Vol. X. 

 igio 



] Macgillivray, The Region of the Banter Range. QI 



cobwebs, and lined with rabbit fur, and contained two young birds 

 and an addled egg. The feathers of the nestlings were just sprout- 

 ing, with down still adhering to the head, wings, thighs, and back, 

 and on either side of chest and abdomen ; the gape was yellow, 

 eyes closed. A hollow stump was the site of a nest of the \Vhite- 

 face [Aphelocephala leucopsis), which held four young birds just 

 getting their feathers on the head, on the back in two pterylae, 

 and the same on the chest and abdomen. Their eyes were open, 

 and the gapes were yellow. Another Tit's [A. iiropygialis) nest 

 contained two young birds — skin yellowish, with down on head ; 

 one dorsal tract, two on thorax and abdomen ; eyes open, gape 

 yellow. A third Tit's nest, built in a dead mulga, contained three 

 eggs resting on a bed of rabbit fur, the nest itself being of fine 

 bark. Three more nests of the Red-capped Robin were located 

 in the mulga, and Black Honey-eaters were observed building. 

 A female Honey-eater was sitting on her little nest on a low, dead 

 branch, with head and bill pointed upwards, the colouring and 

 posture of the whole group being wonderfully protective. On 

 our way down the ridge still another Black Honey-eater was seen 

 building in a small bush, and near by, in a fallen dead branch, and 

 close to the ground, was the nest (with three eggs) of a Tricoloured 

 Chat. 



Next day, the 24th, I went out with Mr. Jackson, the general 

 manager of the group of stations of which Langawirra is a unit, 

 and Mr. L. Black, the overseer, to the eastern boundary of the 

 run, about 40 miles out, where some new tanks and yards were 

 being constructed. Mr. Jackson very kindly pulled up whenever 

 anything of ornithological interest occurred. A Short-billed Crow's 

 nest in a dead mulga contained young birds ; another, in a tall 

 casuarina, contained six eggs in an advanced stage of incubation. 

 This nest was very small, and was lined with soft bark. A third 

 nest in an adjoining tree contained one young bird, newly hatched, 

 and four eggs chipping. In the young birds newly hatched the 

 skin is yellow, with two dorsal tufts of down and a little on the 

 femoral tracts ; rest of the body quite naked. Returning to the 

 trap, I discovered a nest of the White-browed Tree-creeper in a 

 hollow of a black oak {Casuarina) about 10 feet from the ground. 

 It contained three eggs. Our way led us through mulga and 

 neelia country, in which Tricoloured Chats, Singing and Spiny- 

 cheeked Honey-eaters seemed the commonest birds. A pair of 

 Grey Falcons were disturbed from a lonely box in the wilderness 

 of mulga. Many Babblers' nests were seen. An old nest of the 

 Wedge-tailed Eagle in a small gum on a rocky hillside was found 

 to have been occupied earlier in the year, being now used as a 

 feeding platform. The ground round below was littered with the 

 remains of rabbits and the skeletons of stump-tailed lizards, 

 which are particularly numerous throughout this scrub, and of 

 an Amphibolitrus which is not so frequent. 



We arrived about noon at the camp of some men engaged in 

 building new cattle yards. There we had lunch, and met a trooper 



