Jhe £mu 



(Dffinal (Drijan of the Australasian ©rmthxjlogiets' Enion. 



" Bir<ls of a featber.' 



Vol. IX.] 1ST APRIL, 1910. [Part 4 



On the East Murchison. 



FOUR months' collecting TRIP. 



By F. Lawson Whitlock, Young's Siding, D.R., 

 Western Australia. 



In the year 1903 I was collecting birds in the vicinity of Lake 

 Austin, a locality in the Murchison district of this State. In 

 my wanderings around that centre I often came in contact with 

 prospectors and others searching for gold in the neighbouring 

 ranges. It is usual in these chance meetings to stop and 

 exchange news, and to indulge in mutual inquiries as to success 

 or otherwise. On my stating my quest was for birds, and not 

 for gold, a kindly interest was often evinced in my work, and 

 any information was always freely given. More than once 

 reference was made to the variety of bird -life found around Lake 

 Way — a locality much further inland and also in a rather higher 

 latitude. It chanced that, towards the close of the same year, I 

 met at the New Norcia Mission a very intelligent mechanic, who 

 had lived for several years at Lake Way, and who personally 

 took a more than passing interest in objects of nature. At the 

 time he was living at Lake Way the ill-fated Calvert Expedition 

 passed through, and he had several conversations with members 

 of the party. This person fully confirmed all I had previously 

 heard relating to the bird-life in the locality of Lake Way. 

 This greatly excited my curiosity, and I determined I would 

 visit the place at the first opportunity. The chance seemed to 

 have arrived when Mr. H. L. White, of Belltrees, N.S.W., for 

 whom I had been collecting on the Pilbarra goldfield in 1908, 

 asked me if I would go out again, and at the same time asked 

 me to suggest a promising locality. Eventually it was decided 

 I should go to Lake Way and try my luck there. 



Before starting I gleaned what information I could from the 

 recorded experiences of other naturalists who had visited the 

 district, and also looked up any old memoranda I had made. 

 When all was totalled up the result was rather meagre, and one of 

 my briefest notes referred to a single specimen of the Guttated 

 (Yellow-spotted) Bower-Bird {Chlamydodera guttata). It read as 



