62 Campbell, Some Victorian Winter Notes. f ^^"'q^^ 



temporalis and P. superciliosns, are to be seen often among the 

 fallen leaves and twigs, where their protective colour befits them, 

 rustling and rummaging for insect tit-bits, quite unconcerned 

 about an onlooker but lo feet away. But, alas ! all the house- 

 holds in that ironbark scrub on the dull morning when I passed 

 were not in the same contented mood. I came upon a pair of 

 the beautiful Crested Oreoica. I think the lady must have been 

 sulk)^, for she had retired into the hollow centre of a fallen rotting 

 tree. The mate, raising and lowering his fine crest, and moving 

 about with great agility, was uttering a cross, scolding note, 

 occasionally pausing to give forth his clear, bell-like call. Now 

 and again he would go to the mouth of the log and look in, 

 scolding his hardest. Presently the female could stand this no 

 longer, and while the male paused a moment or two at the 

 entrance, she charged him full in the chest and sent him spinning 

 into the brown chips alongside. She retired again before he 

 realised whence the thunderbolt had come. After a while, when 

 my patience was exhausted, I went and looked in the end of the 

 log. She charged me too ; but this time it was in her fright to 

 get away. The male bird quickly followed her off, and doubt- 

 less the argument was continued over the adjacent rise. 



Later in the day I was able to identify the Black-eared 

 Cuckoo, a somewhat scarce bird. It was whistling with a curious 

 long-drawn note, similar to that of a Spotted-sided Finch, which 

 species was also in the district, and doubtless is a foster-parent 

 of the Cuckoo. In the fields everywhere the Black-backed 

 Magpie was much in evidence. 



While referring to the Mistletoe-Bird, I might here mention 

 some further facts that have come under my notice. I take it 

 that the seed is spread by this species of bird only. In the 

 Grampians I was much struck by the absence of mistletoe on 

 the stringybarks in the northern part, while in the southern part, 

 40 miles away, the parasite loaded the trees heavily, even being 

 on black wattles. Here its deadly effect could be seen. 

 Wherever it grew the branch of the host tree beyond that point 

 was dead, and an unsightly callus or gall swelled up about the 

 parasite. In Crown lands I believe timber-getters can cut trees 

 with mistletoe without a licence. At another spot, near Melton, 

 where the creek runs down to meet the Werribee, I came across 

 a large red gum with no less than 42 mistletoe plants upon it, 

 yet it had not lost a leaf. It is an unusual thing to find the 

 common pendulous mistletoe on a red gum, but there it was, and 

 not a single parasite was on any of the other gums about. This 

 collection probably marks the resting place of a wandering 

 Mistletoe- Bird (for I have never heard of any living hereabouts) 

 of some past generation, and it left a legacy in a few slimy seeds, 

 which germinated and sent their offshoots to all the other parts 

 of the tree. 



