ri4 yizLhoR, Mallee-Fowl for a Sancluary. [2nd'oct. 



there was sufficient food to sustain these birds on the Reserve 

 was correct. As our time ashore was hmited, I quickly broke 

 the bars of the new arrivals' prison and placed the birds in sacks, 

 and, with these on our backs, one of the ship's hands and I started 

 our climb of the almost perpendicular cliffs. In a quarter of an 

 hour we had accomplished the ascent, and tramped into the 

 scrub about a quarter of a mile. A favourable spot was selected, 

 where the dwarf eucalypts and varied undergrowth gave shelter 

 for the Mallee-Fowls, and made an ideal introduction to the land 

 of their adoption. A quantity of food was scattered around, 

 then the bags were opened, and with a rush and a whirr the birds 

 were gone, one staying for a while perched on a small sapling to 

 survey the bush. The steamer's whistle sounded " the retreat." 

 and with a sigh of relief and a load of responsibility lifted off my 

 shoulders we turned and hastened back to the shore, having 

 succeeded in safely carrying out a project that for days previously 

 had appeared an utter impossibility. 



After proceeding to Snug Cove, where Dr. Rogers and myself 

 landed for a time, to renew acquaintance with Mr. Hurst and his 

 wife and daughter, we set our course homeward, reaching Port 

 Adelaide at g o'clock on Saturday night. 



Some Mallee Birds. 



By a. M. Sullivan, Jeparit. 



Thi5 paper is little more than the record of about loo birds in a 

 particular locality. The district treated lies along the last 20 

 miles of the Wimmera River, from Antwerp to the south shore of 

 Lake Hindmarsh. The country consists mostly of land under 

 wheat cultivation, with strips of low mallee bushes along the 

 roads and division fences. Here and there are sandy ridges 

 timbered with pines, gorse, spinifex, and acacias, while the river 

 flats are thinly timbered with poor specimens of red gum and 

 other eucalypts. The period of my observations extended from 

 April to November, igio. The nomenclature employed is from 

 " A Descriptive Hand-list of Birds Native to Victoria," by J. A. 

 Leach, M.Sc. 



I arrived at Tarranyurk Siding one gloomy Saturday late in 

 autumn. My first view of the district filled me with anything 

 but great joy. The thin lines of low mallee, which might other- 

 wise have served to relieve the monotony of the everlasting stubble 

 and fallow, only added to one's grief, as one sympathized with the 

 poor birds whose fate it may have been to live there. My hopes 

 were somewhat raised on finding that the farmhouse which was 

 to be my home for perhaps a couple of years was fronted by a 

 long grove of young native pines, studded with buUoaks and 

 gums. Nevertheless, I did not go to sleep that night till I had 

 formed a plan to escape from the district as soon as possible. 



