Vol. X. 

 igio 



1 Macgillivray, The Region of the Barrier Range. 2Q 



a quick march to where we left off the night before. Kingfishers 

 v/ere seen and heard, and the beginnings of many burrows found 

 jvhenever the banks were favourable. A Whistling Eagle was 

 resting on her nest (ready for eggs), and a foot away, in a hollow, 

 a Cockatoo was incubating. Several other Cockatoos' nests 

 were located in stunted gums out from the creek ; none was 

 more than lo or 12 feet from the ground, and in some the eggs 

 were hatching. We came to an old masonry dam, beside which 

 were the remains of a well and a horse-whim all overgrown with 

 tobacco-bush {Nicotiana glaiica) and an acacia. Down the 

 well were numbers of old Fairy Martins' nests. A Raven had 

 her nest of nearly fully fledged young in a tall gum at the dam, 

 and a Little Eagle was disturbed from a newly finished nest. A 

 few yards further on three Cockatoos flew from separate hollows 

 in the one tree, at the foot of which, in a small bush, a Black- 

 and-White Fantail {Rhipidiira tricolor) was sitting peacefully on 

 three eggs. Along this part of the creek were many more 

 Cockatoos' nests, containing eggs in various stages of incubation ; 

 Mallee Parrakeets' with young birds and unfinished Kingfishers' 

 burrows were also noted. Kestrels had just commenced laying. 

 I went out to a patch of dead saplings on the plain, amongst 

 which were many Masked Wood-Swallows and Tricoloured 

 Chats, with an occasional family of Purple-backed Wrens. 

 These Wrens usually frequent scrub or undergrowth, and are 

 never found in open salt-bush country such as the White-winged 

 species favours. A large Wedge-tailed Eagle's {Uroactus aiidax) 

 nest, 12 feet up in a stunted gum, showed signs of earlier 

 occupation. A long tramp across a bare plain, on which were 

 seen occasional evidences of old aboriginal camp-fires, and I 

 struck the creek to search the sand for M'Lennan's tracks. Not 

 finding them, I turned back, and soon met him. We went very 

 little further, as the creek was without water, and birds in this 

 country do not wander far from water. We took a short cut 

 back across flats covered with annual salt-bush and stunted wild 

 oats. The crab-holes were still moist, and we admired a very 

 fine purple pea growing around them in the moist soil. A 

 similar pea, but with harder leafage, grows on the dry, stony 

 hills. The little white everlasting was also here in large patches, 

 and there were other daisy-like flowers about the crab-holes. 

 After lunch and a short rest, we all went across the horse 

 paddock to a broad gully in which marsh-mallow, trefoil, and 

 spinach was growing very rankly. Tricoloured Chats, Rufous 

 Song-Larks, and Purple-backed Wrens were abundant, the latter 

 in the old man salt-bush, with which the gully was freely dotted. 

 A solitary White-eyed Duck {Nyroca imstralis) on a dam 

 flew off on our approach, and two Wedgebills {Sphenostoina 

 cristatuni) were dislodged from a bushy acacia. These birds 

 usually frequent small bushy trees in the gullies or watercourses, 



