THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 127 



may have been affected bj otlier creatures, such as dogs, iguanas 

 (which are very partial to Leipoa's eggs), or to open or close the 

 mound according to the state of the weather. 



There is no doubt that the Mallee hen can be domesticated with 

 a little trouble. I know instances where young birds have been 

 taken, reared and fed with the farm-yard fowls. 



The Leipoa being peculiarly an Australian bird, and so replete 

 with interest, I determined to gain as much personal experience as 

 possible during my limited sojourn at Nhill. 



Therefore, on the 22nd October, I, accompanied by a friend, set 

 out for the Lawloil Range, distant about ten miles. We departed 

 immediately after breakfast. It was a most delightful spring morn- 

 ing, with a bracing, clear, and balmy atmosphere. Merrily did our 

 pair of pretty mouse-coloured ponies bowl us along the high road 

 towards the South Australian border, now passing through lovely 

 open timbered country with grass up to the cattle's knees, then where 

 the timber was reclaimed, were acres upon acres of waving cornfields, 

 which so far as I could judge, appeared well grown, and whose 

 healthy and rich green color, betokened a most bountiful harvest. 



On one estate alone, I understood 800 acres were under wheat, 

 and after the late favourable and precious rains, competent authorities 

 say it will be one of the finest fields ever cropped. 



En route, by pievious agreement, we picked up an industrious 

 selector, who formed his first acquaintance with the Mallee and Mallee 

 hens some twenty years ago. He was to be our guide, and a very 

 able one he proved. 



After crossing a beautiful pine ridge, and a "crab-hole" flat, we 

 entered the Mallee on the Lawloit Range. To call it a range in a 

 real sense is misleading, for, it is merely undulating rises or ridges 

 of a reddish, gravelly, iron-stone foundation, dry, and almost waterless. 

 Clothed, with a smaller variety of Mallee {Eucalyptus gracilis) and 

 other scrubs, notably Melaleuca, &c. It was a most beautiful sight 

 from the buggy seat, to gaze on the face of a perfect sea of foliage, 

 with here and there patches of lovely Mallee blossom, (prematurely 

 blown by the erratic season, it generally blooms in J\Iay) appearing 

 like curling wave crests, while in the troughs was Wilson's Melaleuca 

 (ili". Wilsonii) all ablaze with its rich magenta flowers. Such is the 

 home of the Mallee hen. What a radical change to my last nesting 

 " out" among the Lyre-birds, in the great and never ending forests 

 of Gippsland. 



Having secured the ponies, we dashed into the scrub, our selector 

 friend leading, he threaded the scrub just like a black fellow, parting 

 the bushes first with one hand then another. I followed suit as well 

 as I could. However, "familiarity bred contempt." Some of the 

 bushes were prickly, Hakea, and another ugly variety, which caused 

 me to part with fragments of my clothes and flesh. My other friend 



