THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 185 



Kangaroos have perished, and we only saw five of each. In the 

 garden of the house in which we were staying, a pair of Restless 

 Fly-catchers, Sisura inquieta, had built their cobweb-covered nest 

 near the top of a Pepper tree, and on the trees round about the 

 house Spiny-cheeked Honey-eaters, Acanthochcera rvfigularis, 

 and Brown Tree-creepers, Climacteris scandens, were very plentiful, 

 and a pair of Cinclorhamphus cruralis evidently had their nest 

 in a patch of long grass not more than ten yards away from the 

 buildings. We only heard a Pallid Cuckoo, Guculus pallidus, 

 once. It is strange that this bird, which is usually so plentiful, 

 should this year be conspicuous by its absence, both in Victoria 

 and New South Wales ; possibly the terrible drought in the 

 Central Queensland districts may have hindered its migration 

 southward. It was noticed that the English Sparrows were 

 becoming plentiful near the homestead, and they seem to have the 

 habit of driving many small native birds away. The most con- 

 spicuous birds, and also the most noisy, were the Galahs, or Rose- 

 breasted Cockatoos, Cacatua roseicapilla ; but one was never tired 

 of seeing these beautiful birds feeding on the ground in flocks. 

 They nested in the hollows of the tall Eucalyptus trees near the 

 river, and their place of abode was easily recognized by the habit 

 they have of taking the bark off the tree at the entrance to the 

 hollow, but for what reason I do not know. 



In certain spots under the shade of trees the Topknot Pigeon, 

 Ocyphaps lopholes, was sure to to be seen ; they were very tame, 

 and only when approached very close would they fly away with 

 a whirr. Fairy Martins, Petrochelidon arid, were abundant in 

 places, and they nested in small colonies of from ten to thirty 

 birds, and generally built their retort-shaped mud nests on the 

 lower side of the large dark-coloured excrescences that are found 

 on the Red Eucalyptus trees, and they prefer choosing those trees 

 that are growing either in or near water, probably because their 

 food supply of mosquitos and similar insects are more abundant 

 there. 



During the summer, when the country. is very dry and mostly 

 bare of grass, strong -winds sweep over the plains and raise heavy 

 dust storms, and this dust and sand blowing against the wire 

 fences along with dried grass and other vegetation gradually 

 forms a mound as high as the fence itself, rendering the latter 

 useless. 



When at Deniliquin we were shown a White Cockatoo, 

 C. galerita, that belonged to Dr. Noyes of that town, that had the 

 curious habit every night when it went to sleep in its cage of 

 first inverting and placing on his head with his foot a round 

 empty tin about three inches deep. There was a hole on one 

 side, which he carefully placed opposite his eye, so that he could 

 see what was going on, if necessary, even though he had his 



