BETCHERRYGAH. 
being frequently flushed from the saltbush flats where they were feeding. 
The next year was very dry, and none appeared at all. In 1903 they were 
breeding in numbers in April about one hundred and thirty miles north 
from here, where early autumn rain had fallen, and feed was abundant ; that 
year we did not get any rains until September, and flocks began to pass 
southward during the last week in October, returning north again early in 
March. In 1905 I only saw one pair. In 1906 they were passing southward 
in October, and were again noted going north during the last week in 
January and the beginning of February.” A good account of a trip 
northward follows by the same worker : “ On our trip going northward from 
Broken Hill we first met with M. undulatus coming south on the 13th 
September ; after that we met them in greater numbers as we went north ; 
they appeared to be dropping for nesting purposes wherever suitable 
conditions obtained. When we arrived at Wyalla Lake, one hundred 
miles north, on the 19th September, they were choosing their nesting-sites 
in the dead timber in the lake, but no eggs had been laid. In the Box 
trees which line the watercourses emptying into Bawcannia Lake, numbers 
of these little Parrakeets were seeking out breeding-hollows, but it was not 
until we returned to Langawirra Station that we found their eggs ; here 
they showed a decided preference for nesting in dead stumps and trees 
standing round the Box flats rather than the green timber. The first eggs 
were laid about the 26th September, and they were still laying when we left 
in the first week in October. The hollows chosen were usuallv from six 
inches to one foot in depth, with an entrance about one and a half to two 
inches in diameter, the eggs, four or five in number, resting on the earthy 
material at the bottom. A few tell-tale feathers usually adhere to the 
entrance.” Dr. Walter E. Roth contributed : “ The Budgerigar and 
other similar small birds are caught with net and alleyway in the Upper 
Georgina River, and in the Boulia District. Stretching from some water-hole 
in the neighbouring trees in which these birds have been observed to roost, 
two long divergent fences are built ; these are made with thick bushes, 
saplings, etc., to a height of some eight to ten feet and forty or fifty yards long. 
The space within the narrower portion of the alley is cleared of trees, etc., 
that in the wider portion being left untouched. In the very early morning 
a number of men sneak up towards the trees, bushes, etc., thereon remaining, 
and with many a shout and every kind of noise will suddenly commence 
throwing sticks and boomerangs into them. The birds being thus driven 
from their roosts by what they believe to be Hawks, fly low and in a 
direction opposite to whence the noise proceeds, but not being able to 
penetrate the bushes forming the fence, make straight for the water-hole, 
481 
