the outermost fork of some horizontal branch of a flooded gum. I was not to be tempted. It was a great risk, even armed with a 10-foot scoop, so treacherous are these trees.
White-shouldered Caterpillar-eater (Lalage tricolor).—Another migratory species, which I found moderately common around Bore Well in September. I took a typical clutch of eggs on the 13th of that month. It was also nesting sparingly near Milly Pool. At this period the surrounding country was a mass of blue and yellow, owing to the innumerable flowers of Brunonia australis and Podolepis aristata.
Black-vented Ground-Bird (Cinclosoma marginatum).—I was well acquainted with this species, having obtained half a dozen specimens in the neighbourhood of Lake Austin some six years previously. A pair of these have been mounted, and for several years have been on exhibition in the Perth Museum. Unfortunately, I left Lake Austin for the neighbourhood of Yalgoo, a locality much nearer the coast, before the breeding season had really commenced.
On arriving at Wiluna, I soon found my birds in the ferruguious country in and around the auriferous belt, and, not being a shy bird, I have more than once seen individuals within a quarter of a mile of Wiluna post-office. To find the nest and eggs of this species was one of the objects of my journey. But it was not immediately around Wiluna that I was successful. The reason of this was not far to seek: I was in another locality at the best time of the breeding season. However, there were a few pairs to be found in the low ranges bordering the spinifex plain near Bore Well. Having previously shot specimens to be certain the local birds were not referable to C. cinnamomeum, I contented myself with watching the pair nearest to my camp. Soon after sunrise the male perches himself on some dead branch or other point of vantage, and utters his rather plaintive and monotonous call. This may be represented by the vowels i and e. The i is uttered short, and is rather rapidly repeated, the final e being long-drawn and half a note higher in tone. It may be perhaps expressed as follows:—"I-ǐ-ǐ-ǐ-ǐ-ēe" This call is repeated at short intervals, and two or three males will often reply to one another. Provided the bird remains at the same place, I never found any difficulty in locating the sound. It varies a little in its apparent distance through the bird turning its head about. At times the call is uttered from the ground, and the male bird frequently takes a run between each call. It is not so easy to locate the sound under these conditions. The method I adopted was to take a compass bearing on the spot from which the sound appeared to travel, and then to lay a straight stick pointing in the right direction. I repeated this for several mornings and, estimating the distance, I followed my line and almost walked right up to the nest. The female sat close, but flew right away when I flushed her. The nest was on an ironstone flat, in fairly open country, but close at hand was a very shallow watercourse, with a line of large mulga and other bushes growing along its banks. In the shade of these bushes herbaceous plants were plentiful, and the nest itself was sheltered by a very small grey-leaved salt-bush of not more than a foot in height, and barely large enough to shade the nest from the morning sun. The nest was a moderately deep depression in the ground, from its neatness and even shape probably scratched out by the female bird. It was lined with strips of soft bark and a few acacia leaves, or leaves of the gidgi tree. The eggs were two in number, and of a very pale buff in ground colour; the markings were small but numerous, and in the form of dots of irregular shape, distributed all over the shells, but more numerous at the larger end. In colour they were of various shades of brown, with a few underlying spots of neutral tint. The eggs were a fairly even pair, both in size, markings, and shape, and were slightly attenuated ovals. The skins of the birds I had shot previous to finding this nest had been placed in the hands of Mr. A. J. North,
