THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST, 127 



off on our approach. Next morning a careful search was raade 

 in the surrounding timber, but the only eggs obtained were a 

 clutch of 4 of the Nankeen Kestrel, Cerchneis cenchroides, taken 

 from a hollow spout near which the bird was seen perched. 

 Parrakeets as usual were plentiful. The male birds were notice- 

 ably handsome in their brightly coloured plumage, flying from 

 tree to tree or feeding among the grass. Several mature males of 

 the Mallee Parrot were quite conspicuous for their beauty, while 

 a pair of Rock Pebblers we had an opportunity of observing 

 were truly the handsomest birds I had seen. The two birds 

 possessed a nest containing 4 fledglings in a dead tree near our 

 camp, and as they anxiously watched us from a neighbouring 

 branch they were indeed a pretty picture, the spotless olive-green 

 colour of the female contrasting with the beautiful jonquil-yellow 

 of the male's plumage, and the morning sun shining on them only 

 enhanced their beauty. Much as I should have liked to procure 

 the male bird for my collection, yet I felt restrained from breaking 

 the happy family, so I sought elsewhere for my specimen. In a 

 second dead tree close by was another happy family. A pair of 

 White-rumped Wood Swallows, Artamus leucogaster, were incu- 

 bating their eggs high up on a fork, from which a small broken 

 branch now hung suspended, forming a secure base on which to 

 place the nest. While we were watching the mate came to 

 change places with the brooding bird, and the latter soared away 

 out in the morning air. In all the larger redgums Tree Martins 

 were flitting in and out of the small holes, evidently busy conveying 

 food to their nestlings ; while up among the foliage the merry 

 notes of the Striated Pardalotes are heard, as they hunt about 

 among the leaves for their titbits. Down on the bank of the lake 

 two small down-covered chicks of the Spur-winged Plover, Lobi- 

 vanellus lobntttis, were disturbed, and the old birds, in their anxiety, 

 only betrayed the whereabouts of their hiding young. Several 

 pairs of the Black-fronted Dottrel were here too, and by their antics 

 led us to think they were nesting, but although we searched 

 diligently along the sandy margin and among the debris no eggs 

 were found. 



Later in the morning we started on the third and final stage of 

 our journey, for now Pine Plains was only 10 or 12 miles distant, 

 and could be reached by following the shearers' track. The 

 general aspect of the country was noticeably changing as we 

 moved northward, and giving place to smaller and more stunted 

 timber and vegetation, while the soil, instead of being the rich 

 black alluvial deposit, was becoming more of a sandy nature. 

 After a while the great belts of Murray Pines from which the 

 station takes its name came in sight. The heavily-clad ridges of 

 these trees are indeed pretty, and in the distance they could easily 

 be mistaken for forests of the Finns insignis, so close a resem- 



