Page:The Emu volume 4.djvu/177

 Official organ of the Australasian Ornithologists' Union.

"Birds of a feather."

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annual holiday last springtime (September, 1904) was spent in the above district, in company with Dr. Alex. Morrison, the Western Australian Government Botanist, and Mr. C. P. Conigrave, of the Western Australian Museum, Perth. Our first camp was pitched on the Yandanooka sheep station, the property of Mr. S. J. Phillips, formerly member in the local State Parliament for the Irwin electorate. After remaining there ten days we struck camp and went to Ebano, an outlying sheep station also belonging to the gentleman named, and situate some 16 miles inland. From there Mr. Conigrave made an arduous journey on foot to Cadgee Cadgee sheep station, some 46 miles farther inland, and penetrated what is known as the "mulga" country. Yandanooka is a siding on the Midland railway line, and is distant from Perth about 260 miles northward. The main object of our trip was to endeavour to ascertain the southern and western limits of northern species, the northern limits of southern species, and the distribution of species generally. The Museum collectors had already run east to west lines from Pindar (some 80 miles north of Yandanooka) to Wurarga, Day Dawn, and farther eastward. The year before we had cut a line from Mogumber to the Wongan Hills, 50 miles inland and eastward; and I had in earlier years cut various lines, between the Darling Ranges and the western coast, from Perth to Cape Mentelle, some 200 miles south of the former. I had also cut an east and west line from Lake Yanchep, some 35 miles north of Perth. In the present trip Mr. Phillips and his station manager, Mr. Herbert J. Lee Steere, helped us considerably with their valuable local knowledge, and also placed at our disposal one of the station teams to take us and our impedimenta from camp to camp, and above all they evinced a lively interest in our labours; for all which we must record our grateful acknowledgments. The country from Yandanooka to Ebano is what is known as "jam" (Acacia acuminata) and "York gum" (Eucalyptus loxophleba), interspersed with scrubs of "prickly reminder" (a species