Page:The Emu volume 9.djvu/237

 Official Organ of the Australasian Ornithologists Union.

"Birds of a feather."

. IX.]

the year 1903 I was collecting birds in the vicinity of Lake Austin, a locality in the Murchison district of this State. In my wanderings around that centre I often came in contact with prospectors and others searching for gold in the neighbouring ranges. It is usual in these chance meetings to stop and exchange news, and to indulge in mutual inquiries as to success or otherwise. On my stating my quest was for birds, and not for gold, a kindly interest was often evinced in my work, and any information was always freely given. More than once reference was made to the variety of bird-life found around Lake Way—a locality much further inland and also in a rather higher latitude. It chanced that, towards the close of the same year, I met at the New Norcia Mission a very intelligent mechanic, who had lived for several years at Lake Way, and who personally took a more than passing interest in objects of nature. At the time he was living at Lake Way the ill-fated Calvert Expedition passed through, and he had several conversations with members of the party. This person fully confirmed all I had previously heard relating to the bird-life in the locality of Lake Way. This greatly excited my curiosity, and I determined I would visit the place at the first opportunity. The chance seemed to have arrived when Mr. H. L. White, of Belltrees, N.S.W., for whom I had been collecting on the Pilbarra goldfield in 1908, asked me if I would go out again, and at the same time asked me to suggest a promising locality. Eventually it was decided I should go to Lake Way and try my luck there.

Before starting I gleaned what information I could from the recorded experiences of other naturalists who had visited the district, and also looked up any old memoranda I had made. When all was totalled up the result was rather meagre, and one of my briefest notes referred to a single specimen of the Guttated (Yellow-spotted) Bower-Bird (Chlamydodera guttata). It read as