub on rough 

 stony country. The leaves of these trees are plentiful in the composition of the mounds with 

 others, but considering the size of the mounds, one wonders how the birds gather so much debris, 

 for the mounds are not always in particularly dense scrub. The size varies, and is hard to give 

 accurately, as much depends on the condition of the mound when observed, and if the debris 

 has fallen back from the apex, I do not think it would be any exaggeration to say they were 

 frequently five or six feet in diameter and two feet six inches or more in height. The birds get 

 Ihem in order some time before use, as they were sweeping up the leaves to one centre, and we 

 came across a bird on one occasion with wings spread out and depressed tail, but there were no 

 eggs in the mound. Another time we drew a blank ; the mound was opened on top, and my 

 trackers said they were only making ready to lay. The most eggs I personally saw taken out 

 of a mound were nine ; at other times we only found four or five. The blacks said ' mobs bye 

 and bye,' but their ideas of numbers are very crude and statements very unreliable. Certainly 

 the eggs I got were fresh, and if I remember correctly were in two layers on one side of the 

 mound, i.e., there was not a complete circle ; it is difficult to note the positions, as the debris keeps 

 falling in. The colour of the eggs ranged from a pinky tint to dark terra-cotta, the shell is very 

 thin and brittle, and the eggs have a very delicate flavour. September was the month we 

 usually got them in. The aborigines visit the mounds known to them each year, and I do not 

 think many birds use the same mound, three was the most noticed by me. 



" Adult birds are driven from tree to tree by dogs, and apparently soon tire, and are hunted 

 down with sticks. Blacks will eat practically any bird, but rely chiefly on getting them out of 

 nests." 



From Broome Hill, South-western Australia, Mr. Tom Carter wrote as follows:— "In 

 1887 the Mallee-Fowl (Lipoa occUata) occurred and bred in the thick coastal scrubs that grow 

 near the sea, north of the Gascoyne River. The natives used regularly to gather the eggs, and 

 assured me the birds were to be found in the more extensive scrubs that extend inland from 

 Cape Farquhar, about twenty miles further north, and almost on the tropic line. I never 

 observed any old nesting-mounds in the region of the North-west Cape and E.xmouth Gulf, 

 although thick coastal scrubs occur there. In September, 1887, when travelling near the coast 

 south of the Gascoyne River, a great number of nesting-mounds were observed, new and old, 

 in a belt of a species of Mallee about fifty miles wide. Many aborigines were camped there in 

 order to collect and eat the eggs as soon as laid, and they said they were in the habit of visiting 



