3o O'Donohue, Wanderings on the Murray Flood-Plain. [volxxxh. 



they ignored the presence of the Martins and Pardalotes in one 

 particular tree, had a decided objection to a Wood-Swallow 

 coming near it. Time after time, when A . sordid us had been 

 escorted over the neutral line with more vigour than decorum, 

 the Flycatchers would resort to a limb on their tree whereon 

 the mud nest of a Grallina rested. Their behaviour roused our 

 belief that the pair had taken possession of the nest, and we 

 subsequently saw and photographed the birds arranging 

 materials therein. 



Quitting the lake-bed, after discovering the nest and four 

 eggs of the Spur-winged Plover, we ascended a sand-ridge, 

 and were surprised to find two graves beneath a spreading 

 Umbrella Acacia. A little to the left we noticed the site of 

 three dwellings that had been destroyed by fire at a not very 

 remote date. From the presence amid the ruins of the 

 remains of two double-barrelled breech-loading guns, a rifle, 

 clock, watch, bedsteads, and innumerable domestic articles, 

 it seemed at first to us that the fire must necessarily have 

 occurred very suddenly, and, as the graves indicated, with 

 fatal results. But the most disconcerting facts that militated 

 against the acceptance of the assumption of an accidental 

 outbreak of fire was that the dwellings had been situated at 

 some distance from each other, and that it was very im- 

 probable that a tire originating in any one of them would 

 occasion the destruction of the other two. Our individual 

 imaginations were allowed to conjure up visions of a tragedy 

 enacted a1 this spot till Monday. 14th September, when Mr. 

 MiUigan and 1 journeyed to Kulkyne Station, and, on men- 

 tioning our discovery, were informed that the last oi the 

 Kulkyne blacks rested beneath the acacia in the newei of the 

 two graves. He had been a boundary rider on the station, 

 and on his death his wife made a large excavation, lowered a 

 bed completely dressed therein, and thereon placed the corpse. 

 Alt-i filling up the grave she applied lire to the houses, 

 thereby destroying all the belongings <>t the deceased, in 

 accordance with ■* tribal custom, and quitted the district. As 

 we stood near the grave subsequently and glanced around the 

 narrow ridge, selvedged on all sides with giant Red Gums, 

 between which, to the south-east and to the north, glimpses 

 . , 1 dry and extensive Lake-beds were to be had. and to the west 

 the placid surface ol Mournpoul, we could readily understand 



the dead man'-, wish to lie near those spots endeared to him 



from infant v by hundreds <>i little incidents. 



I,, accordance with a determination arrived at the previous 

 evening, we quitted camp foi Lake Hattah early on Wednesday 

 morning, toth September. Pausing a shori time beside the 

 margin oi Mournpoul t<> note the contrasl presented by a 



