THE WOMBAT. 17 



males contrasting strangely with he sombre-coloured females 

 and miniature birds. Psephotus hcematogaster seemed to be 

 both fewer in numbers and more restricted in its range ; its 

 southern limit in 1892 seemed to be bounded by a line 

 starting at Bridgewater, and passing east just below Dingee, 

 on the Kerang railway, south of Kamarooka, and between 

 Elmore and Rochester. They were very plentiful west of 

 Inglewood and about Serpentine, but not so in any other 

 part. In this particular part they are known as " blue 

 heads," and near Rochester as "pine parrots," on account of 

 their being often found in the clumps of pines in the open 

 country. I had not sufficient time to determine what 

 conditions determined their limited distribution during that 

 particular season. In 1895 I found them south of Elmore. 



Only two pigeons were seen dunng my wanderings, the 

 bronzewing, as before noted, in the scrub country, and the 

 pretty crested bronzewing (Ocyphaps lophoUs) along the 

 Loddon near the Murray. This bird ranges from here to the 

 Gulf of Carpentaria, being very numerous in many of the 

 central districts. 



The gallinaceous birds are not well represented. At one 

 time the mallee hen (Lipoa ocellata) was common in the Whip- 

 stick, but it has been driven further north. The stubble quail 

 (Coturnix pectoralis) was occasionally flushed, and no doubt 

 the swamp quail is also to be found. 



The order Hemipodii was represented by the varied 

 Turnix and the collared plain wanderer. The former was 

 seen, and a specimen obtained in the park at Echuca, and a 

 pair of plain wanderers with two downy little ones, were seen 

 between Macorna and the Loddon on the plains. 



THE USE OF PHOTOGRAPHY TO A 

 NATURALIST. 



By D. Le Souef. 



A photographic Camera is one of the most useful articles a 

 naturalist can have, in fact in many cases it is almost a 

 necessity if you wish to do your work thoroughly, and no 

 amount of description can come up to an illustration. The 

 camera is being more largely availed of every day in all 

 branches of science, and it is becoming quite the exception for 

 a paper bearing on natural history to be read without being 

 illustrated by lantern slides, and I need hardly point out how 

 much more instructive the matter is. 



Say, for instance, that a naturalist goes on an excursion 

 into the country with his gun and camera, and finds the nest 

 of the beautiful parrakeet or " Ant-hill " parrot, as it is 

 generally called, situated in a white ants (Termites) mound ; 



