310 Whitlock, In the Stirling Ranges, W.A. [ist^^April 



was much nearer the coast that I saw the handsome fully- 

 plumaged male. 



Only one species of Tree-creeper was present — Climacteris rufa. 

 I found four or five nests, all rather low down in hollow trunks : 

 but in every case the nests contained young. 



Rock Field-Wren {Calamanthiis montanellns). — This is a cheer- 

 ful and fearless little bird, which seems to prefer rather than shun 

 the presence of man or other animate being. It has a simple but 

 pleasing song, the cadences, though brief, being uttered in a very 

 musical tone. When singing it usually perches on some point 

 of vantage, and will continue its song despite the presence of an 

 intruder within only a few feet of its perch. It inhabits the stony 

 foothills of the ranges or the sparsely-clothed sand-plains, showing 

 a preference for those tracts either devoid of vegetation or 

 where the scrub is of the most stunted character. I never saw- 

 it amongst timber, but it was not uncommon on the sand-banks 

 on the eastern side of Lake Balicup, where there was a sparse 

 growth of salt-bush and samphires, and a more luxuriant crop 

 of tussocky grasses. I did not see a single specimen west of the 

 sand-plain which terminates with the belt of timber at Solomon's 

 Well. It was present as far east as I penetrated, but did not 

 seem to ascend very far up the slopes of the various peaks. On 

 4th September I found my first nest, quite by accident. My 

 horses had strayed, but I could hear their bells in the distance. 

 In following them up I walked right over a nest, the female 

 fluttering off her eggs within a few inches of my foot. The 

 locality was a stony spur of the main peak, and just within the area 

 recently swept by a fire. Cover for the nest there was none, but 

 a short, thick piece of half-burnt timber formed a little shelter, 

 though I could look down right on the exposed dome of the nest. 

 On closer examination the latter proved to be oval in shape, very 

 well woven of dried grasses on the outside, with a lining of finer 

 grasses, a few feathers, and kangaroo hair. The entrance was 

 flush with the surface of the ground, and I found a deep 

 cavity had been excavated in the sand to contain the structure 

 of the nest. There were three eggs, blunt ovals in shape, 

 of a creamy ground colour, very warmly washed with reddish- 

 brown. They reminded me somewhat of certain varieties of the 

 eggs of the English Redbreast, but still more of those of our Red- 

 throat {Pyrrholcemus hrunnea), but the cloudy markings were 

 much lighter in tone than in eggs of the latter. I obtained a 

 similar nest on the shores of Lake Balicup on 12th September. 

 This nest was also amongst very sparse vegetation, and within a 

 yard or two of the water's edge. The female sat close, as before. 

 The nest was similar, and contained four fresh eggs. A third 

 nest was almost on the main track to the Salt River, and had been 

 disturbed by a dog or some other marauder. The parents were 

 near, but the nest was partly torn from its site, and only con- 

 tained a newly-hatched young bird. The latter had a sparse cover- 

 ing of neutral-coloured down. 



