412 



"under our notice; two or three of these birds were seen hawk- 

 ing along the face of the cliff, and one specimen was secured. 

 All at once we emerged from the Krichauff Range on to the 

 Missionary Plain. As soon as we came out of the gorge the 

 great MacDonnell Ranges came into full view, running east 

 and west, Mount Souder standing out like a sentinel to the 

 west. We now changed our course to almost due west, with 

 the barren rocky Krichauff Range on the left and the MacDon- 

 nell Range some distance off on the right. The soil was 

 a soft sandy loam, with thick patches of mulga here and 

 there. 



In due course we reached the Hermannsburg Mission 

 Station, and made excursions out from there in several 

 directions, collecting a good deal of material. The most 

 interesting trip was into the Glen of Palms and up Palm 

 Creek. Taking only the riding camels we followed the Finke 

 down and soon entered the deep gorge, or glen, which holds 

 the river as it passes through the Krichauff Range. Huge 

 masses of rock towered up over our heads as we travelled 

 over loose patches of white sand, water-worn boulders, or 

 solid rock till we branched off into Palm Creek. Here some 

 nice clear pools of water were met with, and the unique palms 

 already mentioned were seen in all stages of growth. Some 

 fine specimens lifted their heads from 80 to 100 ft. above 

 the river bed, their bare slender stems bending to the breeze 

 which was acting upon the fronds growing at their summit. 

 Younger trees were seen from 5 to 6 ft. high which had leaves 

 from the ground to the top of the plant. Handsome cycads 

 ( E nce/phalartos MacDonnelli) were growing from the cliff's 

 face, and some red gums found a footing in the crevices of the 

 rocks, but looked out of place amongst the sub-tropical scenery 

 of palms and cycads. There were few birds to be found, the 

 Rufous-vented Shrike Thrush (Colluricincla ruflventris) was 

 seen, and the Scarlet Finch (Emblema picta) was breeding at 

 the mouth of the glen. After taking photographs we retraced 

 our steps to the Mission Station. 



Once more continuing our journey we struck into the 

 heart of the MacDonnells, travelling along a level plain vary- 

 ing from a mile to two miles in width, with high ranges on 

 either side of us. In the face of these ridges large gaps 

 appeared where creeks had cut their way through to join the 

 Finke River. Mulga was the predominating vegetation, with 

 red gums on the watercourses. It was here, for the first time, 

 we met with the rare species of Bower Bird (Chlamydera 

 maculata macdonnelli) ; it is a .very shy bird, and seldom seen. 

 They seem to feed on the native fig fruit. "We met with 

 another very rare bird, Goyder's Grass Wren (Eyramytis 



