THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 199 



tion. I heard the plaintive cry of these birds wherever I went, 

 but they do not remain here during the winter. Cockatoos were 

 scarce, and the only one I saw was a White-tailed Black Cocka- 

 too, C alyptorhynchus baudini. These birds nest in the open forest 

 country, and betray their whereabouts by the noise they make ; 

 when they see anyone passing by they come to the entrance of 

 their hole and screech vigorously and then go in again. During 

 the winter I was told that they assembled in large flocks, but 

 otherwise seemed local. The Red-tailed Black Cockatoo, C. 

 stellatus, is also found here, but they seem to migrate more 

 towards the inland districts during the nesting season. Parrots 

 were also far from plentiful. The Barnardius semitorquatus has 

 the curious habit of picking up the bones lying about a camp 

 and eating any meat they can get off them. This bird is locally 

 called the Twenty-eight Parrot, as its note is supposed to resemble 

 that sound. The only pigeon I noticed was the Brush Bronze- 

 wing, Phaps elegans, and they have now, according to my 

 informant, disappeared from many districts where formerly they 

 were plentiful. Mallee Fowls, Lipoa ocellata, are more numerous 

 further inland than near the coast. One of their mounds was 

 seen, the superstructure of which was composed of coarse iron- 

 stone gravel more than sand — a good weight on the fragile eggs. 

 When a bird is driven by a dog to fly and take refuge in a tree, 

 it often alights on the thick top of the Mallee with its wings 

 stretched out, instead of resting on a bough in the ordinary way, 

 and when disturbed scrambles off again and flies a short distance 

 on to another tree, as it cannot fly far at a time, but the scrub 

 being, as a rule, so dense, it is easily lost sight of. A few 

 Bustards, Eupodotis australis, are generally to be found in the 

 open country ; their eggs are frequently very light in colour, more 

 so than I have noticed them on the eastern side of Australia , 

 they devour large quantities of grasshoppers during the summer 

 months, besides other insects. Both the White-necked Heron, 

 Notophoyx pacifica, and the White-fronted Heron, Notophoyx 

 novce-hoUandice, were noticed nesting near the swamps not far 

 from Perth, and also the Little Bittern, Ardetta pusilla, Black 

 Bittern, Dupetor gouldi, and Common Bittern, Botaurus poecilop- 

 tilus. We found a nest of the latter built in bulrushes, containing 

 five fresh eggs. In the same swamps, which are mostly dry in 

 summer, we saw Black Duck, Anas sup>erciliosa, Teal, Neition 

 gihherifrons, Blue-billed Ducks, Erismatura australis, and Musk 

 Ducks, Biziura lohata. The males of the latter are fond of 

 uttering a sharp whistling sound, and at the same time striking 

 the water with their wings ; they utter the note every few 

 minutes and keep it up for a considerable time, but directly they 

 are disturbed quickly dive out of sight ; otherwise these birds are 

 seldom heard. Emus are scattered generally over the country, 

 but are not plentiful. I noticed both the Spotted variety, 



