Vol *i 9 X 24 IV * ] NICHOLAS, A Trip to Central Australia. 
53 
fortunate enough to secure a picture of the birds clustered to¬ 
gether, the first occasion, 1 believe, upon which this clustering 
habit of Wood- Swallows has been photographed. 
The dainty White-backed Swallow (Cheramoeca leucoster- 
mtm )—birds which looked like large black and white butterflies 
as they skimmed over the surface of the lagoon at Mungeranie— 
were to be found wherever there was permanent water. They 
nested in holes in the sandbanks where the wind had eroded 
away the face of the dune. One morning, whilst photographing 
the nesting site, we picked up a dead bird at the foot of the 
cliff. Many birds must be buried during or after a storm whilst 
nesting, as the wind undermines the cliff and the sand comes 
tumbling down. They were fairly common on the Diamentina, 
where we met them with the Welcome Swallows and Fairy 
Martins, all hawking in company over a stony ford where the 
natives had built a fish trap of stakes in the shallows. High up in 
the river bank we saw about fifty holes of the nesting site of a 
colony of these birds too high for a successful photograph. Upon 
another trip we saw a pair of these birds investigating the wall 
of a “soak ’ sunk in the bed of a creek by the natives in their 
search after water. There was plenty of water in an adjoining 
stream, and the birds were evidently looking out a nesting site. 
One morning I chased a male White-winged Wren (Malurus 
leuconotus) for nearly a mile without securing it. This dainty 
sprite of the desert with the white wings showing during flight 
was one of the shyest of all birds when alarmed. It was accom¬ 
panied by two uncoloured birds (females) and kept well ahead, 
flitting from the top of one bush to another as 1 raced after it. 
After following it for nearly a mile another male bird put in 
an appearance, and the two commenced to chivvy one another 
round the bushes. Thinking this to be my chance of securing 
a specimen I stealthily stalked the pair, but one of the female 
birds giving the alarm, they flew away and outwitted me. These 
birds were by no means common and were found in the cotton- 
bush country with its isolated small stunted trees of “dead finish” 
and needle-bush. 
Like the poor, Little Crows, or Bennett’s Crows (Coxvus 
bennetti) were always with us. At every yard and camel camp 
they assembled in dozens perching and pecking into the packs 
and saddles and investigating the remains of the breakfast “table” 
for any scraps. At Cowarie we placed a bone outside a window, 
and the Crows came up to within fifteen feet of the cinema. They 
were, however, very cautious. Throughout this country the 
Crow was ubiquitous, and was detested by the people, despite 
its good habit of eating carrion and cleaning up the possible 
breeding places of the blow-fly. In very hot weather they are 
the first birds to fall dead out of the trees around the water-hole. 
Their black covering readily absorbs and retains the devastating 
heat of the summer. They are very inquisitive, and one of these 
