THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 123 



Studded with long cone-shaped case larvae that they somewhat 

 resembled quills upon the fretful porcupine. 



Of Coleoptera the following were the principal families 

 represented : — Longicornes, ten species ; Buprestidse, nine ; 

 Elateridse, nine ; Cleridae, three ; Cistelidae, two ; and Cur- 

 culionidse, four. 



The lizards Hinulia Quoy'i and H. Whiteii were taken. 



Botany was represented by some thirty species of plants in 

 'bloom. — H. Giles and Ernest Anderson, joint leaders. 



NOTES ON A VISIT TO THE EBENEZER MISSION 



STATION. 



By Dudley Le Souef (communicated by Rev. W. Fielder). 



.(Read before Field Naturalists^ Club of Victoria, August 14, 1893.^ 



In September of last year (1892) I spent a week at Ebenezer 

 Mission Station, situated on the Wimmera River, about ten miles 

 from Dimboola. The view (i)* given of the homestead shows 

 the stone church on the left, the residence of the superintendent 

 next, and the school-house on the right, the tree in the foreground 

 being a Murray Pine (Callitris verrucosa). Opposite these 

 buildings are the cottages (2) of the aboriginals, about six in 

 number, built at a little distance from each other ; the picture 

 shows the back of one of these cottages, with its dusky inhabi- 

 tants, and well cared for they look. The Wimmera River (3) is 

 about one hundred yards from the superintendent's house, and 

 the view gives an idea of its appearance, with a fringe of red-gum 

 trees ( EucalyjJtus rostrata) beautifully reflected in the still waters. 

 A belt of Mallee scrub grew about a mile from this point, and 

 in it, under the guidance of a native, I was fortunate in finding 

 the nearly finished nest (4) of a Mallee Hen (Leipoa ocellata), 

 but it was too early for eggs. The view shows the partly con- 

 structed mound. The leaves and other rubbish had been 

 collected together by the birds for some distance round the nest, 

 but only at one point had been scraped into the centre to form 

 the mound ; the birds having to wait for a heavy fall of rain, so 

 as to wet the leaves thoroughly before they could cover them 

 over with sand to form the mound, and then, when sufficient 

 heat had been generated, would commence laying their eggs. 

 The nest here shown was so covered a few days after my visit. 

 In the background a few specimens of the Mallee are seen, and 

 also the plants, growing close to the ground, the berries of which 

 afford the Lowans their principal food. The mound was four 

 feet in diameter and two feet high. We found two places where 



*The numbers (i) refer to the limelight views with which the paper was 

 excellently illustrated.— £JcZ. V. N. 



