102'!'] GouDiE, Three Anglers at the Murray. 137 



THREE ANGLERS AT THE MURRAY. 



By J. C. GouDiE. 



{Read before the Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria, i2,th Sept., 1920.) 



Five hundred leagues the limpid waters flow 

 Of mighty Murray, fed by Alpine snow. 



About the middle of December of last year our party of three 

 left home on a 60-mile drive to the Murray, our intention being 

 to camp for a few days amongst the fine Redi Gums which adorn 

 the banks of our noblest river. The buggy was well loaded 

 with camping outfit, including, of course, plenty of fishing 

 tackle, as we intended to live by the rod during our stay. 

 Passing Green Lake and Sea Lake (from which, especially the 

 first-named, we have taken many a full creel of EngUsh Perch), 

 our road lay north-easterly, crossing the southern arm of Lake 

 Tyrrell, which was then a glittering white salt-pan, devoid of 

 water, stretching away to the north as far as one could sec. 

 The day was very hot, and a quivering mirage hung over the 

 " lake," distorting the stunted clumps of Mallee and Paper- 

 bark trees, so that they assumed weird, fantastic, and apparently 

 moving shapes ; and it required little effort to imagine the 

 shades of departed blackfellows holding corroboree on the 

 shores of this desert lake.- Some years ago, during the wet 

 seasons, Lake Tyrrell was a magnificent sheet of water, some 

 fifty miles in circumference. Wild-flowers bloomed in profusion 

 along the sandy banks, whilst on the flats acres of Mesembry- 

 anthemum ("Pig-face") displayed a delightful colour-scheme 

 of green and pink. Across Tyrrell Downs and the adjoining 

 country, once marked on the map as " dense scrubs of 

 Eticalyplns dnmosa," but now a vast undulating plain, relieved 

 by clumps of Murray Pine, settlers' lumies, and strips of mallee 

 along the roads, forming interminable avenues, whicli run 

 north and south, east and west. This is typical " settled " 

 Mallee country, extending almost to the banks of the Murray. 

 Camping for the night at a shire dam, which was almost 

 overgrown with tall Cumbungie reeds, we heard with surprise 

 and delight the brisk, cheerful notes of the Reed Warbler. 

 Resuming our way next morning, we kept a sharp look-out 

 for further novelties, a link with the past appearing in a 

 Mallee Fowl, which ran swiftly across the track into a patch of 

 scrub. Other birds noted were Hk)ck-l)acked Magpies, foraging 

 bands of Babl:)lcrs and Tliornbills, tlie White-face, Black-and- 

 White Fantail, (ialali. Red-hacked, INfallee, and ("rimson-btllied 

 Parrakcets. No matter how dry the season, these birds seem 

 able to sustain themselves, and stick to their old haunts. In 

 a clump of Myalls a ])air of Pied Honey-eaters was seen, these 

 birds being quite new to us. Passing a big " goanna " basking 



