120 Royal Australasian Ornithologists' Union. [ift"Tan. 



grace reflected in the flight of this fine liird sent our most poetic- 

 minded Melburnian into a l)rown study searching for a fitting 

 description thereof. 



As the willows and reeds fell away the cliff country came into 

 view — mile after mile of picturesque walls with but short breaks 

 between each half-mile reach. Every one of these cliffs had its 

 colonies of Fairy Martins (Peirochelidon ariel), and it was among 

 specimens of these birds that Dr. Cleland found the Angas tick. 



Passing Purnong, a straight run was made for Cournamont, a 

 little fishing landing whose name is probably a perversion of 

 " Cormorant." A rookery of these birds has long been constituted 

 in the swamp trees at the end of the cliffs, but it was not this 

 that was looked for so much as the cliff-building Cockatoos 

 {Cacatiia galeriia). They were there in hundreds, and made a 

 striking picture as they dashed wildly out of hollows 150 feet 

 above the water and rent the air with a continual harsh " Kar-r-r." 

 It would be interesting to know how the young cross the wide 

 stretch of water from their inaccessible cliff-dwelhngs.* 



From this point a straight run was made through the after- 

 noon and two hours in the soft evening air. On the Friday 

 the weather began to grow decidedly warm, and most of 

 the day went by on the river — steaming for a promised land 

 somewhere " between Morgan and Renmark." On this stage 

 excursionists had plenty of time to pay attention to the scenery, 

 and to shout fraternal greetings to fishermen or little parties of 

 blacks along the stream banks. Passing interest was taken in 

 the ruins of the old homestead built by the late John Eyre, 

 somewhere in the early forties, just a few miles down stream from 

 Blanchetown. Going ashore before sunset at a spot 7 miles above 

 this little town, most of the party had a ramble round a dry 

 stretch of mallee on a table-land above a cliff ; but it was not rich 

 in bird-life, and in the rarity of other notes the incessant 

 "Bubble-up" of Geopelia placida — "the Peaceful" — became 

 monotonous almost to the point of irritation. They minded one 

 of the two Doves in whose " sweet, sad voices " Shelley found 



" Despair 

 Mingled with love and then dissolved in sound." 



However, the customary evening and morning dip in the river 

 was calculated to wash all cobwebs from the mind as well as dust 

 from the body. The sky overcast, and a fierce wind came out of 

 the north on the Saturday morning, and Morgan was found 

 sweltering in a heat of no" in the shade. Up-stream then irri- 

 gation settlements were more numerous. There was little scope 

 for field-work adjacent to them, so that no stoppage was called 

 until rather a pretty little spot termed Moullein's Bend was 

 reached, and made the week-end camping-place. Above the 

 cliffs at this bend some rather picturesque sandy mallee, thickly 



* It is interesting to note that these famous and historic Cockatoo cliffs 

 are mentioned by Gould (" Handbook," vol. ii., p. 4). — Eds. 



