58 Mr. T. Carter on some [I^^is, 



at a rock-hole of very bad water at the foot of the ranges. 

 We had been sjsteniaticall}^ hunting through, and beating 

 masses of spinifex, often breast high, that grew round our 

 camp, for four days, when I heard the familiar " chat-chat" 

 of a Desert-bird, which I had not heard for thirteen years. 

 After twice flushing the bird, I shot it, and not being able 

 to find where it had fallen, called up one of the natives to 

 help me, and he very nearly spoilt the specimen by treading 

 on it, as it lay on a flat piece of rock between two masses of 

 spinifex, missing it by a bare inch. It w^as a male bird, and 

 undoubtedly breeding at the time. We spent two more 

 days there, but failed to see or hear any more of them, so 

 moved on towards the North- West Cape, as so much time 

 was lost in climbing the ranges to obtain drinking-water 

 there, as described in the itinerary of this paper. No traces 

 of Desert-birds having been seen farther north, I camped at 

 the same place on my return journey on 11 August, with 

 the same native. Soon after our arrival, we flushed one of 

 these birds from a large bunch of spinifex, and I thought 

 it looked smaller than usual. I did not shoot, as I wanted 

 to see whether the bird had a nest ; so three times, at intervals 

 of half an hour or more, I cautiously visited and tapped the 

 l)unch, but without anv results ; so we got the suudl axe out 

 of the buggy, and by the aid of it and a strong sheath-knife, 

 cut and pulled that bunch to pieces without finding any 

 trace of a nest or seeing the bird. Another careful search 

 all round, the next day, yielded no results, so I thought 

 that the bird seen was probal)ly one of a recently fledged 

 brood, and as my time-limit for returning the hired buggy 

 to Maud's Landing had nearly expired, I drove south again, 

 alone, having sent the native back to the Cape. 



As I was driving along, late in the same afternoon, I saw 

 a Desert-bird in some big spinifex, so tied up my horses and 

 had a fruitless search in the vicinity, but could not camp 

 there as my horses w;inted water, the nearest being several 

 miles farther south, where it had to be dug out with a 

 conch-shell from a depth of about six feet of loose drifting 

 beach-sand. However, I got them watered there before 



