eagulls were seen, but
beyond these we had no reason to anticipate the existence of inland water
from any thing we noticed as to the feathered races. On our first arrival
at the Depot there was a bittern, Ardetta flavicollis, that frequented
the creek in considerable numbers. This bird was black and white, with a
speckled breast and neck. Every evening at dusk they would fly, making a
hoarse noise, to the water at the bottom of the Red Hole Creek, and
return in the morning, but as winter advanced they left us, and went to
the N.W.

About February and the beginning of March, the Epthianura tricolor and E.
aurifrons, and some of the Parrot tribe, collected in thousands on the
creeks, preparatory to migrating to the same point to which the aquatic
birds had gone. It was their wont to fly up and down the creeks, uttering
loud cries, and collecting in vast numbers, but suddenly they would
disappear, and leave the places which had rung with their wild notes as
silent as the desert. The Euphema elegans then passed us, with several
other kinds of birds, but some of them remained, as did also the Euphema
Bourkii, which the reader will find more particularly noticed under its
proper head.

The range of the Speckled Dove (Geopelia cuneata), so common on the
Darling, extended to the Depot, and two remained with us during the
winter, and roosted two or three times on the tent ropes over my fire.

There were always an immense number of Raptores following the line of
migration, and living on the smaller birds; nor was any thing more
remarkable than the terror they caused amongst them. The poor things
would hardly descend to water, and several of the Euphema came to the
creek in the dark, when we could not see to fire at them, and several
killed themselves by flying against our tent ropes.

The range of the Rose Cockatoo was right across the continent as far as
we went--as well as that of the Crested Parroquet, which was, as I have
observed, the last bird we saw, just before Mr. Browne and I turned
homewards from our first going to the N.W. The Cacatua sanguinea, Gould,
succeeded the Sulphur Crested Cockatoo to the westward of the Barrier
Range, and was in flocks of thousands on Evelyn's Plains, near the Depot,
but I am not certain as to the point to which it migrated. It is
remarkable, however, that the Sulphur Crested Cockatoo, though numerous
along the whole line of the Darling, was never seen near the Depot, or to
the westward