Vol. xviii.j "Down Mario Way.'-' 271 



(]'araniis varius) ran up a tall gum-tree on our approach. By 

 throwing sticks at him he was induced to climb higher and 

 higher, until he finally climbed right out on to the leafy canopy 

 at the top of the tree, where he lay sprawling out, swaying in the 

 breeze, but practically hidden from his enemies below. It would 

 indeed need ingenuity to find a place for a bird's nest that would 

 be safe from a robber with such powers of climbing. 



In certain parts the commonest bird is the Emu-Wren. In 

 the short, close-set bushes its peculiar chirp-like single note 

 would call apparently at one's feet. Next moment it w^ould sound 

 a few yards in front, behind, or to right or left, so hard was it to 

 locate. The birds were difficult to see, but occasionally they 

 would break cover to perch on the dry twigs of some fire-swept 

 bush, when a view of them was obtained. Their flight was always 

 very short and jerky, and their long tails seemed to hinder and 

 pull them down. They looked more like insects than birds ; 

 most like large-winged locusts or grasshoppers with long legs 

 dangling awkwardly behind. It is a constant wonder how they 

 manage to manipulate their long, fragile tail-feathers amongst 

 the tangled vegetation without breaking them. 



Cape Conran — to which this narrative has set out more than 

 once, but each time has become absorbed in the intervening 

 country — is worthy of some account in conclusion. It consists 

 of huge masses of weathered granite, and is sheltered on the 

 landward side by clumps of tea-trees and native currant. On 

 the uplands back from the cape are found numerous warrens of 

 dusky-footed bush-rats [Epimys fuscipes), well-defined narrow 

 tracks leading from one warren to another. Just behind the 

 camping-ground, and close to the spring of fresh water, is a 

 blackfellows' kitchen midden, in which various flakes and bones 

 were picked out amongst the piles of broken shells. 



The rock pools, with their numerous crevices and overhanging 

 ledges overgrown with kelp, are the home of plentiful crayfishes 

 {Jasiis lalandii). At low tide a lump of shark or a dead Cormorant 

 let down into the pool soon tempts the crayfish out, when it is 

 cautiously hauled up and secured in a landing-net. Over loo 

 large crayfish were caught in this fashion in one large pool during 

 the two days we spent at the cape. The big rollers from the sea 

 continually swirl and roar through the rock openings, and with 

 each successive rise the kelp and seaweed sw^ay with the motion, 

 and one has to watch one's chance of a crayfish. The weedy 

 rock pools are also the haunts of sharks, rock-fish, and conger eels. 



These are some of the memories and impressions of our visit 

 to Mario. No attempt has been made to give a chronological 

 account of our doings, and our stay was all too brief- to allow of 

 our giving a comprehensive account of the bird-life of the region. 

 The varied types of environment, each with its special inhabitants, 

 deserve a wider and more prolonged study, but their diversity 

 is shown by the fact that in a fortnight we were able to identify 

 almost loo species of birds. Many of these have been already 



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