282 BASSET HULL, Archipelago of the Recherche. [Tli'Sn 



many tires on the islands, some of which are used for pasturing 

 sheep suffering from the "coast sickness." Mr. White confirmed 

 the identification of his "Molly Hawks" as Pacific Gulls; his 

 Gannets included the Crested Tern, and for the rest he admitted 

 that we might land on some islands without even seeing a "deaf 

 adder." 



Sunday, 27th, and Monday, 28th November, were spent in 

 cleaning up the Lion Island collections, and walking along the 

 coast near Esperance. The scrub is thick in places, and bird-life 

 moderate. Singing and White-bearded Honeyeaters, White- 

 fronted Honeyeaters ( GlyciphUa albifrons), Black-faced Cuckoo- 

 Shrike ( Graucalits novcc-Jiollandicc), Crow (Corvns cecilo'), 

 and other species common to South-west Australia were noted. 

 I searched carefully for signs of the Long-billed Bristle Bird 

 {Sphcnura loru/irostris) , but without result; none of the residents 

 I interrogated knew of any bird answering to its description. 



On Tuesday, 29th, we went in Jones Brothers' boat to Charley 

 Island, twelve miles out. It was cloudy, with a strong breeze 

 when we started, and on arriving at the island we landed from 

 a staunch little dinghy, running it up on the slippery slope. It 

 started to rain shortly after landing, and poured all the morning. 

 However, we worked the island thoroughly, finding several 

 colonies of the Fleshy-footed Petrel, or Mutton Bird. This 

 species evidently has not the punctual habit of laying on the 27th 

 November that characterises the Short-tailed and Wedge-tailed 

 Petrels. Of about 25 burrows investigated only three contained 

 birds sitting on perfectly fresh eggs; all the others were empty 

 or contained a bird without an egg. There is not much soil on 

 the island, the granite rock showing bare or but scantily covered 

 with mesemhryanthemum for the greater part of the surface. 

 Where the sand and decayed vegetation had collected in the gul- 

 lies, the Petrels had constructed their burrows, from two to six 

 feet in length, straight or tortuous according to the nature of the 

 soil and obstacles such as roots and stones. The eggs were very 

 clean and white, but it was difficult to keep them so, working in 

 greasy black soil with incessant rain pouring on us. On top of 

 the island we came ui>on a flock of Rock Parrots, but failed to 

 find their nests. There were crevices under large "scales" of 

 granite which had exfoliated under weathering, and some small 

 burrows under boulders embedded in the soil. All likely spots 

 were investigated, but no trace of a nest discovered. A \Vestern 

 I>rown Hawk was shot, and a White Cnishawk seen. .\n mterest- 

 ing feature on this island was the presence of immense numbers 

 of a land mollusk (Ihilinnis sp.), which crawled out from under 

 the mesembryanthemum to enjoy the rain. The Singing Honey- 

 eater was plentiful, and a single Little Penguin was seen, l)ut 

 no nests were found. 



November 30th was bitterly cold and wet, the wind being 

 south-westerly almost of gale force. I arranged with Jones 



