4 A BUSH CALENDAR 



to look, so I turned my steps towards the spot. To my surprise 

 as I approached, the male bird, a pretty little chap with spotted 

 wings and head, darted out from the bank a foot or so above 

 the stream. Fate had been kind, and the water had not 

 reached the upper bank, where, at the end of the foot-long 

 burrow, a little nest would soon hold a clutch of small white eggs. 



llie rain was still holding off, so I crossed the creek by a 

 fallen tree, and almost immediately found myself on the sand- 

 stone country. Instantly the features of the bush were altered ; 

 the blue gums, ironbarks, and turpentines gave way to scribbly 

 gums and banksias, beneath which grew in thick profusion all 

 the prickly, spiky things which make real bush. Three kinds 

 of wattle I found in a minute the myrtle-leafed, the sweet- 

 scented, and the fine-leafed and thedr drying flowers were full 

 of sweetness. Growing beneath the shelter of the small 

 banksias and other thick shrubs were clumps and clumps of 

 the deep pink boronia in full bloom, the starry blossoms quite 

 unspoiled by the rain ; but the dillwynia, which should be paint- 

 ing the whole ground gold, bent, sad and pale, its drenched 

 blossoms beneath the clinging raindrops ; and faded, too, by the 

 excessive rain were the red spider-flowers, usually so gay and 

 bright in the later winter months. 



A breath of nutty fragrance told of the presence of the little 

 whitebeard, and I saw it sheltering beneath the thicker plants, 

 the white of its open flower contrasting prettily with the soft 

 red of its unopened bud. All through the bush the needlebush 



