WHITE — Breeding Grounds on the Coorong. 199 



overlooking the Coorong for many miles on either side. One 

 of the most wonderful and pleasing sights opened out before 

 me. The fine sheet of water was dotted over by many small 

 islands and rocks, but the water itself was covered in wild- 

 fowl, swans in thousands, mountain ducks, black ducks, and 

 teal in countless numbers. The beautiful white egrets and 

 spoonbill cranes, relieved the dark masses of ducks. Some of 

 the islands were covered with silver gulls, and pelicans in 

 small parties were dotted all along. After breakfast Mounted 

 Constable Kaine arrived from Meningie, and my host 

 motored us over to Hack's Point. M.C. Kaine wished to see 

 Mr. Appelkamp in reference to a report he had sent in. After a 

 long conversation with Mr. Appelkamp, the caretaker, upon 

 the birds under his care, we made arrangements to meet after 

 lunch at the same spot, and then row up to the islands upon 

 which the swans nest. Mr. McCallum having kindly supplied 

 me with a horse, M.C. Kaine accompanied me to the appointed 

 spot, where the caretaker was waiting with a boat, and we 

 started off upon a long and a hard pull along the Coorong, 

 passing many islands on the way. But it is only those 

 islands completely surrounded by deep water upon which the 

 swans will nest. Reaching the first swan island the boat 

 was pulled into a small cove, and we landed near a beautiful 

 little spot of sandy beach which made an ideal landing place 

 for the swans because it shelved to the higher ground. It 

 was a glorious sight that we beheld upon the top of the island, 

 for amongst the tussock grass dozens of nests of the beautiful 

 swans were placed; they contained from three to six eggs, and 

 each nest was placed well out of the reach of its neighbour. 

 The birds were swimming close up to the island and giving 

 forth their plaintiff calls. Having seen other islands we 

 made our way back in the dark. All had a hard pull, for in 

 the dark we missed the channel upon several occasions, and 

 became entangled in the water, weed. After leaving the boat 

 we had a scramble up the cliffs in the darkness, and a hunt in 

 the low scrub for our horses. Even when mounted our pro- 

 gress was very slow, owing to the ground being honey-combed 

 by rabbits. Consequently it was very late when we reached 

 McGrath's Flat, and our host met us on the track thinking 

 something had happened to us. Next day Mr. McCallum took 

 us in his car and we started out to the spot where the boat was 

 to be in readiness to take me off to Pelican Island. The old 

 overland track to Melbourne was in a bad state, and the car 

 had to negotiate one of the bad sanddrifts. Having reached 



