14 
The Queensland Naturalist 
October, 1931. 
district is suffering from, being dead. The conditions have 
played up not only with the grasses and herbage, but with 
bushes and trees, both of which are dying in acres and 
hundreds. It is noticeable that some species of trees go 
under much more easily than others, they are more or less 
shallow rooters, but a few after five years drought still 
show no ill effects. One in particular, a eucalypt, locally 
known as the White-barked Gum (sometimes Desert Gum), 
looks as cheerful as ever, though perhaps not flowering as 
freely. I am sending you, per mail, a spray of this blos- 
som, and would be glad if you can identify it for me. 
“Though called by bushmen out here White-barked 
Gum , its smooth bark, which is periodically shed like 
scraps of ragged paper, is never white , but generally pale 
grey, with a tinge of pink or pale green, it does not grow 
to any great size, thirty-five feet would probably be the 
average height for adult trees. 
“It is, I regret to say, quite useless for timber (fences 
or building), and is generally hollow. It roots very 
deeply, where necessary, for want of water, going down 
under ground twice its height above the surface, a tree 
thirty feet high would send down roots sixty feet. I say 
this from evidence gained from wells sunk among these 
trees. 
“Our rainfall for the last five years has been as fol- 
lows:— 1925. 439 points; 1926, 816; 1927, 466; 1928, 598; 
1929. 470 (to date). The average annual rainfall for the 
previous thirty-five years was about 16 inches.’ ’ 
Later, under date 20/1/1930, Mr. Berney wrote: — “I 
may add to what I have already written to you, that the 
neighbour who gave me the information concerning this 
species of gum rooting to what seems to me an unusual 
denth, adds that on another occasion the roots of one of 
these trees choked a pump that was down 98 feet in an 
uncased bore, and happened to be out of use for a time. 
The pump had to be lifted and the tools let down to clear 
the hole before pumping could be gone on with. I am 
sure of the reliability of my informant. The height of 
the tree in this case I do not know, but I doubt their ever 
growing to more than five and thirty feet in this dis- 
trict.” 
NOTES ON SOME NIGHT FLYING BIRDS. 
(By G. IT. Barker, R.A.O.TJ.) 
One of the most interesting paths of Bird Study, in 
my opinion, is the question of the identity of the many 
bird calls one hears from time to time, as they pass over- 
