ii8 



THE MUSEUM. 



blossom. On one occasion a white 

 goshawk {Astitr iioi\ holl ) flew past. 

 Among the other birds we noticed at 

 Bambra were black cockatoos, wattle- 

 birds, hill crowshrikes white-shafted 

 fantail, black-throated honey-eater, 

 and little brown acanthiza. 



On January 25th Mr. Mulder re- 

 turned to Geelong, while I pushed on 

 to Lome. It was a rather dreary 

 walk, most of the scrub having been 

 destroyed, with only an occasional un- 

 burnt patch here and there. Soon af- 

 ter I left Bambra a brown flycatcher 

 {Micnvca fascinano) flitted across the 

 road in front of me. The gang gang 

 cockatoo iCalloccphalon galcatinu) 

 was also to be seen in places, uttering 

 a peculiar, harsh, croaking cry as it 

 flew. Bristle birds were abundant 

 down the gullies. Besides the above, 

 I only saw the harmonious thrush, 

 the yellow robin, the whice-eyebrowed 

 wood swallow, and the bronze-wing 

 pigeon. Reaching Lome at about 

 half past ten, I fixed my camp on the 

 St. George, where it took an hour or 

 two to repair the damages my clothes 

 had sustained on the trip. 



I did not e.xert myself much looking 

 for specimens during my stay on the 

 coast, partly because the intense heat 

 took away all desire for exertion, and 

 partly because, being by myself, it 

 was hard to summon up enthusiasm 

 for long walks. Most of my time was 

 spent at little nooks on the creeks 

 watching the birds. On the St. George 

 I noted only the wax-bill, chough, 

 welcome swallow, little black cormo- 

 tant, white-breasted cormorant, spot- 

 ted pardalote, blue crane, fairy martin 

 and bristle bird. The last named bird 

 used to be very abundant here a few 

 years ago, but this year there was only 

 one to be heard at intervals. I do 

 not think I heard a dozen individual 

 birds after I reached the coast. I had 

 expected that the fires, having burnt 

 so large a part of the forest towards 

 the Otway itself, would have made the 

 birds, especially these lovers of the 

 the scrub, very abundant indeed in the 



unburnt parts; as they seemed much 

 scarcer than usual, the only conclu- 

 sion I could draw was that instead of 

 being driven out from the burnt parts 

 they must have been destroyed. 



The choughs always evince a decid- 

 ed preference for the hill tops, in the 

 forest at all events, being almost con- 

 fined in this neighborhood to the hill 

 on the Erskine, immediately above 

 the township. Perhaps this is due to 

 the proximity of a large orchard which 

 grows on the slope of the hill. The 

 cry of the chough resembles that of 

 he red lory, and of therosella to some 

 extent. It is known locally as the 

 "jay." The white-shafted fantails 

 were not nearly so abundant as in 

 previous years, and the blue wrens, 

 though in great numbers, also seemed 

 scarcer. The waxbills, however, were 

 as t ck as always. On a Scotch 

 thist near the creek I saw a great 

 number of small beetles of a vivid 

 glossy blue, which moved in short, 

 quick flights, like those of a grasshop- 

 per. These have been kindly inden- 

 tified for me by Rev. Thos Blackburn 

 as Haltica pagana, Blackb. 



The evenings being rather lonely on 

 the St. George with no companion, I 

 shifted my tent to the Erskine after a 

 couple of days so as to have some one 

 to talk to in the evenings. The camp- 

 ing ground here is very good though 

 rather public; it is well sheltered and 

 level, with abundance of good water 

 at a little distance. An occasional 

 azure kingfisher was to be seen on the 

 creek with a few mudlarks {Grallina 

 picata) here and there. There were 

 also several mountain thrushes which 

 frequented the water's edge, just be- 

 low the wall of blackberries; they were 

 very quiet and tame. So indeed were 

 a number of the birds, in particular 

 the fern-birds, {Scrtconiis), which 

 were very abundant. These used to 

 hop about within a yard or two while 

 I was having my meals, as quiet and 

 tame as the blue wrens. The jack- 

 asses were as plentiful as usual, their 

 friendly greeting being often heard. 



