34 



<Mr. Hayraan), who was untiring;- in his efforts on our behalf. 

 Ovv thanks are due to the Supply and Tender Board for the splen- 

 <Tid tents supplied by them; and we have also to thank Mr. J. W. 

 Jones and Col. Weir, also Mr. Thos. Gill (Under Treasurer), Mr. 

 Osbourne was thanked many scores of times during our stay in 

 camp for his very generous gift of fruit. Last, but not least, wo 

 thank the postmaster at Port Lincoln for forwarding our letters, 

 the district council, the President and Vice-President of the Port 

 Lincoln Institute for their many kindnesses. 



A good deal having been written on the ornithologists' 

 camp some will naturally wonder wliat good has come 

 of it all. I will, therefore, give a brief outline 

 of the work which was accomplished during the 

 short time which was at the disposal of the field workers. Tlie 

 reason sliould be first stated for selecting Eyre's Peninsular as 

 the camping place. First of all, on this peninsular the bird life 

 is of special interest to the scientist, for the reason that this form 

 of life lias shown no defined boundary between the southern and 

 western forms. One o\'erlaps and mingles with the other. To 

 ascertain by compiling a list of birds found on Eyre's Peninsular, 

 and to prove how far this inosculation takes place, was one of the 

 chief I'easons for selecting a camping site at Warunda Creek. 

 Although the campers represented many branches of science — or- 

 nithology, botany, entomology, conchology, geology — all met under 

 the auspices of the Australasian Ornithologists' Union, and we 

 will deal with that lu'anch first. Bird life was found to be fairly 

 plentiful for such an aried country, and when one considers that a 

 list of 105 species of l)irds were seen and identified, without 

 tloubt it proves that Dame Nature has been fairly liberal with 

 the distribution of bird life on this peninsular. 



— Birds of Prey. — 



First, that noble bird, tlie wedge-tailed eagle (Uroaetus-audax), 

 was seen in pairs in several localities, where it had built its nests 

 (immense structures of sticks) in high sugar gums, and in most 

 oases eaglets, covered in soft white down, occupied the home. 

 I ascended to one far up in an old sugar gum, where I found a 

 fluffy, downy eaglet, which opened its bill, sat back upon its tail, 

 and clawed in the air -nath its strong talons as my head appeared 

 over the side of its stick home. Close to the young one lay a 

 freshly killed wallaby, from the carcase of which the parent bird 

 lind Ijeon feeding the young one when she was disturbed. Few 

 Australians know that this eagle is the largest of its kind in the 

 world. I am sorry to say that the harm (if any) Avhich he is 

 •supposed to do, is much exaggerated; for, after close and minute 

 ©bsfcrvation we have found that this bird does far more good than 



