THE WOMBAT. 51 
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\ittle further down and form Airey’s Creek, ‘he timber is taller 
in this part, with the stately ironbark rising above the messmate. 
By six o'clock we had arrived at our destination. 
We were up betimes to greet a glorious morning, and strolled 
before breakfast among the mimosa bushes by the creek. ‘The 
New Holland Honeyeaters (Meleornis Nove Hollandiw) were every- 
where, and we found numbers of their nests, mostly finished with, 
as this species breeds early.. One or two contained clutches of 
hard-set eggs, A Magpie Lark (Gallina picata) sat on her mud- 
bow! on a gum branch hanging over the river, and about her flew a 
Restless Flycatcher (Secsura inqguieta) with noises like the grinding 
of scissors. I have observed that with the advance of civilization 
thir bird has taken the place of the Shining Flycatcher (Myiagra 
nitida) which used to be common at Airey’s Inlet, but has row gone 
farther back up the creeks, while the Restless Flycatcher has come 
in with the Rosella, the Mina, and other birds of the open, 
About ten o’clock we set out for a spot about a mile away 
along the course of the creek, where we knew we should find 
swamps with very dense mimosa thickets in the vicinity. On the 
way we met with a nest of the White-fronted Sericorinis (S. 
frontalis) with three young able to fly. ‘Though the nest was in an 
open patch between ferns, we should never found it but for the 
bird, so thoroughly had it been brought into harmony with its 
surroundings, ‘his is characteristic of the Sericornes, which do 
not build a neat nest, but attain the security they need by 
assimilating it in contour and material to the position in which it 
is placed. 
At intervals along the track were small swampy flats, where 
ti-tree and mimosa grew: in these we searched for the nest of tie 
Tasmanian doneyeater, finding one at last from which the young 
had just flown. We concluded that this bird, like the New Holland 
Honeyeater, bred chiefly in August and early September. 
The spot we were making for was where the telegraph line 
from Lorne to Winchelsea crosses Airey’s Oreek. There is here 
an extensive flat from which a good deal of the higher timber has 
been cleared, leaving free scope for the ironbark scrub and mimosa 
to spread, while on the banks of the creek itself and along the 
swamps which run parallel with it are dense growths of ti-tree and 
a species of light scrub called “shortwood” locally. Most of the 
scrub was in flower, yellow or white, and the various kinds of 
Honeyeaters appeared to be holding a sort of harvest festival. 
One could easily imagine it was the original home from which the 
tribe ot Meliphagidae had spread down the creeks and gullies 
of all the Eastern Otway. ‘The air resounded with the bark of 
Wattle birds ( Acanthochaera carunculata) and their smaller brush 
brethren (Anellobia mellivora), while everywhere we heard we heard 
