Vol 



'191^' ] Macgillivray, The Region of the Barrier Range. g^ 



M'Lennan returned to us after having made a detour into 

 another flat, and reported having disturbed a pair of Bourke 

 Parrakeets. I went back with him, leaving the others on the 

 straight road to Coogee. We did not find the nest of the Parrakeet. 

 These birds are so quiet in their movements, and so protectively 

 coloured, that they are difficult to detect. Going through a box 

 ridge we flushed a Little Quail [Tiirnix velox), and in a hollow 

 box near at hand found a pair of White-browed Tree-creepers 

 building. A Red-capped Robin was also finishing a nest in a box 

 sapling. 



At the lake the others were waiting. A few Ducks, mostly 

 Anas superciliosa, A. gibherifrons, Aythya australis, and Malaco- 

 rhynchus membranaceiis, Maned Geese {Chenonetta jubata), and some 

 Black Swan were observed on the water. Wading in the marginal 

 water were Avocets, Black-fronted Dottrels, and an occasional 

 Sharp-tailed Stint. In a dead stump standing in the water a 

 Many-coloured Parrakeet {P. multicolor) had her brood of young. 

 In the box round the lake were Miners, Grallinas, Striped and 

 White-plumed Honey-eaters, Brown Tree-creepers, and Striated 

 Pardalotes. 



We tramped on to strike the Yalcowinna road by a circuitous 

 route through box flats and mulga scrub. A nest containing 

 young Blue-Bonnets, in a hollow black oak, interested us, as these 

 bird^ showed a near approach to the more eastern Psephotus 

 hcBmatorrhons, in having red under tail coverts and the dark red 

 wing patch, which, more than anything else, distinguishes P. 

 hcBDialorrhoiis from P. xanthorrhous. Some of these nestlings, 

 however, were much more marked than others. On account of 

 the favourable season, and a plentiful and varied supply of seeds, 

 we found both P. xanthorrhous and the Many-coloured Parrakeet 

 nesting more freely than on two previous visits. On our return 

 to camp the boys had much to show and tell us, they having been 

 round the lake and found a colony of Fairy Martins in an old shed, 

 a Brown Hawk's nest and three eggs, and other nests. 



Next day, the 30th, we followed up the water channel entering 

 the lake behind the station, but did not find anything of note 

 till we crossed an old dam. Here a Nightjar's nest, with its inter- 

 esting nestlings, detained us for a few minutes, before going on to a 

 patch of turpentine-bushes where we left a Purple-backed Wren 

 building last year. The nest was located about 100 yards away from 

 the old site, openly placed in a small dead bush lying on the ground. 

 It was constructed of fine strips of bark and lined with finer shreds 

 of bark and rabbit fur, and contained three eggs. In a mulga 

 a pair of Babblers (P. ruficeps) had a nest containing young birds. 

 Jim M'Lennan found the pensile nest of a Singing Honey-eater, 

 containing two eggs, very light in colour and more spotted than 

 usual. The nest was suspended in the small, bushy neelia {Acacia 

 rigeiis). On a black oak ridge we rested awhile and watched the 

 movements of a Tree-creeper (C. superciliosa), then went on to 

 another ridge, where we found a nest of this species in a dead 



