172 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST, [Vol. XSIII. 



EXCURSION TO OLINDA VALE. 



A FINE day favoured the excursion of the Field Naturalists' Club 

 to Olinda Vale on Saturday, 8th December. The party con- 

 tained, besides members of our own Club, several Adelaide repre- 

 sentatives of the Australasian Ornithologists' Union, who the day 

 previous had returned from a ten-day's camp-out at Mt. Barrow, 

 Tasmania. Two members of the Bird Observers' Club were also 

 in attendance. The early morning train from town was caught, 

 and after a two-hours' journey our destination was reached, and 

 a move made direct for the Village Settlement of Olinda, situated 

 at the foot of Mt. Dandenong. Here the bush hut of the 

 " Woodlanders " was inspected, the billy boiled, and an early 

 lunch partaken of. After lunch a ramble of some few miles along 

 the Olinda Creek followed, and many of our commoner forms of 

 bird-life, such as the honey-eaters, thickheads, cuckoos, thrushes, 

 tits, &c., were met with and identified, special attention being 

 paid to the call-notes of the birds. The members of the Ornitho- 

 logists' Union accompanying us had the opportunity of contrast- 

 ing in the field several of the mainland forms with the closely 

 allied species they had met with three days' previously in Tas- 

 mania, amongst these being the Scrub-Wrens, Sericornis frontalis 

 and S. humilis, the Fantails or Flycatchers, Bhipidura albiscapa 

 and B. diemenensis, the Shrike-Thrushes, Collyriocincla harmonica 

 and C. rectirostris, the Blue Wrens, Malurus cyanei(,s and M. 

 gouldi, the Magpies, Gymnorhina leuconota and G. liyperleuca,, 

 the Robins, Petrceca leggi and P. vittata. In connection with 

 the last-mentioned, the absence of the Flame-breasted Robin 

 from Olinda at this time of the year was commented upon, the 

 more especially as this bird had been the one most commonly 

 met with on the island, where several of the party had secured its 

 nest and eggs. It is one of the few birds which migrate south to 

 breed, and it is remarkable that a very feeble flier, as this robin is, 

 should travel such a distance across the sea to nest when all the 

 conditions necessary to its nidification are to be found here in 

 Southern Victoria. 



Throughout the day the whip-like crack of the Coachwhip-bird 

 resounded through the valley, and the peculiar note of this bird, 

 together with that of the Laughing Jackass, served to remind us 

 that we had not heard them in the Tasmanian bush, where these 

 birds are entirely wanting. 



Late in the afternoon we were joined by five other bird-lovers, 

 including Mr. Trebilcock, the hon. secretary of the Geelong Field 

 Naturalists' Club, and this brought our total to fifteen. These 

 last-comers risked the hospitality of our bush hut and stayed over 

 the Sunday. 



Some of our Adelaide visitors were much interested in the 



