l6 Hull, The Eggs of Gymnovhina, spp. f J 



3, +3, taken at Barnato station, near Cobar, N.S.W. 



4, +4, taken at Cobbora, N.S.W. 



5, +3, taken at Orange, N.S.W. 



6, +4, taken at Cobbora, N.S.W. 



7, +4, taken at Barnato station, near Cobar, N.S.W. 



8, +4, taken at Orange, N.S.W. 



9, +4, taken at Cobbora, N.S.W. 



Emu 

 July 



Field Ornithology in South Australia. 



By (Capt.) S. a. White, M.B.O.U., R.A.O.U., Adelaide. 

 The Gawler Ranges. 



For many years the Gawler Range, with its strangely-formed hills, 

 which start immediately to the west of Port Augusta and extend 

 in a westerly direction for about 200 miles, has been a district of 

 great interest to the ornithologist. 



The late Mr. Stephen Hack was the first to explore this country, 

 and after him Mr. Josiah Bonnin, at the head of a small party, 

 travei'sed these ranges, and rode out beyond them to the west 

 in 1862. The journal written by this gentleman was published 

 in the " Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society of 

 Australasia (S. A.. Branch)," vol. x., 1907-8. The account is very 

 interesting, for Mr. Bonnin, being a very observant man, mentions 

 the birds seen by his party. The first ornithologist, as far as I 

 am aware, to work this country was, however, the late Mr. J . F. 

 Andrews, who was one of my late father's collectors during his 

 memorable voyage to New Guinea in 1880. Andrews made his 

 headquarters at Nonning, and worked out from there into the 

 spinif ex-clad ranges. Seeing that he had to tramp nearly 200 

 miles from Port Augusta, carrying a pack, before reaching his head- 

 quarters, it can be understood that his work must have been 

 sorely handicapped. Through the courtesy of Mr. Robert Zietz, 

 Ornithologist to the Adelaide Museum, I have been able to read 

 letters written by Andrews to the late Mr. Waterhouse (first 

 Curator of the South Australian Institute). Andrews addressed 

 his letters from Port Augusta, and states having sent on, amongst 

 other birds, the skins of the Night-Parrot (Geopsittaciis occidentalis), 

 and for a trifling sum per skin. Evidently these birds were much 

 more numerous then than they are now. In 1902 Drs. A. M. 

 Morgan and A. Chenery, M.'s R.A.O.U., made an expedition into 

 these ranges, but were retarded much in their collecting work by a 

 severe drought then existing, which eventually drove them back.* 



Eventually, on the morning of 22nd August, 1912, my wife and 

 I started out from Port Augusta with high hopes. Our four-horse 

 team, with driver and black boy, crossed the head of Spencer 

 Gulf in the punt, and we were soon on the track, taking a southerly 



* A small but very interesting collection of bird-skins was made by Dr. Morgan, 

 and is now to be seen in the Adelaide Museum. 



