202 Whitlock, On the East Murchison. [,sf April 



Large-tailed Grass-Wren {Amytomis ^igaiitiira, Milligan). — This 

 was another Lake Austin friend 1 hoped to meet with at Lake Way. I was 

 not disappointed. It is a most difficult bird to find, especially if the weather 

 be windy or wet and cold. As at Lake Austin, it was strictly confined to 

 the salt-bush near the lake. This family of birds is said to favour rocky or 

 stony places. It may be true of other members, but I never saw the 

 present species in any such country. Though there were outcrops of rocks 

 near two of its haunts at Lake Austin, and again a huge outcropping cjuartz 

 reef at Lake Way, I never saw an individual amongst the debris surround- 

 ing these formations. The species of salt-bush it prefers grows to a height 

 of about 3 feet. The leaf is very small and sappy, and at fruiting season it 

 has a small bright red berry, which is not unpleasant to the taste. When 

 bruised the leaves have a scent like common garden sage. These bushes 

 always grow singly, and genei-ally on rich alluvial flats, but also on low 

 sand-hills. 



I can give no hints as to how to find this bird. One may pay visit after 

 visit and spend hours in its haunts without seeing more than its tracks. 

 Another day one may walk right up to the bush it is skulking under, but it 

 does not follow that the Amytornis will break cover. If it has a song it 

 seldom utters it. The call note is faint and very high-pitched, but both at 

 Lake Austin and Lake Way I heard individuals utter a sound precisely like 

 the mew of a cat. The female is much more wary than the male, and one 

 seldom gets more than a glimpse of her as she bounds from bush to bush. 

 On a single occasion, the weather being calm and genial, I had the 

 exceptional opportunity of seeing three of these Grass-Wrens at the same 

 moment. I knew a party was about, and at the expenditure of some 

 patience and artifice I enticed them around me. One hopped to the top of 

 a salt-bush, another came out in the open, and even began pecking about 

 whilst a third took a series of peeps at me from behind another bush. 

 From the large size of their tails I judged all these to be males. The male, 

 too, shows no rufous patches at the side of the breast. 



I was very anxious to secure the nest and eggs of this little-known Grass- 

 Wren. It was only after much labour I was successful. Knowing that a 

 party inhabited a certain tract of salt-bush at the foot of some sand-hills, I 

 resolved to "stick to my covey" and concentrate my efforts on this bit of 

 country alone. In addition to the salt-bush there were many clumps of 

 spinifex on the sand-hills, and I resolved to carefully search them too. I 

 tried all sorts of methods. Wherever I saw the birds about, there I 

 examined every salt-bush on hands and knees, and many a disappointment 

 I got — dark-looking domed nests in the centre of the bush either proving to 

 be TcEtiiopygia nests or old nests of Pyrrholcr/mis hrumiea. 



It was not till 23rd August that I had any luck. I had been through 

 nearly all the salt-bush, and had been beating the clumps of spinifex with a 

 stick, when I came to a few dense salt-bushes near the belt of tea-tree and 

 other scrub bordering the big lagoon at Lake Violet. I parted with my 

 hands all salt-bushes that the light did not penetrate through, and had 

 almost come to the last one when in the centre of a fairly large bush I found 

 a perfect cup-shaped nest containing three remarkable and beautiful eggs. 

 I was puzzled. I was expecting a domed nest with the entrance at the side. 

 Here was a substantial cup-shaped nest of dried grasses and green shoots 

 of salt-bush, with very thick walls and a fairly deep cup, lined with finer 

 grasses, vegetable down, and even a little fur. The shape of this nest is 

 remarkable when compared with that of its near ally, A. striatus. The 

 eggs, too, were unfamiliar. I listened to the song or call note of every bird 

 around me. XeropJiila was there, also A7-tanms venushis, and the eggs did 

 resemble certain varieties of the latter, but they were much too large, and 

 the nest was totally unlike a Wood-Swallow's. I listened again. Then 1 

 heard the faint, high-pitched alarm note of Amytornis gigantura. The 

 problem was solved, but I had to make identity sure. I sat down within 



