64 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. XXVI. 



IN THE HEART OF THE MALLEE. 



By a. H. E. Mattingley, C.M.Z.S. 

 {Read before the Field Naturalists' Cluh of Victoria, 9th Aug., 1909.) 



The frequent descriptions of the bird-life to be found in that 

 part of Victoria known as the Mallee which had appeared from 

 time to time in the " Nature Notes " column of the Argus from 

 the pen of " Mallee-Bird," otherwise Mr. Chas. M'Lennan, since 

 appointed ranger of the National Park, Wilson's Promontory, 

 whetted the ornithological appetites of my friends, Mr. J. Ross 

 and Mr. F. Howe, as well as my own. We therefore decided to 

 visit the Pine Plains district, from which Mr. M'Lennan had so 

 often drawn his pen-pictures. 



To my friends the Mallee was a terra incognita, and both were 

 anxious to see the peculiar animal and bird life of the scrubs 

 and arid sandy wastes which they were under the impression 

 comprised that region. As for myself, I had been in " Mallee " 

 country before, and knew what to expect. Our leader, Mr. Ross, 

 thinking that the scrub was only a few feet high, and that 

 climbing irons and rope ladders would be so much superfluous 

 baggage, decided that those useful adjuncts for studying bird-life 

 should be left behind, and greatly we regretted it afterwards. 



Arrangements were made with Mr. M'Lennan to meet us at 

 Hoptoun, which is rather more than 250 miles north-west of 

 Melbourne. We accordingly left town by the morning train 

 on 13th September, 1907, and reached our destination just 

 before midnight, after a long and dreary day's travelling, punc- 

 tuated by stoppages more or less dreary at numerous wayside 

 stations. 



At one of these, Murtoa, we found we had time for a short 

 stroll, so, espying some Buloke trees, Casuarina luehmanni, about 

 a mile away, we reckoned they would doubtless provide food 

 and shelter for some of the local birds, and made for them. We 

 were not mistaken, for we found nests containing young of the 

 Black-backed Magpie, Gymnorhina tibicen, the Raven, Corone 

 australis, and the White-faced Xerophila, Xerophila leucopsis, 

 whilst a Red-capped Robin, Petrceoa goodenovii, and a Yellow- 

 rumped Tit, Acanthiza chrysorrhoa, were observed building their 

 dainty nests, that of the former being an open cup-shaped nest, 

 while the tit's nest was a domed-over structure three times the 

 size of the robin's. Among the other birds flying about here 

 were the Wood-Swallow, Galah (Pink-breasted Cockatoo), White- 

 fronted Chat, Musk Lorikeet, Grass-Parrakeet, Ground-Lark, 

 Noisy Minah, Laughing Jackass, or Giant Kingfisher, and 

 Kestrel. 



Returning to the train we resumed our journey, and without 

 further incident, except a sudden stoppage of the train, which 



