WHITE— A Trip on, the Coorong. 165 



upon an evening sky of bright (blue, upon which many bright 

 twinkling stars were showing. 



It was 9 p.m. when we dropped anchor off our camping 

 ground, we threw our blankets and a few things into the 

 dingey and rowed ashore. Making our way to the tents which 

 our friend Mr. Buzzar had pitched a few days previously. No 

 time was lost in getting some supper and then to bed. In the 

 morning it was found that our camp was situated on a narrow 

 strip of land between the sandhills and the Coorong. . A few 

 lignum bushes were scattered over a fiat, and at the foot of 

 the sandhill and around our camp a number of straggling 

 bushes of the introduced tobacco plant (Nicotiana glauca) were 

 growing. After breakfast my friends were anxious to get a 

 brace of duck for the pot, so I accompanied them along the 

 shore, till we came to one of those places where the fresh 

 water was percolating through the sand and finding its way 

 into the salt. This was the means of 'attracting a good many 

 wild fowl, the day was a bright sunny one in Autumn, and the 

 sunlight went dancing out over the water which was like 

 the surface of a mirror. Sitting on the clean sandy beach I 

 watched the antics of a pair of Musk Duck, the female was in- 

 tent on feeding, but the male bird amused himself by swim- 

 ming in circles half on his side, giving forth the deep peculiar 

 cal every now and again throwing jets of water quite a dis- 

 tance with his feet. The little Red-capped Dotterel and Black- 

 fronted Dotterel as well as the Stints formed subjects for 

 thought and observation. Nets were set for fish that evening, 

 and our guide ran them early next morning, and he had a nice 

 dish cooked for our breakfast, after which I went into the 

 sandhills to look the country out for Bristle Birds. A large 

 depression quite a mile long by nearly half that distance wide 

 opened out before me with an amphitheatre of high hills all 

 round. Most of the sand both in the depression and on the 

 hills around was covered in high "Sword Grass," (Lepidosperma 

 gladiatvm) with a few low shrubs such as the "Currant Bush," 

 (Leucopogon Richi.) It was not long before I heard the unmis- 

 takable alarm call of the Bristle Bird, and I afterwards dis- 

 covered this was their stronghold for some distance round. 

 Search as I would not a slimpse of a bird could I get, they kept 

 so tight to cover. A few brush Bronze-winged Pigeons, 

 (Gosmopelia elegans) were seen, and a Goshawk, (Urospiza 

 fasciata cruenta). Just before sundown Mr. Wylde came out 

 with me, we sat still and watched, and my friend succeeded 

 in procuring the first Bristle Bird. The days were very warm, 



