106 THE SPENCER GULF DISTRICT 



type of wallaby, which is never found on rocky ground. 

 They differ in several respects from the wallaby of the 

 plains, particularly in the tail, which is thin and cylindrical 

 with a heavy tuft of hair at the tip. In habits they do 

 not differ so much from the ordinary type. They are 

 found in small droves of sixty or seventy ; or twenty, or 

 less, where they have been much worried by the gunners. 

 They are shy ; but this is probably an acquired trait, as in 

 distant parts of the colony I have watched them basking 

 in the sun, feeding and playing together for an hour at a 

 time. They are very playful animals, the young especially 

 so, and will gambol with and chase each other, the old 

 ones also often playing with the young. I have seen 

 them as far north in this direction as I have been, that is 

 nearly to the extremity of Flinder's range. 



Many of the typical Australian birds such as the 

 laughing jackass, cockatoos both black and white, and 

 other parrots, are often found at a considerable elevation 

 in these mountains. The parrots range up to two thousand 

 feet at least, the jackasses even higher. The wedge-tailed 

 eagle, eagle-hawks, and a gregarious kite are frequently 

 seen. The last-named will descend to the carcass of a 

 horse or sheep in flocks of twenty to thirty, and prey on 

 the carrion like vultures. More singular still, they breed 

 in company, and I have seen more than a dozen of their 

 nests placed like a great platform on a low tree some 

 thirty feet above the ground. The nests were so close 

 together that they actually touched ; and some of the 

 birds perched on branches and anxiously watched, and 

 others hovered overhead while I climbed up to examine 

 their homes. There were three unfledged birds, or eggs, 

 in each nest, except in one case, where there were four. 

 The eggs were white splashed with light brown. I could 

 find no evidence that the young were fed with living prey ; 

 and the nests were in a very filthy condition. 



The sea-eagle occasionally sweeps in from the gulf and 

 pays these mountains a visit. I think it breeds in some of 

 the ravines ; but I could not find the nest. 



In the winter of 1893 ^ P^J^ Lake Torrens a visit, and 



