4 THE AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST. 
wards regret our action, as the cliff is difficult to negotiate. 
The rocks are a mass of Rock Lilies, also that pretty clinging 
orchid Dendrobium linqueforme, and the view is one that repays 
you for the hot walk and brings peace to your soul. 
Trachymene Clelandi is found in quantity growing round 
the water’s edge but Bursaria spinosa has possession of the 
point, and you are not at all sorry to come across a wallaby 
track, and so escape with some of your skin intact. 
Notwithstanding the heavy rains of the previous week, we 
had difficulty in finding water for the billy, and it was whilst 
searching about for it that the unexpected happened in the 
shape of a Lyre Bird. He was making a great fuss in the 
scrub, but experience had taught us how difficult it was to stalk 
him, and so as the Bursaria was thick and water was our quest, 
we just scrambled through and almost on top of Mrs. Lyre 
Bird scratching for food. She took not the slightest notice of 
us, and as we waited developments the Lyre himself favoured 
us with an imitation of the Coach Whip Bird’s eall, while we 
wondered where he could be. As he started the Thrush’s song 
we located him on a branch about 10 feet above Mrs. Lyre, 
whereon he hopped to the ground and started to show off, 
raising his tail and strutting around “a la Peacock.” Keeping 
the tail erect requires great muscular exertion, so we judged, 
as the quivering of the feathers made it appear as if it were 
an effort for the bird to show it off to perfection. 
It was an experience we had often wished for, but never 
expected to stumble on to. We camped within 20 feet of the 
birds, and they took no notice of us, whilst the billy boiled. 
This and the finding of a gnarled Angophora intermedia made 
us wish we had a camera with us. This tree is well worth a 
visit, and as it is handy to the road cannot easily be passed 
by. Hriochloa Maideni, a Panicum-like grass ow a semi-climbing 
habit, was plentiful where we lunched. 
The Creek, or rather inlet, is cbintatteristic of the Hawkes- 
bury, the erosions from the hills and gullies forming spits of 
arable land, and it was on one of these Jevel stretches on the 
opposite bank that the old “Crosslands’” house stood. The 
banks had been faced with stone, and had the appearance of 
an old ferry crossing. Some beautiful trees of Phyllanthus 
Ferdinandi, also worth a visit, gave shelter to a carpet of 
variegated maiden hairfern, in which we luxuriated before 
climbing the road up to the ridge. 
Notothixos subaureus, a parasite of the Loranthus, was 
very plentiful on the Ironbarks (H. paniculata) and showed up 
amass of golden green amongst the darker foliage of the trees. 
