Vol. XIII. 

 1913 



Chandler, Bird-Life of Kow Plains. -jq 



Bird- Life of Kow Plains (Victoria). 



By L. G. Chandler, R.A.O.U., Melbourne. 

 {Read before iJie Bird Observers' Club., iSth December ., 191 2.) 

 When Mr. Henry L. White, of Scone, New South Wales, offered 

 to pay my expenses during a collecting trip to the North- West 

 of Victoria I gladly accepted. For years I had desired to visit 

 " The Mallee." I had heard Kow Plains spoken of as a fine 

 district for bird-hfe, and decided to try my luck there. I was 

 accompanied on the trip by my father, Mr. R. C. Chandler, who 

 ably assisted me in my work 



Leaving Melbourne on 19th August, 1912, we arrived at the 

 railway siding at Kow Plains on the afternoon of the following 

 day. After getting our paraphernalia together, we shouldered as 

 much as we could carry, and " made tracks " for the Kow Plains 

 homestead, which was to be our headquarters for the next few 

 days. The heavier luggage was left on the platform, to be picked 

 up by a cart from the homestead in the evening. We noticed that 

 miles of country between Ouyen and Kow Plains had been swept 

 by bush- fires. All this country has been selected, and a portion 

 of it is under. wheat, which looked in a promising condition when 

 we passed through. The mallee between these stations consists 

 principally of short saplings, and if we expected to find birds 

 numerous we were disappointed. As mile after mile passed by, 

 sometimes without the sign of a bird, we began to wonder 

 whether the statements regarding the abundance of bird-life in 

 the Mallee were not greatly exaggerated. We were soon to 

 learn that only certain species frequent this dense sapling mallee, 

 the majority of the birds keeping to the more open and taller 

 timber. 



Kow Plains is situated about 350 miles from Melbourne and 

 30 miles from the South Australian border. The first objects to 

 attract the eye of the traveller when nearing the siding at Kow 

 Plains are the white copi hillocks on the north side of the line. 

 These hills consist of pure gypsum. We found this powder 

 superior to plaster of Paris for cleaning the feathers of birds. 

 Surrounding these hillocks large salt-bush plains support such 

 birds as Ephthiannra, Calamanthus campestris, and Mahirus 

 leucopterus. To the south of Kow Plains the country for several 

 miles consists of undulating ground, crossed at intervals by sand- 

 ridges, running almost due east and west. Many of these ridges are 

 covered with Murray pines and belah {Casitarina), but the principal 

 vegetation is mallee {Eucalyptus), with an undergrowth of 

 porcupine grass {Triodia), and, in parts, dense thickets of " broom- 

 bush," tea-tree, and turpentine bush. Here and there the mallee 

 (Eucalyptus) is covered with a heavy growth of parasitical dodder. 

 Between the ridges mallee of varying height predominates, inter- 

 spersed with turpentine-bush, mj^all, and different species of 

 acacias. As one neais the desert the face of the country alters 

 considerably. The reddish-coloured sand merges into a pure 



