^"'I'c •o^'l ("iiAXDi.i'-.K, IVi.'h Camera in Novth-West Victoria. II 



lubnis and piccaniiinics wduld drixc the Ducks from otlieT 

 ]agc)t)ns towards the trap. As the birds came near, if they 

 were flying high, the waiting blacks would imitate the alarm 

 notes of the Noisy Miner, and throw ]Mcces of bark into the 

 air. The startled birds would inmiediately dash close to the 

 surface of the water and become entangUd in the net. The 

 latter was then quickly lowered, the birds killed and left floating 

 in the water as a decoy, and the net would be hoisted in readiness 

 for more victims. Kangaroos or Emus were watched when they 

 went to water down a bank, and, sneaking up, the blacks would 

 run a net across the line of retreat, and as the creatures made a 

 dash for hberty they were held by the net until speared. Out 

 in the open plains Emus and kangaroos were stalked and speared 

 by the black carrying a prepared shield of leaves in front of him. 

 Chalka Creek, previously mentioned, was a paradise for the 

 birddover. The red gums fringing its banks were the favoured 

 nesting-sites, and, with typical mallee on one side and box-gum' 

 flats and sand-ridges on the other, one saw a great variety of birds. 

 On the mallee side such birds as the White -fronted Honey-eater 

 (Glyciphila albifrons) and the Short-billed Tree-Tit {Smicrornis 

 breviroslris) were met with, and the bugle-bush {Ajitga australis) 

 and the tall thickheads made brilliant patches of colour where they 

 grew in miUions. In the mallee the silver mulga {Acacia brachy- 

 botrya) added a beautiful perfume to the scented air. At Kow 

 Plains, in iqii, I found this acacia a favoured nesting bush of the 

 Purple-gaped Honey-eater [Ptilotis cratitia). Under a lignum 

 bush on the west side of Chalka Creek was a fine bower of the 

 Spotted B'ower-Bird, and one day, after crawling on my stomach 

 for a hundred yards through dense thickets of stinkwort {Inula 

 graveolens), I got within ten yards of a bird at play, and for half 

 an hour watched the wonderful creature through my glasses. It 

 was worrying something with commendable energy, at the same 

 time emitting scolding notes, resembling " Sca-a-r, sca-a-r." I 

 found this to be a piece of ice plant. Running back a foot or 

 tw^o, the bird would emit this scolding note and then hop to the 

 bit of weed, seize it with mock ferocity, and beat it energetically 

 on the ground. Every few seconds it would drop the leaf, jump 

 back a few inches, then advance again to the attack, all the time 

 keeping up an incessant scolding. This continued for some time, 

 and then the bird selected a fresh toy from among the collection 

 of bones, glass, quandong stones, berries, &c. This was a green- 

 nettle leaf, and it was treated in a similar fashion. Nettle, leaves 

 were among the playthings each time I visited the bower. I had 

 heard much about the mocking powers of this Bower-Bird when 

 at play, but I was not fortunate enough to hear any attempt at 

 mimicry. A single Bowser-Bird was occasionally seen eating the 

 fruits of the pepper-trees at the homestead. Bower-Birds were 

 once numerous in the district, but they have been lelentlessly 

 persecuted by fruit-growers across the IVIurray River. It was a 

 sad sight to see deserted bowers, with the playthings that had 



