THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. . 155 



grand outlook. The site was on the slope of Mount Snowdrift, 

 and overlooked the broad stretch of Warringen Plain. 



One afternoon we took a little trip on horseback, and 

 explored the timber on the other side of Pine Plains. Passing 

 through belts of pine trees and bull-oaks, we here and there 

 came across small areas of grass, on one of which we disturbed 

 a flock of 12 or 14 Leadbeater's Cockatoos, which were feeding 

 in the open. Mr. M'Lennan tells us that Emu are occasionally 

 seen on these small plains. Here, too, we surprised a pair of 

 Eagles that were sitting in a tree leisurely preening their feathers. 

 They did not notice our approach until we were close to them. 

 A beautiful male of the Black-backed Wren was shot, and in the 

 pines near were distinguished the notes of the Gilbert's Thick- 

 head, and also the Rufous-breasted, P. rufiventris. In a patch 

 of Mallee further on our dog startled a Mallee Fowl, but the 

 bird in a very short time managed to get away. This was the 

 only occasion on which we met the bird itself, although we 

 frequently saw its tracks and where it had been scratching 

 among the leaves and twigs upon the ground. And in this 

 instance only a rapid glimpse was obtained, as it rushed off and 

 disappeared through the scrub. It requires a good dog to follow 

 a Mallee Fowl — even with the best the bird will often get away. 

 , But if hard pressed the bird will leap into a bush, and so 

 intently does it watch the dog's antics that a person can approach 

 and with a stick place a noose around its neck. 



In a branchlet of a Mallee bush overhanging our track we 

 discovered a nest of a species of Acanthiza containing young. 

 We did not see the owners, but it may have been the property 

 of the Little Tit, A. nana, a specimen of which had been shot 

 among the pines. 



Another day we employed in a further search of the redgum 

 and box trees nearer home. On the way through the timber a 

 little quail (probably the species Turnix velox) was flushed from the 

 grass. A flock of perhaps twenty Black Cockatoos, Calyptorynchus 

 funereus, was seen flying across, and several pairs of the Lead- 

 beater's were among the trees. A nest of the latter variety was 

 found in a large dead tree, but the eggs were hatched ; the two 

 young could not have been more than a day old. Everywhere 

 the three varieties of Parrots — the Red-backed, the Many- 

 coloured, and the Mallee — were seen, and occasionally a small 

 flock of the Cockatoo Parrakeets would fly over. 



Other birds noticed were the Chough, the White-shouldered 

 Campophaga and the Oreoica, and mobs of the White-browed 

 Babblers were ever on the move among the brush. The Chough 

 is very noisy ; it is often amusing to see them, keeping as they do 

 in companies, and playing as it were " follow the leader " through 

 the trees. Several of their capacious mud nests were investi- 



