1 92 1.] Western Australian Birds. 67 



seen a single Tree-Creeper during my long residence in the 

 Griiscoyne (Lower) and North-West Cape districts ; but in 

 1900 I found a deserted egg, that was new to me, in a nest 

 soaked with rain-water in a cavity o£ a small tree, about 

 sixty miles inland from Point Cloates. I forwarded the egg 

 to Mr. A. J. Campbell at Melbourne, for identification, and 

 he replied that it was undoubtedly the egg of some species 

 of Climacteris, and lie published a description of it in the 

 'Emu/ vol. X. p. 299. 



The first time I was in the Gascoyne district again, after 

 Mr. Ogilvie-Urant's 1909 ' Il)is ' paper was published, was in 

 August 1911, and I kept a good look out for (!'. m. loellsi, 

 but saw none on the lower part of the river. However, 

 when travelling south by mail-coach from the Minilya river, 

 on 12 Sept(Mnber, I caught a glimpse of what I felt sure 

 were Tree-Creepers in some Jam (Acacia) timber through 

 which we passed, but of course could not follow them. 

 Almost exactly the same thing happened on 18 August, 

 1913, in the same patch of Jam trees ; but when there next 

 time, on 13 September, 1915, I was able to accept the kind 

 hospitality of my old friend Mr. Harry Campbell, and stay 

 a few days at his station homestead, in the vicinity of which 

 I had seen the birds. Mr. Campbell drove me out a few 

 miles that day, but we had no luck with Tree-Creepers ; 

 but on the 14th I had a long walk round and obtained three 

 specimens of the bird, and found a nest with two young- 

 birds almost full grown. 



The " Jam " trees grow to a height of about twenty-five 

 feet, with trunks from a foot to twenty inches in diameter, 

 and derive their local name from the sweet scent of the 

 timber, which always reminded me of violets. I was 

 scanning the scattered trees as I walked along through 

 them, and saw ahead of me something rapidly moving in 

 and out from a hole, about eight feet from the ground, 

 in one of them. At first I thought this object was the head 

 of one of the large lizards, or monitors, that are great 

 robbers of eggs and young birds, but getting nearer, saw 



F 2 



