THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 123 



the other, like the billows of the sea. This country is the home 

 of the Mallee Fowl, of the Oreoica, and of the Yellow-rumped 

 Pardalote, P. xanthopygius. The two last-mentioned birds are 

 without doubt the two of Victorian birds that can put up with a 

 dry habitat, for no matter what the Maliee is like, good or bad, 

 these two species are to be found throughout its entire area. 

 They were seen and heard in tracts where not another bird was 

 found. But the Mallee Fowl, I believe, does not always frequent 

 all classes of Mallee. 



Passing down a slope we disturbed a little Pardalote, which 

 hurried out from a bank of sand, and upon investigation its nest 

 was discovered. The tunnel was about 2 inches in diameter, and 

 after following it along for 18 or 19 inches we came to the grass 

 and bark made nest, containing four white eggs. The nest itself 

 was situated at a lower level than the entrance to the tunnel, thus 

 showing that the birds had no fear of being flooded out by rain. 

 The little Pardalote, while we were unearthing its domicile, 

 remained in an adjacent bush, uttering now and again its sharp 

 whistle. Like its southern relative, the Spotted Pardalote, P. 

 punctaius, the Yellow-rumped species is an exceedingly hard bird 

 to locate, for its two high-pitched whistling notes, borne on the 

 breeze, seem to come first from one direction and then from another. 



After traversing about 6 miles we came to a pretty stretch of 

 open plain, surrounded on all sides by clumps of the Murray 

 Pine. This place is known as the Wild Horse Plain, where there 

 is a small permanent waterhole. Here we had our lunch, and dur- 

 ing the afternoon took several nests of the White-winged Chough, 

 Corcorax 'melanorhamphus, and also a nest each of the White- 

 browed Babbler, Pomatorhinus superciliosus, and the Red-capped 

 Robin, Petrceca goodenovi. But a search in the surrounding Mallee 

 revealed no traces whatever of the Mallee Fowl. The Mallee 

 scrub here again varied, for it is of a very small nature, the growth 

 being entirely of the eucalyptus, and about 8 or 10 feet high. 

 Passing through on horseback one can see well ahead. Return- 

 ing in the evening, on the Yallum Plain we saw a beautiful male 

 specimen of the Black-backed Wren, Malurus melanolus, and I 

 procured a skin of the Crimson-bellied Parrakeet, Psephotus 

 hcematorrhous, which is locally known as the " Bull-oak Parrot," 

 for it is always found among the patches of Casuarina. It is at 

 the same time the only Parrakeet found breeding in that particular 

 class of country. The Peaceful or Ground Dove, Geopelia 

 tranquilla, is very plentiful here ; in the early morning and at 

 evening its loud song is heard among the timber bordering the plain. 



The following day (Thursday) we set out for Pine Plains, but 

 decided to take a roundabout route by way of the Wimmera bed. 

 Accordingly we set off due west from Yallum, and expected that 

 by 3 or 4 o'clock in the afternoon we should have reached the 



