Official Organ of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists' Union. 



Birds of 2i fezitbcr.' 



Vol. XIV.] ist OCTOBER, 1914. [Part 2. 



Rarer Birds of the Mallee. 

 By F. E. Howe and T. H. Tregellas. 



{Read before the Bird Observers' Club of Victoria, \yth fii/ie, 1914.) 

 In September, 1913, we journeyed by train to Ouyen (on the 

 Mildura line), 298 miles from Melbourne, thence westward to 

 Murrayville, 12 miles from the South Australian border. From 

 here we went to the camp of the Government boring party, under 

 the supervision of Mr. J.J. Scarce, situated some 42 miles north- 

 west of Murrayville and within three miles of the border fence. 



Our primary object was to obtain skins of the Night-Parrot 

 {Geopsittacus occidentalis). It is supposed that this form is nearly 

 extinct, but Mr. Scarce has met it twice, in different localities, 

 some 70 miles apart — a few miles farther north than we reached 

 in September, and again some 12 miles south of Kow Plains. In 

 both instances the birds were in thick and large porcupine grass 

 [Triodia), and were seen feeding out on the edges of the grass, 

 in each case where the grass spreads out on to small plains. There 

 were round burrows right through each clump, and Mr. Scarce 

 supposed that these were made by the birds as a means of escape. 

 We also desired skins and eggs of other rare species, particularly 

 Stipitiirus, Strepera, Malurus, Drymodes, Hylacola, and Cinclosoma. 



We left Melbourne on 12th September at 4.50 p.m., and arrived 

 at Ouyen at about 4.30 a.m. next day. After a few hours' sleep 

 and a meal we strolled into the scrub to the east of the township, 

 and saw many birds, notably the Chestnut-backed Ground-Bird, 

 Cinclosoma castanotum (C. c. castanotnm), Black-backed Wren- 

 Warbler, Malurus melanotus {M. m. melanotus), and Ring-necked 

 Parrot, Barnardius barnardi {B. b. barnardi). In a small bush 

 was found a nest containing one egg, nearly incubated, of the 

 Short-billed Tree-Tit, Smicrornis brevirostris (5. b. viridescens). 

 The long spell of dry weather prior to our trip into this country 

 was, no doubt, the cause of many of the birds laying small 

 clutches. This was especially the case ^vith the Purple-gaped 

 Honey-eater, Ptilotis cratitia [Lichenostomus cratitius howei). 

 Black-winged Bell-Magpie, Strepera melanoptera (5. m. howei), 

 Rufous-rumped Ground-Wren, Hylacola cauta {H. c. brevicauda), 

 and Gilbert Whistler, Pachycephala gilberti [Gilbertornis rufogularis 

 rufogularis). And the season was a late one for many species, 



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