166 M.\C(]llJA\k.\\, .luslralian Pcllcau. r?st faT 



stretched wings or curiously eyeing us, and readily take to flight. 

 They leave their perch rocking behind them from the impetus of 

 their jum])-oft". The sexes share in the task of incubation, as we 

 flushed both repeatedly from nests. 



Wending our way through the swamp, we espy a Great Crested 

 Grebe {Podiceps cristatus) swimming (jft' in its stately way. Its 

 nest is floating, and anchored to a clump of lignum ; no eggs 

 are visible till we remove the ample covering of water weeds for 

 photographic i)urposes. The nest was about a foot in diameter, 

 with an egg-cavity of 6 inches, and the highest part of the nest 

 4 inches above water level. It contained four eggs. 



Numbers of Nankeen Night Herons (Xycticorax caledonicns), 

 mostly adult birds, with a few dark ruddy-brown or spotted im- 

 mature ones were disturbed from their camping places in the 

 denser foliaged trees. White Egrets (Egretta alba) were perched 

 on trees or searching the shallower spots. 



The nests of all these water birds that build in trees, con- 

 spicuous when first constructed of dark-coloured twigs and green 

 or dry branchlets and leaves, are soon so whitewashed by the 

 excreta of the birds as to become almost invisible in the bright 

 sunlight. 



Pelicans begin now to pass overhead in larger numbers, the 

 bigger flocks flying in the V-shaped formation common to so 

 many water birds, the apex of the letter being in advance, and 

 the limbs altering in length with changes in the direction of 

 flight of the flock. The bird at the ai)ex is in this way freciuently 

 changed. 



The L'ied Cormorant (/''. vorius), the Little Pied {Microcarbo 

 mclanolcucus), and the Little Black (P. atcr) were quite nume- 

 rous, either in the water, perched on some point of vantage, or 

 flying overhead ; the last-named being in point of numbers far 

 ahead of the other two. The large black Cormorant {P. carbo) 

 was more numerous in Menindie Lake, where it was nesting. 



Along the shallow margin and on the numerous small islets 

 formed by the falling waters are Red-Kneed Dotterel (Erythro- 

 gonys cinctus) and fewer numbers of the Black-fronted species 

 (Charadrius mclauops). 



Near our destination for the day. we came across a .small 

 rookery of the Little Black Cormorant iP. a/rr) occupying two or 

 three trees on the margin of an island in the creek; most of 

 these nests cr)ntained young birds. 



After our eight-mile pull, we welcomed the camp, where a meal 

 awaited our arrival. We are soon in bed. and go oft' to sleej) lis- 

 tening to the churring calls of the Owlet Nightjars {.Egothclcs 

 cristata) as they hawk for insects amongst the trees, and the 

 harsher notes of the Night-Herons fishing along the creek. 



We are all astir at daylight, and disturb a flotilla of Pelicans 

 that had been busy cornering a shoal of fish in the creek by the 

 camp. Numbers of Water Hens (Microiribonyx zrntralls) were 



