46 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



The nests about here all seem to be built near small clumps of 

 pine trees, which helped us considerably in finding them again. 

 On opening up the second nest, we found only 3 eggs, and I 

 again took what looked like a fresh one, but found out after- 

 wards that it was not as fresh as anticipated. We found the 

 temperature of this nest to be 96 deg. Proceeding a few 

 hundred yards further on, we came on another very large nest, and 

 found in it 9 pure white eggs, but 5 of them were broken across 

 the top and filled with sand, it evidently having been done 

 accidently by the parent bird when scratching. As we knew of 

 no more nests, we returned to the station. 



Eabbits here were numerous, in fact you saw them everywhere, 

 black, white, red, and the common grey ones. It is wonderful 

 what a little suffices to feed them. Large numbers are destroyed 

 in the dry season by placing troughs full of poisoned water for 

 them to drink. But I am sorry to say that numbers of birds are 

 also poisoned as well as the rabbits. As many as 500 have been 

 poisoned on a single night near a large warren by one trough, 

 and they seldom got more than 100 yards away before they died. 

 The breeding season for birds was nearly over, but numerous 

 nests were seen in the pines and bull oaks, and this ought to be a 

 very good country for the egg collector. Eagles and hawks were 

 very plentiful, as also were their nests, but they are not allowed 

 to be shot, as their chief food consists of rabbits. 



Next day we again visited the nests and found that the lowans 

 had been before us and carefully scraped the mound together 

 again. At one we heard the bird close to us in the scrub. They 

 make a low, soft sound, somewhat like that of the emu, but the 

 bird kept out of sight. On our return we sighted an emu, but it 

 soon disappeared in the mallee. The evening was spent in 

 coursing rabbits over a dry water-hole, getting them out of a pile 

 of logs close by. 



Early next morning three of us drove to the north end of Lake 

 Albacutya to try and shoot some wild cattle, which feed on the 

 dry bed of the lake during the night and camp in the mallee 

 during the day. The track was over very sandy country, 

 covered with pine, and we skirted along the lake for some miles, 

 until we came across the fresh tracks of the cattle, where they 

 had returned to the scrub to camp. Here we unharnessed the 

 horses and tied them up under a shady tree, and then made our 

 way over burnt heath and mallee country, following up the 

 tracks. The day being hot and br'ght, there was a good deal of 

 glare from the white sand. We saw the fresh footprints of dingoes 

 in abundance, and also those of the black-faced kangaroo 

 ( Afacfopiis melanops), but saw no sign of any snakes. They 

 seemed very scarce, much to my disappointment. After trudging 



