^°';.^"''] Cleland, Overland Excursion. I3I 



storekeeper with a galvanized-iron hut allowed his place to be 

 used as a depot for baggage, and a short walk was made in the 

 neighbourhood. A few birds were seen, especially Glyciphila 

 albifrons, and Crows were numerous and very tame, allowing one 

 to come well within gunshot. 



After a meal in a navvy's " boarding-house," during which 

 everything was covered with dust, a start was made, perched on 

 top of a tank on the contractor's train running on the line now 

 being constructed to Loxton, the destination being a Government 

 Experiment Farm at Veitch's Well, some 5 miles away. 



Next morning a short excursion was made into the surrounding 

 mallee to visit a Leipoa's mound. An egg had been taken some 

 weeks before, but my host was afraid that one of the birds, at 

 least, had been shot recently by some of the workers on the railway. 

 The mound was found, carefully heaped up by the bird, but no 

 eggs were met with on scraping away the sand till the dead leaves 

 were reached. My host told me that the birds usually feed some 

 quarter of a mile from the nest, on the little open flats between 

 the mallee-covered sand-hills. They are very tame, and allow one 

 to approach closely. In the course of the walk, Ptilotis ornata was 

 frequently seen. It has the habit of P. penicillata of occasionally 

 rising into the air, uttering a clear and peculiar note, and then 

 suddenly diving down again into a tree. A trait such as this, 

 manifested in certain birds of a genus and not in others, is 

 unquestionably of considerable importance in indicating the 

 degrees of relationship between the different species. P. ornata, P. 

 penicillata, and probably P. leilavalensis (I cannot recall whether 

 I actually saw these birds exhibiting this action in North-West 

 Australia) exhibit this trait, whilst I have not seen it in P. sonora, 

 P. chrysops, &c., though I have watched many of these birds. It 

 serves to indicate that P. ornata is closer of kin to P. penicillata 

 than, for instance, to P. sonora. Several Ground-Thrushes 

 {Cinclosoma castanonotum) were met with, running amongst the 

 mallee and flying a short distance when disturbed. In the after- 

 noon a group of three or four was seen feeding by the track as 

 we were driving along. Two Dusky Robins {Drymodes brunnei- 

 pygius) were also seen amongst the undergrowth. Other birds 

 noticed were Pardalotus striatns, Corcorax melanorhaniphits, 

 Acanthogenys rnfigularis, Colluricincla harmonica, and Cr adieus, 

 sp. A family of the pretty Wren-Warbler {Malurus assimilis) 

 was also seen, whilst the note of a Strepera was heard. A faint 

 note, whose author could not be discovered, may have been a 

 Stipititriis (whilst driving, two very small brown birds passed 

 quickly through some bushes), whilst a larger bird, also brown, 

 darted rapidly from bush to bush, possibly an Amytornis. 



It is interesting to consider that this country is, apparently, 

 devoid of surface water — at any rate, permanent natural water- 

 holes must be few and very far between. Even where the country 

 has been taken up, water available for birds is almost non- 

 existent. Notwithstanding, bird-life seems plentiful, and one can 



