80 IN AUSTRALIAN WILDS 



the sun shines fiercely, and there is rarely a drop of 

 water to moisten the parched lips and burning throat 

 of one who is "bushed." 



Ouyen, a township 289 miles from Melbourne, was 

 the centre from which I worked in November, 1912. 

 After a wearisome rail journey I was left forlorn on 

 the station platform at 2.30 a.m. A light glimmered 

 somewhere amid the outer darkness, and I stumbled 

 towards it at a venture. Fortune favoured, for the 

 guiding star shone from a boarding-house window, 

 and vigorous knocking brought a response and a lodg- 

 ing for the night. 



I had letters of introduction to a skilled bush- 

 man, but he was far away, a hundred miles or more, 

 and I was cast on my own resources. But not for 

 long. I found friends who offered their services. A 

 local tradesman drove me out to Tiega, on the line to 

 Murrayville; the schoolmaster went roaming with me 

 on Saturday, and with the Crown Lands bailiff I 

 made a memorable trip. For Mallee people, hospi- 

 tality to strangers seems to be a pleasant duty. Now, 

 my chief desire was to see the Mallee-Fowl [Leipoa 

 ocellata'] and examine its nesting mound. Of the shy 

 bird itself I did not obtain even a glimpse, and several 

 days elapsed before a "good" mound was located. 



"There's a mound down on Jim's block," was the 

 welcome news brought by a boy one morning; and to 

 Jim's selection I went accordingly. The mound was 

 there, all right, in a stubble field, but it had not been 

 in use for years. Disappointing? Yes, but an ex- 

 cursion into the scrub was the reverse. A nest of 

 the lovely Purple-backed Wren-Warbler [Malurus 

 assimilis] was found in a clump of Porcupine-grass. 

 Black-backed Wren-Warblers [M. melanotus] were 

 seen, but we could not discover any of their nests. 

 Both these Wren-Warblers are noted for beauty of 

 plumage. They flash about the Porcupine tufts and 

 Turpentine bushes like big butterflies, one might say. 



