Jnn<.,-j Kb ARTLAND, Zoology of Great Desert, N.W. Aust. 43 



of Bronzewing Pigeons, Little Turtle-doves, Crested Pigeons, 

 and Many-coloured, Cockatoo, Port Lincoln, and Shell Parrots 

 indicated. These birds, together with Galahs and Chestnut- 

 eared Finches, are never found very far from water. Perhaps 

 they knew of some we did not see. Then we passed through 

 mallee scrub in which the Pied, Singing, and Keartland Honey- 

 eaters were numerous, and large flocks of Masked and White- 

 l)rowed Wood-Swallows and White-shouldered Caterpillar- 

 eaters passed over. The absence of seed-eating birds had just 

 l:)een noted, and the conclusion arrived at that we were far 

 from water, when four x\lexandra Parrakeets flew across our 

 track Their slow, laboured flight clearly indicated that they, 

 too, were looking for water Up to this time the little, swift- 

 flying Hemipode, Tiirnix velox, had been very plentiful, and, 

 where the Triodia was short, I frequently counted from 15 to 

 20 running about the ground, all within shot had I desired to 

 shoot them ; but now they all disappeared. 



Further on the only birds seen were the two species of 

 Amytis — textilis and siriatus — Emu- Wrens, Crested Oreoica. and 

 Tricoloured Chat. As these birds are strictly insectivorous, 

 they seemed to derive sufficient moisture from their food. 

 Brown Hawks came whenever we set fire to the Triodia, in 

 order to feast on the lizards which ran from the fire. About 

 this time we found several species of ants and large bugs 

 troublesome. We always made our beds as far as possible 

 from the bushes in order to avoid the ants, but soon after we 

 " turned in " our beds were swarming with them, and then the 

 fun commenced. Lizards of several species, especially a small 

 red-backed variety, ran over us to capture the insects, and 

 many of them were in turn captured and consigned to the 

 spirit bottle. These reptiles were the horror of our Afghans. 

 Just as I was dozing off to sleep after bottling one specimen 

 the camp would be disturbed by Said x\meer yelling out, 

 " Mr. Katland ! Mr. Katland ! little sennak, go quick ! " which 

 meant that he wanted me to ca])ture a lizard (which he called 

 a snake) that ran quickly over his bed. 



The days were now intensely hot, about 120° in the shade. 

 Several large iguanas were seen on the sand-hills, but only two 

 snakes, which were non-venomous. After travelling for 

 several days without seeing even a crow or hawk, we came to 

 some timbered country, with the Triodia about three feet high. 

 Here I shot several chestnut-coloured wallabies — an adult 

 male of which only weighed about 3 lbs. — and two species of 

 l)andicoots. How they obtained water was at first a mystery, 

 l)ut on wandering near camp I found a quantity of the water- 

 bearing mallee, and in many cases the animals had scratched 

 the sand from the roots, and then, after gnawing through the 



