no 
MacGILUVRAY, nr. Queensland. [ut SeT 
tail, compressed to keep up the deception, pointed in the opposite 
direction. The little bird did not make the slightest movement, 
though we all examined the nest and took photographs within 
18 inches of her. It was not till I attempted to stroke her, and 
my finger was within three inches of her, that she left her nest. 
The nest was 2 in. in diameter externally, 1-Jin. internally, and 
1 in. in depth. It was constructed of fine dead stalks of herb¬ 
age bound together with cobweb and lined with fine grasses and 
rootlets. It contained two fresh eggs. 
We pulled up for lunch at Naryelco Station, and went on to 
Olive Downs, passing the border of Queensland at the Warri 
Gate. After leaving Olive Downs we had the misfortune to 
break a spring. We logged it up with a piece of Mulga and 
crossed the Grey Range in the dark, arriving at Tibbooburra at 
about 9 p.m. 
We were told by the local Sergeant of Police that he had seen 
a wombat in the vicinity, so we made an excursion to the locality 
to verify his observation. The burrow that the animal was sup¬ 
posed to occupy was, in our opinion, far too small for so large 
an animal. Dr. Chenery found a nest of the Masked Wood- 
Swallow (Artamus personatus ) low down in a Dead-finish. It 
contained a clutch of four eggs. Our way back to the town was 
through a Mulga paddock, with the ground clothed in Wild 
Parsnip and other flowering herbage. Fairy Martins were nest¬ 
ing amongst the big granite boulders near the town. During 
this trip we had noted their nests under verandahs, sheds, or 
leaning trees, in crevices of steep river banks, and here, amongst 
the boulders. We left the town soon after lunch, flushed a few 
Gibber-birds on the stony ground before running through the 
Gidgee Forest that ushered the road into Milparinka. We 
crossed the Evelyn Creek below the town, passed through creek 
flats luxuriant with herbage and many wild flowers till we came 
to the sandy country and the Cobham Sandhills, where the big 
white and yellow composites dominated the landscape. Short¬ 
billed Crows in numbers were nesting in the Mulgas on these 
hills. Cobham Lake, very mirror-like in the evening light, had 
many Black Swans, with broods of young, on it. We pushed on 
till the crest of Koonenberry loomed above the horizon to the 
east, when we pulled off the road to camp in a clump of Mulga. 
This camp proved to be an unpleasant one, owing to numbers 
of evil-smelling green beetles invading it and running over our¬ 
selves and our bedding. We were up early, and found a pair 
of Wedgebills building in a near-by Mulga; Crested Bell-birds 
feeding young in a nest in a Dead-finish, and many Masked and 
White-browed Wood-Swallows starting nests. More Gibber- 
birds were flushed before we reached Iduna Park, and after we 
left on our way to Pack-saddle, where the Mulga scrub was 
looking well, and the ground was well covered with herbage. 
White-browed and Masked Wood-Swallows were much in evi¬ 
dence here, as food was plentiful. We ran on to Bancannia 
