1. XIV. 



I9M 



1 Howe and Tregellas, Raver Birds of the Mallee. y^ 



the weather had now become too windy to enable us to see or 

 hear them. Two nests of the Scrub-Robin were found, each 

 containing a chick, one just hatched and the other nearly fledged. 

 A Black-winged Bell-Magpie was secured as it flew low down 

 over the mallee, and towards evening a nest of the Rufous-rumped 

 Ground-Wren, containing three well-fledged young, was found. 

 Just before reaching camp, the large stick nest of a White-browed 

 Babbler, Pomatorhinus snperciliosus {Morganornis super ciliosus 

 SHpercUiosits), was examined ; it contained three fresh eggs. 



There was a sharp frost in the night, and everything was 

 aglitter on the morning of 17th September, but it was clearly seen 

 that, although the morn was so beautiful, the weather would be 

 warm later on. We started out west from the camp, and, keeping 

 away from the spinifex, spent the morning in the mallee, where 

 hmestone littered the surface of the ground. Skirting a tea-tree 

 flat, where Scrub-Robins were calling, we searched dihgently for 

 nests, but found only old ones. A Rufous-rumped Ground- Wren 

 was flushed from her nest at the foot of a mallee tree. The nest was 

 beautifully hidden in the bark that had peeled from the trunk ; it 

 contained two eggs, which were subsequently deserted. Keeping 

 along the hmestone ridges, we flushed a Spotted Nightjar, but, 

 aided by a fairly strong wind, it was away through the scrub like 

 a flash. Twice again we flushed the bird, but failed to secure it. 

 A Scrub-Robin was flushed from beneath a mallee bush, and we 

 began a search for the nest. Our usual procedure was to examine 

 the spot carefully from which the bird arose, and, gradually 

 circhng out for perhaps 100 yards or more, try to get the female 

 up, as the male followed her uttering his monotonous chirp-hke 

 note. We examined the debris under every bush, and at length 

 found a nest, partially built. A strange part of this day's per- 

 formance was, that every time one of us came back to the spot 

 where the guns were left, a bird was flushed there. Leaving this 

 spot, we had gone not more than 150 yards when another nest, 

 nearl}^ finished, was discovered. This we visited at about 6.30 

 a.m. on 23rd September, when the female bird was flushed and 

 a fresh egg secured. As we came to the edge of a sand-ridge, 

 some Striated Grass-Wrens were seen running rapidly ahead ; a 

 few shots were fired, but we did not get specimens. During the 

 afternoon we came to an area of fine country. Every sand-ridge 

 was clothed in tea-tree, and tea-tree and mallee alike were covered 

 with a parasitical Mallee vine. The call-notes of the Southern 

 and the Red-throated Whistlers were heard, and we at once made 

 toward the first-named bird. The eggs of this species are com- 

 paratively rare, and to secure specimens was one of the objects 

 of our trip. The male bird has a note very Hke that of the 

 White-throated Whistler, but not so loud. We discovered a nest, 

 composed of tea-tree stems covered with lichens and mosses, and 

 placed in a tea- tree about 6 feet from the ground. Both the male 

 and female birds were secured. On the way to camp a nest of 

 the Scrub-Robin was found ; it contained a chick about a day old. 



