©fftcial ODrgau of the Jlustrnlasiiin ©vnithologists' Enion. 



" Bir^s of a fezithcr.' 



Vol. VIIL] ist APRIL, 1909. [Part 4. 



Notes on Birds Observed on the Pilbarra Goldfield, 



North' Western Australia. 



By F. Lawson Whitlock. 



I LANDED in Port Hedland on the 5th May, 1908. My destina- 

 tion was Marble Bar, where I was to join an old friend, and 

 together we were to try our luck once more at prospecting, or 

 other work if deemed more expedient. 



In order to see more of the country, and always with an eye 

 to the bird-life, I elected to travel up with a camel train in 

 preference to the more rapid, but to me uncomfortable, mail 

 coach. 



Port Hedland, with its network of creeks, backwaters, 

 swamps, and mangroves, appeared a land of promise, but I had 

 no time for more than a few walks along the open beach at low 

 tide, where Curlews, Sandpipers, and Plovers were in small 

 parties or flocks. They were rather wild, but I identified 

 LiJiionites ruficollis, Tringoides hypolcucus, Tringa acuminata, and 

 shot a Sandpiper I did not recognize. This I sent to the Perth 

 Museum. I was inclined to refer it to a Heteractitis. In the 

 mangroves I could hear a Zosterops, and I recognized several 

 pairs of Artamus leucogaster. I had, in addition, glimpses of 

 Herons and large Falconidce. There was also a sprinkling of 

 Gulls and Terns flying over the main creek. 



Camel-drivers are notorious for starting at a late hour, and 

 Afghan camel-drivers especially so. At sunset on our first day 

 of travel we were but little more than 5 miles from Port 

 Hedland, and not clear of the mangroves and mud-flats. During 

 the night I heard the cry of the " Wee-lo " {Burhinus), and in 

 the early morning the call of the Curlew {Nunienius), and I 

 found myself at sunrise an object of considerable interest to a 

 semicircle of inquisitive Ravens. In an adjacent mangrove 

 thicket I could again hear a Zosterops, which I had little doubt 

 was Z. lutea. 



We made better progress next day, and reached the first hills 

 at Poondina. These are conspicuous objects, even for miles out 

 at sea, as I subsequently discovered. They consist of huge 



