108 MORaAN—A Trip to North-West Australia. 



Also in f'oiiiuM' (lays they were shaped with a {»iece of kangaroo 

 lK)ne or hard wood, but no"\v a piece of fencing wire is used. In 

 the afternoon we went in search of native skeletons, which 

 were said to be in some large hollow baobab ti-ees. ^Ye found 

 two, and a[>propriated the skulls for the Adelaide University. 

 On the IDth we had an exhibition of spear and boomerang 

 throwing by the blacks; the boomerang throwing was very poor 

 (apparently this tribe did not use this Aveapou). but the spear 

 throwing was good. 



About a mile from the station is the Lennard River, at the 

 time of our visit, a series of long, deep reaches, connected by a 

 small stream of running water. In flood time it is a huge 

 stream, sometimes vSpreading miles from its hanks. The pools 

 are said to lie occupied by crocodiles, but we had not the good 

 fortune to see any. but it was pointed out to me that there 

 were no water birds on the deep pools, they having long since 

 found out the danger of these reptiles. The river flats are 

 mor-e heavily timbered than the higher country ; many of the 

 trees were quite new to me. but eucalyptus predominates here 

 as elsew^hei-e. A species of paper bark (Melaleuca sp-) here 

 grows to a height of 40 feet or more. Birds aie very numerous 

 the most conspicnons being the White-gaped Honey-eiiter 

 {Meliphaga anicolor). Small flocks were always in evidence, 

 fighting and chattering among the trees of the river bank. 

 Another common Honey-eater was the Yellow-tinted {Meli- 

 phaga florescens), very similar in its habits to our common 

 "(Jreenie'' (Ptilottila peniciUatd ). 1 saw a pair of these 

 birds busily removing a nest from one tree and rebuilding it in 

 another, just as our "Greenie'' d(X3S. This and the Black-headed 

 Diamond Bird were the only ones we saw showing any signs of 

 breeding. Other Honey -eaters were the White-throated {Meli- 

 tJirepttis albof/nlaris) , the White-breasted Honey -eater {Glici- 

 philn faficiatus). and the Least Honey -eater i ^tif/niatopy iudis- 

 tlncta). Fly-catchers were not at all common; a few Leaden 

 Flycatchers (Microera assintilift) , and the Wagtail ( Leucocirca 

 irlcolor). These last were seldom seen about the station, per- 

 haps because the blacks dislike them, and kill them whenever 

 they get a chance. They say they listen about the camps and tell 

 secrets to the policeman. This superstition seems to be widely 

 spread throughout Western Australia, as a friend iiiforn)ed 

 me that in the early days of Coolgardie the blacks there believed 

 the same thing. On June 21 Mr. Millard got his fishing net out. 

 and set the blacks to drag the billabong. The.se billabongs 

 abound in fish and freshwater praAvn, the latter of enormous 

 size. The largest one I s'aw caught measured IS inches in 



