Page:The Emu volume 21.djvu/248

 By F. LAWSON WHITLOCK, R.A.O.U., Tudor, via Albany, W.A.

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The western side of the Nullarbor Plains is not altogether a terra incognita, in an ornithological sense. In the year 1908, Mr. C. G. Gibson, then assistant Government geologist of the State of Western Australia, travelled through the plain right up to the South Australian border. This was at the time the survey for the trans-line was being put through. Mr. Gibson published his observations on the birds he met with in The Emu, ix., p. 71 (1909); and Captain S. A. White, of Adelaide, has in the meantime made several trips to the eastern side of the plain, in South Australia.

One object of my trip, which was organised and financed by Mr. H. L. White, of Belltrees, N.S.W., was in a measure to link up with and compare results with those achieved by Captain White, and to make a more minute examination of the avi-fauna than Mr. Gibson was able to do. About some eighteen or nineteen years ago I spent over a year prospecting for gold in the country lying twenty or thirty miles to the south-east of Kalgoorlie, and through which the "trans." line now passes. About that time I got into correspondence wth the late Mr. A. W. Milligan, and exchanged many letters with him referring to the local bird life. He did much to aid me in accurately identifying the species met with. In the following notes, I am calling the above locality my Boorara camp.

In his paper Mr. Gibson does not state what his means of transportation were, but I presume he had the services of Government camels. In such a waterless country it is impossible to go far from one's base without their aid. My researches, therefore, were confined to a radius around certain stations along the trans-line, where, owing to the kindness of the Commissioner for Commonwealth Railways, I was allowed to camp, and obtain water and supplies from the bi-weekly train.

It was decided I should commence work at Zanthus, 130 miles east of Kalgoorlie. Zanthus lies in the belt of country referred to in Mr. Gibson's description as "giant mallee and spinifex." Around Zanthus, however, are tracts in which salmon gums, morrel gums, and gimlet wood are to be found in profusion; some of the first-named growing to a considerable height. Not far from the siding, I found a large outcrop of granite, and in its vicinity trees and bushes of the mulga and hakea type predominated; the well-known pituri poison-bush, too, was very plentiful. Amongst the birds, I found nothing of special interest, the species noted being almost identical with those found years ago around my Boorara camp. One rather curious and notable