28 UOKN EXPKDITION — XAliKA'lIVli. 



(1) 'V\v.\i in the dry scjisou wlicii food is scarce iind the sum t<ital of activities 

 is al- tlic l(.>\v('st point, tiie various animals sucli as frogs and li/.ards ai'i^ dull 

 coloured, liut that this dull colouration has not of necessity (as in the case of 

 Ainpliil'olitnis barbalns) any delinite relation to the environment, though it is often 

 in gcuiei'al accord with it. 



(■J) That in tlu; rainy season when food is plentiful and the sum total of the 

 activities is at the highest i>oint, various animals are highly colouicd, but that this 

 often Iirillia,nt colouration has nothing to do I'ither with choice of part-ners 

 (reaching its climax aftei' jiaii-ing has takcui place) or with protective colouration — 

 sometimes even it renders the animal more conspicuous. 



Many animals rema.in under shelter during the heat of tlie day ; along the 

 grassy flats Icangaroos may ))e seen feeding, and on the Porcupine sandhills the 

 Rat-kangaroos [Beiloiigia lesiieitri) are constantly dodging in and out amongst the 

 tussocks. The Jew lizard {Ainphiboltirus barbatm) is often sec^n sunning itself, 

 and other allitxl species dart, into their holes when tlisturbed. There is a gi'cat 

 contrast in this respect between dillerent li/ards, and it is the Skinks wliich 

 appear to be most susceptible to heat. One day in sunnner, out amongst the hot 

 sand in the bed of the Finke, where Mr. Byrne and myself were camped, the 

 blacks came u}) with a number of lizards, and amonst them a line specimen of 

 TUiqiia oicipilalh. Having my hands full of specimens, I asked a blackfellow to 

 look after it and not to let it escape, when to my surprise he simply put it down 

 on the hot sand. It was perf(3ctly alive wlu^n put down, ha.ving been captured in 

 its hohs and when j)laced on the gromid it l)egan to travel at some rate, but after 

 going tive yai'ds its movements became slower and before ten yards had been 

 traversed tJiey ceased and the animal was quite dead — simply apparently baked to 

 death Ijy contact with the hot sand. 



About half a mile to the north (if Char-lotte Waters Station lies the Cogliu 

 Creek, on which by the siile of a water-hole we were camped. Twelve miles away 

 t-o the east is the main channel of the Fiid<e, where, a.s a general rule, the wati'.rs 

 in the rainy season spread out and are lost amongst tiie sandhills, though during 

 heavy floods they may How further south to j(jin those of the Macumba and so 

 jjcrhaps swell the streams Uowing into tlu' north of Lake Eyre. 



Leaving our camp on May 15tli, we travelled northwards still following the 

 telegraj)h line. Across the creek the country changes the stony gibbei- plains 

 giving place to undulating sandy country covered with a scrub of Acacias jjrinci- 

 pally Uiddea with Mulga and ^l. uliciiia^ the latter very prickly with its aborted 

 branchlets which have become modilied into thorns. 



