, f sU .p WW made to photograph 



l^ge mass °' 7<'' r '"'" t " ''''""< in 



jjptKT aiOUWl a hakca bush. 



Sow again ,},own Str.nyyhai k 

 WUfltW fal il while before cnicimg 



^Lfter Yciiow Oujji wfew wlw 



hnkeoifat, a\ the South Aus- 

 || l1um hordet . which several crossed 

 10 note ihc clTt-ct or Farming, which 

 (, C rc comes right up to the boun- 

 i|lt ,, | r ,s good to know that Vic- 

 una's side seems rc;.sonabl> sale 

 lor conservation Not far from here 

 , slop was made at the site of Mdes's 

 house, where "old McPhcc" used W 

 mind ' sheccp grazing free in the 

 scrub (up to about 1*40). for a 

 tafafi lor ahonuinal artefacts (-1 

 'rticular interes. of Avclyn COttttt, 



Sonic- small finds were made A huge 

 Yellow Own stood near the front 

 of the site, and there were u few 

 surviving garden plains. 



Return was made alone the 

 northern section of the new hack 

 known, inevitably, as -McDonald's 

 Line' A 20.000 acre property. 

 • Bindihu". showed some evidence o> 

 experiments conducted to show the 

 tiled of feitilizer on the soil, hul 

 most of the previously alienated land 

 w v,w looked patheticallv poor as 

 farming land— a good indication ol 

 Ihe correctness of the analysis ol agn- 

 culiural economics experts who con- 

 demned the McDonald scheme as 

 potentially unviable. 



M niehl Bill Ciask.ng caught a 

 Malice S.lkv Mouse I'm a humane, 

 non-killing trap), jnd kepi il lem- 

 puranlv before release so that mem- 

 bers of tbc partv could become 

 familiar with this attractive little 

 native rodent. Named hv F.nlavsou 

 in 1W- C,xom\-\ upa<U'mtndc\ idler 

 its discovery in Coomhe nctir the 

 (oor..ni;, s'A. ami uven under thai 

 auve and as the S.lky-urev Southern 

 Mouse by Houghton in *fiuu*i 



iupe, 1971 



Auimah of Australia", it is now called 

 Pscudumys alho-unvrtas. the Ashy- 

 grey Mouse, as il ls known to he a 

 form o( this species first named from 

 Western Australiu by Gould in 1845. 

 A specimen from south of Kiata sem 

 to the Nation. >\ Museum. Melbourne 

 in l ( »57 by Keith H.uely was labelled 

 Mlli mu.\rulu\:. the House Mouse, 

 hut its true identity was recognized 

 in l%3 by R Mark Ryan Isec 

 ftti wAf< and verilicd die 



following \eai in Norman W.ikclield 

 when camped at Salt LSRC in the 

 same pail ol the Little Desert. Hill 

 Uaskine caught a House Mouse too 

 and Ihc differences could he plainly 

 seen. The native species has light 

 hluish-grcv. short, erect, silky fur. 

 whitish underneath the hody. with 

 pink feel and tail, like other psctido- 

 mice of the inland counlry. Hi burrow- 

 ina habits are of preat interest. 



Frit/ay, 4 Scp\embet 



A Her yesterday's rough ride, a few 

 decided not to go on the trip to The. 

 (.'rater, but they missed the best 

 botunical area we saw in the I illle 

 Desert, f-irsi Mop was at Chinaman's 

 Flat, where there were many bushes 

 of Wesuww tMMlfolhl, with its blue 

 lioweiv \h'l,iUnr,i u-itsoirii (not VCt 

 u\ flowei). Hibhtrlul trruro W. 

 ixiihrilohti. 1 auopi-lalum hniicri I not 

 in tlo^erl, N'ealie and (lold-dusl 

 Wdttle, flfttiWUtoitti st ^ilMouts- and 

 Suvkhoinin rnonotiyiia. Further on. 

 Alan Morri.sou stopped to photo- 

 graph musses of Purple Fvebright 

 \huiiimisia colliiui). A diversion WiJJ 

 caused by an emu with seven chicks 

 lUnping straight ahead on the track 

 for about two miles: the vehicles 

 behind all slowed down, but the bird 

 Jid not seem to realize that leaving 

 flu back would be the best lactic 

 I here was a bnel stop for Alec to 

 point out tWit-** mlinan, Passing 



167 



