162 M.\a)\\AA\l<.\\, .lustralia,, J'clicau. Tisffan" 



The Nesting of the Australian Pelican (Peli- 

 canus conspicilldtus) 



By J)R. W. .MACGIIJJX RAN', liioken Hill, Sometime 

 President, R.A.O.U. 



Owing to the gradual dessication of the interior the Darling 

 River does not receive any water on its western side from the 

 30th degree of latitude, where the Warrego River enters it, near 

 Bourke, until it joins the Murray River at about the 34th 

 parallel. 



The waters of the I'aroo find iheir way to ihe Darling only 

 in years of exce]jtional rainfall, usually losing themselves in 

 vast flats and lignum (Muclilenhcckio Cunnincihami) swamps 

 before reaching it. The Bulloo waters only find their way over 

 the Queensland border for a short distance to be sopped up in 

 similar areas, and most of the creeks that take their origin from 

 the eastern side of the Barrier Range share the same fate. 



It follows, then, that the Darling depends for its periodic 

 floodings, which Aaiy greatly in extent, on the rains which fall 

 in South-eastern Queensland, and North-eastern New vSouth 

 Wales. The river itself has a broad and deep channel, with its 

 banks bordered by fine old red gums { Eucalyptus rostrata), an 

 area of varying extent on either side subject to inundation and 

 supporting an arboretum of box (E. hicolor mostly) and Acacia 

 stenophylla. Connected with this are old channels of the river, 

 and a system of lakes. One of these old channels, known as 

 the Talyawalka, courses down on the eastern side at distances 

 of from 5 to 40 miles out from the river itself. Passing Wil- 

 cannia at about 10 miles out, it soon increases this distance, 

 filling a series of lakes in succession, such as Teryawynia, Vic- 

 toria, Brommeys, Ratcatchers and Boolaboolka Lakes, and then 

 finding its way by one or more channels into the river again. 



On the western side a channel runs out just below the town 

 of Menindie, and immediately fills a large depressed area of 

 about 76,000 acres, known to the aboriginal inhabitants as Min- 

 andichi, but now called I^ake Menindie. This is connected by 

 a tortuous channel, the Wooriarara Creek, about 12 miles in 

 length, with Cawndilla Lake, which has an area of about 1(^,000 

 acres. T'oth lakes and creek are enclosed by sandhills, from 

 which they are separated by box flats. The centre portion bor- 

 dering the creek and more depressed than the rest, is known 

 as Mortonboolka Swamp, as it is more often under water than 

 the rest of the flats, only high floods covering these and reaching 

 to the foot of the sandhills. When the river falls, most of this 

 water runs out again, and serves to keep up the level of the 

 river for several months below where the creek enters it. 



