Vol. X 



lai^' ] Macgillivray, The Region of the Barrier Range. 07 



3^ inches and height 2J inches ; diameter of egg cavity, 2^ inches ; 

 depth, 2 inches. The note of the male bird is quite unhke that 

 of any other Pardalote with which I am acquainted, consisting as 

 it does of a loud, mellow whistle, repeated five times in quick 

 succession. It may be heard at a distance, and was more than 

 once mistaken by us for the call note of the Barnard Parrakeet. 



Next day we took a more northerly direction, skirting the box 

 on the margin of the lake, then out into the mulga, which is pretty 

 open here. We saw large flocks of Masked Wood-Swallows 

 gathering, after a night's rest, to go further south. This year 

 this species seems to be in greater numbers than usual, there being 

 very few of the White-browed species. The Masked Wood- 

 Swallows, too, arrived here before we did, probably early in Sep- 

 tember, and started building everywhere ; but, although we 

 found numbers of their nests, completed and in every stage of 

 construction, only one contained newly-hatched young. Most 

 of the bfrds seemed to have changed their minds and resumed 

 their migratory flight to more southern parts. Our way led us 

 through a fairly dry part of the run. Many stump-tailed lizards 

 find a living in this country. This was the mating time, as most 

 of them were in pairs. They subsist upon green vegetable 

 matter, and must, during long droughts, jestivate. 



On the 3rd October all except the camp-keeper went through 

 a large dry lake lying two miles west of our camp. Before 

 reaching it, however, we found a Nightjar's {Mgotheles novcB- 

 hoUandice) nest, containing four downy young ones. These birds 

 always hear one coming, and the little rat-like head, with round, 

 bright eyes, looking out of a hollow, is the first intimation of a 

 nest, which otherwise would be passed by. The birds sit more 

 closely when incubating. This really applies to all wild birds 

 towards the end of the incubation period. At the back of the 

 dry lake was a strip of box, in which we heard a Thickhead's 

 [P. rufiventris) loud whistling note. A male Black-capped 

 Sittella was seen, and I disturbed the female from her nest on the 

 upper limb of a small box tree, only 20 feet from the ground ; 

 the nest contained two eggs. 



On a ridge, known to us as the Turquoisine Ridge (for it was 

 here, 12 months earlier, that we spent many a delightful moment 

 watching a pair of Turquoisine Wrens), two more nests of the 

 Black Honey-eater were found, both containing the usual pair of 

 eggs, and both similarly situated — on dead, fallen timber, near 

 the ground. Many signs of the Swallow Dicseum were noted near 

 their nesting place. All the limbs of the mulga trees were 

 plastered with mistletoe seeds, singly, or in twos and threes, just 

 as they had been passed by the birds or wiped off on to the 

 branches. 



Next day we visited the Woolshed lake, and found a Whistling 

 Eagle's nest, containing two eggs, in a tall box tree. The Fairy 

 Martins on the bank of the creek were still busy. A Bell-Bird 

 {Oreoica cristata) had her nest in a bunch of mistletoe growing 



