24 THE BIRDS OF CHARLEVILLE ; 
parallel to the river. This sand is yielding to the tread 
and is shifted by the wind. It extends from one to two 
miles further back. On these sand ridges grow pine trees 
(Callitris sp.), and eucalypts, especially iron-barks, as well 
as small acacias and other stunted shrubs. Beyond, and 
raised two or three feet above the sandy tract, a light red- 
soiled country is met with. This supports a scrub of a 
pretty uniform character—the Mulga Scrub, so named from 
the preponderance amongst its constituent vegetation of the 
Mulga (Acacia doratoxylon,: A. Cunn.). In this scrub 
there are also a few small eucalypts and other trees, and 
it contains open spots on which grow low and dense bushes. 
Grass may be plentiful at times in the district, but I have 
not alluded to its occurrence, as it seemed to have com- 
pletely disappeared as the result of the severe and long- 
continued drought. The only trees in flower were the 
melaleucas, growing in the bed of the river, and a few 
dwarfed acacias in the sandy soil. In fact the whole scene 
bore the aspect of a desert, for even the trees appeared to 
struggle to exist, and the Mulga Scrub, on which the cattle 
depended for their subsistence, looked dead and was nearly 
dried up. The birds, except a few parrots, which seemed 
to have filled their crops with the sticky seeds of the 
loranthus, a plant which, being a parasite, was somewhat 
indifferent to the condition of drought, were in a poor con- 
dition. No wonder then that they were few in number and 
little variable in kind. They were as follows :— 
1. Aquila audax, Lath. The wedge-tailed eagle. 
2. Aquila morphnoides, Gme/. The little eagle. I shot 
a solitary bird, the sole example I met with of this species, 
on the ist September. 
3- Falco subniger, G/d. The black aaicon Of this also 
a solitary specimen was all I saw. 
4. Falco lunulatus, Lath. 
5. Hieracidea orientalis, Sch/. The western brown hawk. 
6. Hieracidea berigora, V. & 7. A common southern 
bird but not seen by me east of the Dividing Range; it is 
frequently met with, however, in the Charleville District. 
7. Tinnunculus cenchroides, V. & H. The nankeen 
kestrel. A very uncommon bird in this district. I only saw 
one example. 
