Emu 



124 Hall, The Birds of Eyre Peninsula, S.A. f isf "i' 



one occasion a number of the party travelled to the south- 

 eastern end of the Great Australian Bight, and were well 

 rewarded by a considerable number of birds new to the list we 

 were preparing. Each succeeding day became a still more 

 interesting one as we gathered additional species and found a 

 fuller enjoyment in the type of country new to us. The weather 

 was fine, and at times hot, until the last day ; then it rained. 

 On this morning (i6th October), as arranged, our beautifully 

 new tents were repacked, and a train without delay conveyed us 

 back to Port Lincoln. During the previous evening Mr. 

 Mattingley, in the interests of the Union, returned to the Port 

 and delivered a public illustrated lecture on " The Birds of Bass 

 Strait." This was greatly appreciated. 



The whole party was again (i6th) on board the s.s. Rupara. 

 The voyage was specially fine, and Adelaide was reached on 

 the following morning. On the Monday evening Mr. Leach 

 delivered, on behalf of the Union, an illustrated lecture on 

 " Australian Birds " to an invited body of teachers attached to 

 the Education Department of South Australia. Mr. Edquist 

 was able to render service, and, as usual, Messrs. Campbell, Le 

 Souef, and Mattingley, in the matter of selected slides. This 

 lecture is being productive of much good. The members now 

 disbanded, after their agreeable and profitable work in the bush. 

 Some journeyed to New South Wales, and others through to 

 Victoria and Tasmania. 



The vegetation of Eyre Peninsula is typical of our hot 

 southern areas. Plants that are hard, dry, and shrubby — mallee 

 eucalypts, melaleucas, hakeas, casuarinas, low proteaceous forms, 

 and hibbertias — abound. The country they grow upon is mostly 

 sandstone, dune limestone, travertine, and quartzite. There was 

 no " pine-land " in the most southern portion of the Peninsula — 

 certainly not any about the country of the main camp or south 

 of a line extending east or west of it. A key to the avifauna 

 was gained when we found Ainytornis, Oreoica, XeropJiila, Chera- 

 inceca, and Lipoa. 



Our first camp was in the district of Wanilla (Warunda 

 Creek), and some 30 miles north-west of Port Lincoln. There 

 we landed on 6th October, 1909. About five miles eastward 

 were the Koppio Hills, and about an equal distance to the west 

 was the Marble Range, made up of eruptive granite, diorite 

 dykes, and quartz reefs. These elevations skirted the coasts, 

 while the whole of the country within them was undulating, 

 with poor and dry scrubby timber, having creeks of slightly 

 brackish waterholes as the season advances. The vegetation 

 depends mostly upon the weathered portions of these hills cast 

 over the country. Our camp occupied 10 days, during four of 

 which certain of us travelled away westward to the extreme 

 south-east end of the Great Australian Bight. There we met a 



