perience with another nest built in the sea-grass, and am at a loss to account for the condition of these nests, which, happily, did not result in their abandonment by the owners. The Black-and-White Wren was still nesting when I left Barrow Island, though young birds had been on the wing quite six weeks previously. A nest I had under observation was commenced and completed, and the first egg laid, within nine days.
I have since met with what may be historically termed the original form of the Black-and-White Wren—viz., Malurus leucopterus (Quoy and Gaimard). This species was recently re-discovered in its original haunt, Dirk Hartog Island, Shark Bay, by no less experienced a field naturalist than Mr. Thos. Carter, M.B.O.U., formerly of this State. Mr. Carter has written a full account of his observations, which, however, were not conducted during the nesting period (see Ibis, 1917, pp. 593-597). I, too, was late for nests and eggs when I landed on Dirk Hartog Island, though I saw young only just able to fly. My visit to Dirk Hartog Island was brief, but I saw enough of the Black-and-White Wren to form the opinion that it is almost identical in its habits with M. edouardi. The character of its haunts differs greatly, however. Dirk Hartog may be described as an island thickly clothed with shrubs, bushes, and herbaceous plants, with little spinifex and few open spaces; Barrow Island, on the contrary, is an island of spinifex, with only isolated patches of low bush, except in very restricted localities where snake-wood and mangroves are found, and with large open valleys where bird-life is almost absent.
I found the flight of small birds, especially Wrens, much easier to follow with the eye on Dirk Hartog Island. This may be due both to the dark background of bushes and also to the absence of sun-glare, which is very trying on Barrow Island.
Eremiornis carteri. Desert-Bird.—Eggs of the Desert-Bird, or "Spinifex-Bird," as I prefer to call it, were another chief objective of my trip to Barrow Island. In the previous season I had failed in an attempt to obtain these eggs on the Upper Coongan. In that instance I was deceived by the parents carrying small sprays of a woolly-flowered shrub (Trichinium) into the spinifex (Triodia), to feed their young already hatched, when I thought they were only to be used as a lining to their nests. I was somewhat dismayed to find, soon after landing, pairs carrying food into the spinifex with the now—to me—familiar alarm notes. I feared I was this time too late for eggs. I was not long in locating a nest, having watched the parents carrying little moths, grubs, and other small objects into a particular circle of clumps of spinifex. Whilst I was cutting away the clump I suspected contained the nest, the young must have slipped out, as when I reached the nest it was empty. In passing I may mention that the young seem to remain in the nest until their long, broad tails are grown. This may account, perhaps, for the large and somewhat deep cup of the nest, which looks unnecessarily big to accommodate only two young birds. Two, I feel sure, is the usual number of eggs laid, though I do not doubt three may be occasionally found. It was not encouraging to find further pairs feeding young that had already left the nest. However, near my camp I became aware of another pair inhabiting a large patch of mingled Triodia and Spinifex longifolius, which, I felt sure, had not recently nested. The male in this instance called regularly at day-
