118 THE BIRDS OF THE CHINCHILLA DISTRICT, 
swell its bulk. The soil is for the most part of a mixed sandy 
nature, except where patches of black soil occur; and the vege- 
tation is that of a “lightly timbered country,” with characteris- 
tically dry “brigalow”’ scrubs of greater or less extent, and 
open well-grassed pockets here and there. The trees in the 
timbered country are limited almost entirely to a few species of 
eucalyptus, but on the edges of the brigalow scrubs are many 
kinds of small trees and shrubs, such as species of Capparis, 
Grevillea, Cassuarina, Alstonia, Atalantia, Myoporum, and others, 
few of which, however, would invite the presence of fruit-eating 
birds. Amongst the more lowly woody plants several malvaceous 
genera are represented, and the grasses are both abundant in 
species and very prolific in seed. Here, as in districts further west, 
the whole aspect of nature, and especially that due to the element 
of bird life, is considerably influenced in its presentment by pre- 
vailing meteorological conditions; a fact which will explain the 
occurrence at Chinchilla in seasons differing from those obtain- 
ing during my visits, of additional birds to those which I 
mention. Whilst I was making the observations here given, 
the weather, on both occasions of my visit, was somewhat dry, 
with a few heavy showers of short duration. These visits were 
made to Chinchilla, during the four latter months of 1882 and 
from April to the end of June of the present year, for the 
purpose of procuring fossil bones which were known to occur 
there, and with the secondary object, especially on the latter 
occasion, of collecting the animals of the district. 
The best represented families of birds are:—The family of 
-warblers—Sylviade, of which there are eight species; the cuckoo- 
shrikes— Campephaginee, of which they are four ; the flycatchers 
represented by five; the thick-head shrikes by five; the crow 
family by eight; the honey-eaters proper, with what Wallace calls 
the flower-peckers, by twenty-one; the finches by five; the wood- 
swallows by four; the kingfishers by four; the parrots by 
twelve; the pigeons by eight; and the birds of prey by nine. 
