q6 Macgillivray, The Region of the Barrier Range. fisf'oct 



sandalwood, the hollow being about 4 feet from the ground. The 

 base of this nest was composed of dry grasses, a layer of horse 

 dung, then the usual thick bed of rabbit fur, on which two eggs 

 reposed. The eggs are a good deal smaller than those of the Brown 

 Tree-creeper, and more richly coloured. Soon afterwards I took 

 two eggs of the Singing Honey-eater — the usual clutch in these 

 parts — from a nest in a turpentine-bush. Directing our steps 

 homeward, we followed down a strip of miilga, finding a nest of 

 Malar us assimilis in a fallen bush, the base of the nest just touching 

 the ground. It contained three eggs and one newly-hatched 

 chick. 



Next morning, the ist October, broke dull and windy, and, 

 after the usual claylight breakfast, the two M'Lennans, Dr. Dobbyn, 

 and myself started out through a paddock on the eastern side of 

 the lake in open mulga country. The herbage was very good. 

 Many Miners' nests were seen in the mulga, in mistletoe clumps, 

 mostly containing young birds. Circling round the paddock to 

 the right, we were watching a Tree-creeper {A. superciliosa) when 

 a male Bourke Parrakeet {N. hourkei) rose from where it had been 

 feeding on the ground, only to light again in the grass a little 

 further on. I followed and waited. The bird flew again, and 

 joined a flock of "Budgerigars" on the ground. After a consider- 

 able time it flew to a mulga, in front of which, in a dead neelia, it 

 was joined by a ragged-looking mate from the latter tree, and the 

 two flew off together. I went at once to the neelia, and, looking 

 into a large crack in a fork, about 4 feet from the ground, found 

 that it opened into a hollow about 8 inches in depth, on the earthy 

 floor of which were four eggs and one recently hatched young bird, 

 the egg-shell still being in the nest. Entering a large box flat, 

 a Goshawk {A. fasciatus) flushed from its nest, which was small 

 and flat, made of sticks, lined with fresh, green gum leaves, and 

 placed, as they often are, on a horizontal fork, at a ' height of 

 30 feet from the ground. It contained a fine clutch of nearly 

 white eggs. A dry lake surrounded by box trees next engaged 

 our attention. All round it were traces of the aborigines' old 

 camp fire-places, flint chippings and cores, and other stones. 

 Several pairs of "Budgerigars" were found nesting in the dead 

 stumps forming the inner margin to the lake bed. The entrance 

 lo the nest was usually an old knot-hole, not much exceeding 

 i^ inches in diameter. The eggs, usually five in number, rested 

 on beds of earthy material. Almost on the ground, which had a 

 scanty covering of wild spinach, forming a border of 100 yards 

 or more in width between the dead and the living box, were many 

 nests of the Tricoloured Chat ; nearly all contained fresh clutches 

 (three eggs). Turning towards camp, we crossed a sand-ridge 

 and made our way through a band of box margining another flat, 

 and M'Lennan dug out the burrow, in the side of a little water- 

 course, of a Pardalote {P. ntbricatns) ; the nest contained three 

 fresh eggs. The nest was cup-shaped, very compact, and con- 

 structed entirely of fine strips of bark. Its external diameter was 



