54 
NICHOLLS, A Trip to Central Australia. [ f™" 
birds at Covvarie stole the false teeth belonging to Billy, the 
“horse-boy.” He chased it two miles without success. Once, 
as we left the cinema standing during a lunch halt, waiting for 
the sun to break through a cloud, another of these birds ap¬ 
proached within a few feet, and we nearly lost a spirit level. At 
the midday camps, when out with the pack horses, a few of these 
birds always waited around, and within half a minute of our 
breaking camp were up at the fire foraging for scraps left from 
the meal. 
On the way home from the blacks’ camp on the Derwent River 
at Cowarie (South Central Australia), we saw a small bird, the 
Thick-billed Grass-Wren (Diaphorillas modcsta), with tail erect, 
Little or Short-billed Crows 
running from cotton-bush to cotton-bush with incredible swift¬ 
ness. It was the colour of the sand, and difficult to detect when 
standing motionless. At times it took cover, and if overtaken 
simply remained quite still until “kicked out” of the bush. We 
saw these Grass-Wrens along the sandhills at Cowarie amidst 
the “cane grass” (Spinifex), together with the White-winged 
Wren, and we again met with them when driving “home” from 
Cowarie on the middle of a large “gibber” plain, sheltering from 
the heat along with several Wrens and a pair of Cinnamon 
Ground-birds, in a burrow beneath a clump of cotton-bush. All 
of these birds make use of the burrows during the hot weather, 
or when closely pressed by Hawks and other natural enemies. 
This Grass-Wren, like all other forms of desert dwellers (birds 
and mammals) shows a remarkable turn of speed for a short 
