12 Chandler, With Camera in Xorth-Wesi Victoria. ■ [,,f''j"i.. 



been so carefully collected by the birds, all mouldering and 

 decaying. It seems a crime that such marvellous creatures should 

 l)e ruthlessly destroyed to satisfy man's greed. 



The sand-hills near Chalka Creek were full of interest, and the 

 scenery of a charming type. These sand-hills were timbered with 

 Murray pines, fiat-fruited buloke, and, in the hollows, with a 

 Melaleuca {M. parviflora). The bulokes, in many instances, were 

 thickly covered with the harlequin mistletoe {Loranthiis exocarpi) 

 and numerous nests of the Yellow-tailed Tit-Warbler (Acanthiza 

 chrysorrhoa) were noticed in this parasite. Where the sand-hills 

 sloped away to the creek, large areas of open grass land, dotted 

 with clumps of pine, were a favourite liaunt of Rose-breasted 

 Cockatoos. The scenery here was particularly beautiful. A 

 coloured carpet was formed by the broom-like fescue {Festitca 

 bromoides), locally called " silver grass," bugle-bush, tall thick- 

 heads, hairy blennodia [Blennodia lasiocarpa), twiggy guinea- 

 flower {Hibbertia virgata), wiry podolepis {Podolepis Siernssenif), 

 hairy swainsona {Swainsona tephrotricha), the introduced stork's- 

 bill {Erodium circutarium) (local name "carrot weed"), Austral 

 tobacco [Nicotiana suaveolens), and others. The Rose-breasted 

 and White Cocl^atoos are often destructive to grass, and I 

 examined many patches where barley-grass, silver-grass, and the 

 stork's-bill had been systematically pulled up by the birds. On 

 the other hand, while the caterpillar plague was at its worst, I 

 frequently inspected ground from which Cockatoos had been 

 flushed, and could find no evidence of the grass being destroyed, 

 and the absence of caterpillars at these places led me to believe 

 that the birds were feasting upon them. It was a common sight 

 to see the Little Maned Goose and Ducks, fifty yards from the 

 water, busily snapping up the caterpillars. Many Ravens and 

 Crows daily visited the " horse paddock," and, with Straw- 

 necked Ibises, Whisthng-Eagles, and smaller birds, made short 

 work of the pest. 



A common bird in the Murray pines was the Red-capped Robin, 

 and I noted some of their tiny nests. These lovely little birds 

 appeared to have a fondness for pine country, but I frequently 

 saw them in the box-gum flats. I observed a male bird stow 

 away four caterpillars the length of his own body, and he 

 apparently was quite ready" for additional tit-bits. While 

 waiting to photograph a pair of Robins I found for the first time 

 the pit-trap of an ant-lion larva, and became so interested in this 

 curious creature that I nearly forgot my original object, and the 

 birds made several visits to the nest undisturbed. 



While on a flying visit to Mildura I added a few more birds to 

 my list, the most interesting being the Chestnut-crowned Babbler 

 {Pomatorhinus nificeps) and the Ground Cuckoo-Shrike {Plero- 

 podocys phasianella). A single specimen of the latter was dis- 

 turbed one evening from a Murray pine, and showed so much 

 persistence in returning to the same tree that I thought it must 

 have a nest there. While I stood under the tree the bird circled 



