Page:The Emu volume 9.djvu/275

 placed in a variety of situations. When I passed through the spinifex on my return in November not a Wood-Swallow was to be seen.

(Artamus venustus).—This, was the most generally distributed Wood-Swallow around Lake Way. Occasionally I saw small parties, but more often I saw pairs, many of which are, I believe, resident. This species is a late breeder, and I did not get any nests and eggs until I went to Milly Pool, where I obtained several handsome clutches. One nest was rather out of the common, being loosely constructed of light feathery seed-stems of a native grass and lined with horse-hair. So untidy was this nest that I was on the point of passing it by as that of a Tæniopyoia. To secure another nest I had to climb about 20 feet up a "cork tree" (Casaurina).

(Collyriocincla rufiventris).—This Shrike-Thrush was generally distributed throughout the district, but was comparatively rare around the margins of Lake Violet. I did not have much luck with its nest and eggs, finding but three in all, two of which contained newly-hatched young. It was not till 1st November that I obtained a pair of eggs. I took these from the fork of a casuarina when hunting for a Bower-Bird's nest some seven miles from my camp. The nest was remarkably deep, being built on a foundation of needles from the tree. The walls of the nest were constructed exclusively of strips of soft bark.

(Grallina picata).—A pair or two at Gum Creek, and a few pairs around Milly Pool, where it was breeding in the flooded gums.

(Gymnorhina dorsalis).—Rare. I shot a female on the spinifex plain, and observed a pair or two around Milly Pool.

(Cracticus picatus).—A few around Wiluna, and again at Milly Pool. I saw two nests, only one of which was accessible, and from which I took one incubated egg.

(Cracticus leucopterus).—Sparingly distributed throughout the district in suitable haunts. Around Milly Pool it was most frequent, but when I arrived there the young were already on the wing.

(Pachycephala rufiventris).—Generally distributed throughout the district. I found three nests, containing three, two, and one egg respectively. Males in nuptial plumage were quite exceptional, and I had a difficulty in obtaining one.

(Aphelocephala (Xerophila) castaneiventris).—Another Lake Austin friend, which I found fairly common around Lake Way. It was perhaps most numerous in the neighbourhood of Wiluna and the mining belt to the south. I found a number of nests, all of which were built in hollow trunks, at no great height from the ground. There is some misconception as to where this species makes its nest. Mr. Keartland refers to their bulky nests being seen in the country between Mullewa and Lake Way (see Campbell's "Nests and Eggs," species Xerophila leucopsis). This Whiteface does not build in bushes, or make a bulky nest, but occasionally it builds inside the old nests of Babblers (Pomatostomus).

Again, Mr. A. W. Milligan, in his account of a trip through the Yandanooka district (see Emu, vol. iv., p. 151), writes of nests in prickly hakea bushes. I have little doubt the latter nests were those