64 Campbell, Some Victorian Winter Notes. [ j^f 'l^^t 



Oreoica. The first Pallid Cuckoo of the season was seen and 

 heard, and here, too, the little yellow buttercups and crocuses, 

 with the real " harbinger of spring," were carpeting the grassy- 

 spots, as they do about Melbourne a few weeks later. All 

 evidences of the Mallee-Fowl have now disappeared from these 

 parts, though kangaroo and Emu may still be seen. 



Journeying back to Stawell, two more days of interest were 

 spent in the country that lies between that town and the Gram- 

 pians, which rise — a huge sandstone wall — to the south-west. In 

 the stringybark and ironbark gums, among underscrub of dwarf 

 Casiiarina and heath-like plants, the footprints of Emu were 

 noticed. A local resident informed me he had seen four that 

 week. This time last year he observed one bird with chicks. 

 At the Black Ranges — low outcropping granite hills near by — 

 the Lunulated and White-bearded Honey-eaters were seen along 

 the creeks. White-browed Babblers had young in a nest, and the 

 Shrike-Thrush, the Brown Tree-creeper, and the Blue Wren were 

 common. The last-named three species came with great fear- 

 lessness about a friend's camp by the bank of a creek. Among 

 the Blue Wrens, of which there were several families, was one 

 unfortunate individual that suggested that even such tiny mites 

 have their tragedies. It had a large cancerous growth on one 

 foot, and it became the butt of all the others. One day it 

 disappeared, and has not been seen since. 



The Grampians were then visited, and a separate list of birds 

 observed there is given in another part of this issue.* Down at 

 Dunkeld, the southern extremity, Emu tracks were again 

 observed. There, too, the Crimson Parrakeet was noticed, biting 

 into the tough cones of the dwarf native pine {Callitris verrucosa) 

 to get at the small winged seeds. Black Magpies {^Streperd) 

 were common, and had time permitted some species might have 

 been discovered nesting. In one spot a pair of Scrub-Wrens 

 loudly scolded at the intruder, and not far away a young 

 Ground-Thrush {Geocichia), with weak flight, was disturbed, 

 which showed that there the season was in advance somewhat of 

 Melbourne district. 



Still further south, at .Portland, is a timbered tract of rich 

 country that is a veritable oasis of birds. Strepcras are in great 

 numbers, and many Honey-eaters and Tits are about. All 

 come freely into the gardens that are scattered through the 

 forest. Orchardists say that the Strepcra searches for the 

 cocoons of the destructive codlin moth, which are hidden away 

 in the bark of the fruit trees, and the White-eye, in parties, comes 

 among the apple trees in summer and cleans off the woolly 

 aphis, which does so much harm if left alone. 



It is noticeable that the Magpie seems to be increasing in 



* See " Stray Feathers," p. 71. — Eds. 



