many fires on the islands, some of which are used for pasturing sheep suffering from the "coast sickness." Mr. White confirmed the identification of his "Molly Hawks" as Pacific Gulls; his Gannets included the Crested Tern, and for the rest he admitted that we might land on some islands without even seeing a "deaf adder."
Sunday, 27th, and Monday, 28th November, were spent in cleaning up the Lion Island collections, and walking along the coast near Esperance. The scrub is thick in places, and bird-life moderate. Singing and White-bearded Honeyeaters, White-fronted Honeyeaters (Glyciphila albifrons), Black-faced Cuckoo-Shrike (Graucalits novæ-hollandiæ), Crow (Corvus cecilæ), and other species common to South-west Australia were noted. I searched carefully for signs of the Long-billed Bristle Bird (Sphenura longirostris), but without result; none of the residents I interrogated knew of any bird answering to its description.
On Tuesday, 29th, we went in Jones Brothers' boat to Charley Island, twelve miles out. It was cloudy, with a strong breeze when we started, and on arriving at the island we landed from a staunch little dinghy, running it up on the slippery slope. It started to rain shortly after landing, and poured all the morning. However, we worked the island thoroughly, finding several colonies of the Fleshy-footed Petrel, or Mutton Bird. This species evidently has not the punctual habit of laying on the 27th November that characterises the Short-tailed and Wedge-tailed Petrels. Of about 25 burrows investigated only three contained birds sitting on perfectly fresh eggs; all the others were empty or contained a bird without an egg. There is not much soil on the island, the granite rock showing bare or but scantily covered with mesemhryanthemum for the greater part of the surface. Where the sand and decayed vegetation had collected in the gullies, the Petrels had constructed their burrows, from two to six feet in length, straight or tortuous according to the nature of the soil and obstacles such as roots and stones. The eggs were very clean and white, but it was difficult to keep them so, working in greasy black soil with incessant rain pouring on us. On top of the island we came upon a flock of Rock Parrots, but failed to find their nests. There were crevices under large "scales" of granite which had exfoliated under weathering, and some small burrows under boulders embedded in the soil. All likely spots were investigated, but no trace of a nest discovered. A Western Brown Hawk was shot, and a White Goshawk seen. An interesting feature on this island was the presence of immense numbers of a land mollusk (Bulimis sp.), which crawled out from under the mesembryanthemum to enjoy the rain. The Singing Honeyeater was plentiful, and a single Little Penguin was seen, but no nests were found.
November 30th was bitterly cold and wet, the wind being south-westerly almost of gale force. I arranged with Jones
