68 THE VICTORIAK NATURALIST. [Vol. XXVI. 



species of honey-eaters were observed ravishing the eucalyptus 

 and other blossoms for their nectar. Flocks of Galahs, which 

 find homes in the numerous hollow spouts of the gums, flew 

 away when disturbed by our investigations, their pink breasts 

 appearing as if the blooms of a rose garden were being blown 

 through the air. Gay-caparisoned parrakeets were everywhere, 

 also Choughs and Babblers, whilst the Wedge-tailed Eagles could 

 be seen soaring overhead. Magpies could be heard carolling in 

 the trees. Several varieties of blue-wrens flitted through the 

 polygonum bushes, delighting the eye with the colour of their 

 lovely plumage, whilst quaint Emu-Wrens hopped saucily 

 through the spinifex. The wailing call of the Curlew, or 

 Southern Stone-Plover, weird and shrill, broke the stillness of the 

 night, and as the wind swept sobbing through the pines it carried 

 with it the call of the Mopoke. The whole place is a perfect 

 paradise for nature lovers, and in view of its probable early 

 opening up for settlement, Wonga Basin, along with Brambrook 

 and the adjoining Jerriwerrup (locally called Cherry-whip j, 

 should certainly be reserved. The prevailing cloudless sky and 

 the dry atmosphere of the district mark it as a future sanatorium 

 — one of the lungs of the city, so to speak. Brambrook derives 

 its name from a horse the notorious bushranger Morgan used to 

 ride, and which he left at this place, one of his bush fastnesses. 

 Everlasting flowers grow to perfection on the sand-ridges, and 

 were ten or twenty thousand acres of this country set aside as a 

 national park, it would be a most valuable heritage for future 

 generations of nature students. Meeting this class of country 

 in what we had mentally pictured as a wilderness gave us a 

 surprise, but at the same time infinite pleasure. 



Tradition has it that there is a ghost at Wonga. When the 

 hut was first erected a shepherd was stationed there. One day 

 he suddenly appeared at the head station in an exhausted condi- 

 tion, and, when questioned upon his hasty return, said that a 

 woman had been murdered the night before. Asked if he had seen 

 the woman, he said no, but he had heard her agonizing screams. 

 There is no doubt that the noise was made by a Delicate Owl, 

 Strix delicatula, as this bird at times emits a bloodcurdling 

 screech. As the woman's body was not to be found, the man 

 maintained that it must have been the ghost of a murdered 

 woman, and nothing would persuade him otherwise. The Night- 

 Parrakeet, Geopsittacus uccidentalis, used to be seen by the 

 aboriginals at Wonga years ago. It lays five to six eggs, in the 

 spinifex. 



Immediately after leaving Wonga Basin we struck heavy sand 

 again, and the buggy driven by Mr. Ross was soon left behind, 

 and we did not see it again until midnight, when it reached Pine 

 Plains station, where we had arrived nearly two hours before. 



