THE VICTOBIAN NATURALIST. 149 



eleven years ago, it goes to prove that the efforts of the founders 

 of this Club have not been unrewarded. The appearance of the 

 collection is well known to members of the Club and needs no 

 words of description beyond the statement that it is worth a trip 

 to Gisborne any day to see it. But trains wait for no one, and 

 we had to leave many interesting things unseen, and, bidding adieu 

 to our kind host and hostess, wend our way stationwards, and so 

 back to Melbourne. — F. G. A. Barnard. 



FIELD NOTES FROM THE LOWER WIMMERA. 



{Concluded.) 



By a. Campbell, jun. 



{Bead he/ore the Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria, 12th December, 



1899.) 



Leaving the belt of pines, we passed through some good Mallee 

 scrub, growing upon reddish-coloured soil. The eucalyptus was 

 of a considerable height, 15 feet or even 20 feet, and among it 

 v/ere various other small-growing trees. The undergrowth con- 

 sisted of numerous dwarf shrubs and plants, which gave it quite 

 the general aspect, but for the Mallee bushes, of a patch of heath- 

 like country. This is the home of the Scrub Robin, Drymaoedus 

 hrtinneopygius, a unique species, of which very little is known. I 

 was very fortunate in procuring a male bird, which was observed 

 hopping over the ground in a leisurely fashion, and as it moved 

 about, its long legs and large tail gave it quite a singular appear- 

 ance. In this scrub also a pair of Chestnut-backed Ground 

 Thrushes, Cinclosoma castanonotum, was startled, and flew 

 off in a great hurry. No traces of their nest, however, could be 

 found. 



A little further on we came to another patch of poor-class 

 Mallee, and considerable excitement was caused by our guide 

 announcing us to be in the vicinity of a Mallee Fowl's mound — 

 one which he himself had discovered a few weeks previously. 

 We accordingly spread out and made a search through the scrub. 

 A false alarm occurred through one of the party coming across an 

 old mound, or at least one not in use that season. It was of the 

 usual height and shape, but on attempting to remove the top the 

 sand was found to be firm and hard. The remains of another old 

 mound were also discovered. In this case the sand was scooped 

 out and the centre open. However, a few more minutes of 

 patient search revealed the genuine article, constructed in a 

 small open patch of a few square yards in area, and surrounded 

 on all sides by the close-growing scrub. The soil in the vicinity 

 is of a poor, sandy nature, and the Mallee consisted of nothing 

 but the eucalyptus, growing thickly and close to a height of 8 



