Oct., 1909.] THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 75 



being a legless species, which is quite harmless, and to the 

 uninitiated looks like a snake, is found in this part of the Mallee. 

 It is usually found among the clumps of Porcupine Grass, Triodia 

 irritans, or Spinifex, as it is sometimes erroneously called. The 

 Sleeping Lizards were noticed eating the flowers of the introduced 

 Cape Weed, Cryptostemma calendulaceum, R. Br., perhaps 

 for the sake of the native bees often frequenting them. The 

 lizards are doubtless responsible for the destruction of many 

 young birds, as well as eggs. A Red-capped Robin's nest was 

 found in a tea-tree about 4 feet from the ground, and contained 

 two young birds. 



Next day we paid another visit to Wirrengren, and as we 

 drove by a Red Gum disturbed a Boobook Owl, Ninox boobook, 

 which flew from the nesting hole of a Galah ; this we had 

 examined earlier on the trip, and found to contain two Galah's 

 eggs. Wishing to find out what the owl was doing in the 

 cockatoo's nest, I climbed up, and was surprised to find that the 

 owl had laid two eggs in the nest, and was incubating both its 

 own and the Galah's eggs. It would have been interesting to 

 have watched that nest and noted the final result. Parrots, 

 Pardalotes, and White-faced Honey-eaters were exceedingly 

 numerous in the timber fringing the plain, and many nests were 

 met with, particularly in the dead trees. In a " Lignum " bush, 

 Miiehlenbeckia cunninghami, a White-faced Honey-eater had 

 built its nest, while not far away two Black-backed Wrens were 

 building in fallen pines. In a tree, some 45 feet from the ground, 

 the huge stick nest of a Wedge-tailed Eagle was seen. I climbed 

 up and found two eggs just on the point of hatching. The 

 nest was 4 feet in diameter, and the pile of sticks fully 5 feet 

 high. We then drove on to the Mt. Jenkins paddock, a 

 delightful iiatural park — gentle slopes, carpeted with grass and 

 planted by nature with graceful pines, gums, and acacias, as 

 if for the very purpose. An Owlet- Nightjar was flushed from 

 a hollow in a pine where it had been broken off, and on climbing 

 up I found two eggs of the Mallee Parrot and two of the Galah, 

 which, judging by their warmth, the Nightjar had been incubating. 

 This tree is evidently a favourite one with the birds, for Mr. 

 M'Lennan told us that last season the hollow was tenanted 

 successively by a Pink Cockatoo, a Kestrel, and a Galah, whilst 

 on one of the limbs a White-shouldered Caterpillar-eater had 

 built its nest, and in the sand at its base was the nesting burrow 

 of a Bee-eater, Merops ornatus. Close by in the top of a pine 

 tree was the nest of a Brown Hawk, Hieracidea orientalis, 

 containing one egg. A Kestrel had started laying in another 

 pine, only 6 feet from the ground. A Rufous Song- Lark, Cinclo- 

 rhamplw.s rufescens, was seen in this neighbourhood, but it made 

 no sound whatever, and our guide, who had paid special attention 



