112 CHEMJJx'Y— Notes on Birds. 



After rnnnini' down n likoly l()(»kiTi*>' gTim creek for two or 

 thi-ee miles after leaving the high ground, we ciime to Yaudama 

 homestead, where Mr. and Mrs. Win ton made ns welcome. At 

 our late luncheon fresh tomatoes were on the bill of fare, 

 although this was only August. Mr. Wintou informed us that 

 they had them practically all the year. A fine excavated tank 

 of water supi)lies the garden and hou.sehold requirements. 

 Many fruit trees were lost in the recent drought of 1019-1920, 

 and white ants are a pest hard to combat when they take to 

 the roots, as they do very often in these latitudes. During a 

 walk with Dr. Macgillivray along the Yandama Creek after 

 dinner we flushed a Goshawk from an old engine shed. An 

 outcrop of rock here had evidently been used by the original 

 owners as a source from which to obtain their nuclei for 

 chipi)ing the flakes one j)icks up so often in the Darling country. 

 An old aboriginal named Joe, of whom more anon, told me that 

 this stone outcrop was Yandama in his tribe's lingo. 



During our evening's discussion the further i-oute was now 

 decided upon. A bkickboy (aged about tin!) was to be our 

 guide and companion. The road to Callabonna Lake was pro- 

 nounced {jossible for car traffic, and the question of petrol 

 supply for the return journey ai-ranged with the kind assis- 

 tance of our host, Mr. Winton. He also told us that we could 

 get to Fort Grey in the Nor'- West corner, where there was a 

 lake that still held some water, should we decide to go there 

 on oui- return from Callabonna. Next morning, after loading 

 up the cars with some additional food for ourselves and the 

 engines and duly collecting our guide, we set out for Tilcha Out- 

 station, some 50 miles v.'est. Our guide — "'Sit-down Jimmy" — 

 was, we discovered, well-named and did his best to live up to 

 it. Even the opening of the infrequent gates ai)peared to be 

 almost too great a strain on his energy. At Yandama we 

 came into the kite country again, and nunrbers of these birds 

 were constantly to be seen hovering round. Their nests were 

 also not uncommon, but none were examined. The country 

 traversed now cliaiiged from stony tableland to sandy ridges, 

 covered with mulga and other species of the acacia family. 

 There was nothing of interest seen during the early part of 

 the journey, and we pa.ssed through a substantial wire-netted 

 vermin-proof fence into South Australia at a distance of some 

 37 miles from the homestead. 1 omitted to mention that there 

 is a. blacks' c^amp a couple of miles from Yandama. which was 

 visited 1)y some of onr party while Dr. Macgillivray and myself 

 explored the creek. Amongst the residents wa-^ an immigrant 

 ladv, Avho hailed fi-om Tx)ndon town — not the AAcst end - who is 



