May,"! o'Donohue, Wanderings on the Murray Flood-Plain. 13 



had scoured out deep and extensive holes, we searched vainly 

 for the numerous skeletons alleged to be had for the trouble 

 of picking up ; but, beyond small particles of bone, derived for 

 the most part from the disintegration of the parietal and those 

 of the tibia and femur, we saw nothing worthy of the exposure 

 of a plate. Trending west along the dune, the loose sand, 

 evenly and regularly rippled by the wind, and fretted with the 

 tracks of the emu, the fox, the rabbit, the pigeon, the opossum, 

 and other creatures, proved heavy going. Leaving Mr. Rosen- 

 hain the task of securing a snapshot at a pair of nimble-footed 

 emu, I pushed on along the crest of the dune for fully a mile, 

 searching, but without success, for the objects of our quest. 

 Hereabouts the Native Tobacco, Nicotiana suaveolens, and the 

 introduced Sea-green Tobacco, Nicotiana glauca, grew ex- 

 tensively, and the Ice Plant, Mesembrydnthemum crystallinum, 

 was plentiful and exceptionally luxuriant. 



I was about to retrace my steps when I noticed a large 

 Wedge-tailed Eagle, TJroa'&us audax, quit a stunted pine on 

 my left and come directly towards me. I at once crouched 

 down beside a bush of Leptospermum flavescens and awaited 

 developments. The bird passed over my head so close that 

 I could have struck it with the barrel of my rifle, and, wheeling 

 immediately, circled the bush a few feet above me with down- 

 stretched neck and inquiring eyes. Extracting my camera 

 from its case, I strove to get it in working order, but, between 

 undue haste and fine sand, my progress was so slow that when 

 I was in a position to make an exposure the eagle, with its 

 curiosity somewhat satisfied, was circling some fifteen yards 

 from me at no great height, but with sufficient speed to nullify 

 all my efforts to get its image on the finder. 



Rejoining my companion, we struck north-east across the 

 flood-plain in the direction of our camp. The ground over 

 which we passed was parched and fissured by the protracted 

 drought, and only a lew sparse growths of Bamboo Grass, 

 Glyceria ramigera, Woolly- fruited Saltbush, Bassia sclero- 

 lanoides, Spear-fruited Saltbush, Bassia quinquecuspis, Wing- 

 less Blue-bush, Kochia brachyptera, and the Smooth Minuria, 

 Miliaria integerrima, were to be seen. The Black Box, 

 Eucalyptas bicolor, and the Umbrella Acacia, Acacia Osswaldi, 

 abounded, and from every tree of the latter one or more shelter- 

 bags constructed by the larv;e of the Processionary Moth, 

 Teara contraria, was suspended. In no instance, however, was 

 the larva' found within them, nor did any shelter-bag approach 

 in size or perfection that exhibited by the president, Mr. J. A. 

 Kershaw, at the Club meeting on Mb Augusl last. The bags 

 noted weir invariably hung on the south side oi the tr< 

 possibly to shelter them from the north wind, which, we were 



