THE MALLEE COUNTRY 81 



only that their flight is so different from that of any 

 insect, and they dart through bushes as easily as a fish 

 through water. The Scrub-Robin [Drymodes brun- 

 neopygius], a rare bird, was heard but not seen. The 

 opposite was the case with another interesting Mallee 

 bird. The Striated Grass-Wren [Amytornis striata] 

 favoured us with an occasional glimpse of its rufous- 

 coloured body, but ran silently from tussock to tus- 

 sock. The Grass- Wren is so shy that collectors ex- 

 perience great difficulty in securing specimens. One 

 could wish that other native birds were as elusive. 



The Mallee Eucalypts were in flower, and we fre- 

 quently stopped to admire a mass of bloom, which was 

 thronged with little honey-seekers birds and insects. 

 The wild creatures of the Mallee were happy in the 

 sunshine, while we perspired and looked mournfully at 

 an empty waterbag. Returning to the buggy, on the 

 edge of the scrub, we drank cold tea and clustered in 

 a patch of shade, as shipwrecked men huddle on a raft. 

 The sunlit earth beyond the shadow was the "sea" 

 that we dreaded. 



That night came news which raised hope above 

 temperate level. The Crown Lands bailiff brought it, 

 and offered to drive me to a selection, about twenty 

 miles out, where several mounds of Leipoa ocellata 

 certainly existed. Early next morning we left the 

 township, and before the sun was high had broken 

 the back of the journey. Every mile of the way was 

 interesting, but the "going" was generally heavy. 

 Sand lay feet deep in some places. We drove through 

 a grove of Murray Pines, traversed some open, lightly 

 timbered country, and passed several homesteads. Oc- 

 casionally we saw a Bearded Dragon or Jew Lizard 

 [Amphibolurus barbatus], basking on a fence post. 

 When we came to the wilderness, my friend guided his 

 team right into the scrub. The small Mallee trees 

 are brittle at the root, where the stems break easily, 

 and we bowled along to the accompaniment of crack- 



