interior, and the falls of rain being uncertain and irregular, droughts of several months' continuance occur, during which the rivers, lakes, lagoons, are all dried up, and the earth becomes as a desolate wilderness. "Pure element of waters! wheresoe'er Thou dost forsake thy subterranean haunts, Green herbs, bright flowers, and berry-bearing plants, And through the sunny portion of the year, Swift insects shine, thy hovering pursuivants : But if thy bounty fail, the forest pants, And hart, and hind, and hunter with his spear, In New Holland such of the native creatures as possess extensive powers of locomotion, either remove to the mountains, where vegetation is less burnt up, or betake themselves to far off districts, while thousands of the less active or domesticated beings perish. "At length," says Mr. Gould," a change takes place, and rain falls abundantly, and the plains, on which but lately not a blade of herbage was to be seen, and over which the stillness of desolation reigned, become green with luxuriant vegetation. Orchidea, and thousands of flowers of the loveliest hues, are profusely spread around, as if nature rejoiced in her renovation, and the grain springing up vigorously gives promise of an abundant harvest. This change from sterility to abundance in the vegetable world is accompanied by a correspondent increase of animal life-the waters become stocked with fish, the marshy districts with frogs and other reptiles; hosts of caterpillars and other insects make their appearance, and, spreading over the surface of the country, commence the work of devastation, which is, however, speedily checked by the birds of various kinds that follow in their train. Attracted by the abundance of food, hawks of three or four species, in flocks of hundreds, depart from their usual solitary habits, become gregarious and busy at the feast, and thousands of straw-necked Ibises, (Ibis spinicollis,) and other species of the feathered race, revel in the profusion of a welcome banquet." As usual there is in New Holland a very direct relationship between the nature and extent of the general vegetation on the one hand, and the character and number of the feathered tribes on the other. It is, of course, chiefly in the vicinity of the few rivers which intersect the known parts of the country, and in the lower flats which receive the floods, that we find a more luxurious vegetation, and trees of gigantic growth. The stately Eucalypti, in particular, attain to a most enormous size. Mr. Backhouse measured one on the Lopham road, near Emeu Bay, Characteristics of New Holland. 337 in Van-Dieman's Land, which, though rather hollow at the bottom and broken at the top, was 49 feet in circumference at nearly two yards from the ground. Another that was solid, and supposed to be 200 feet high, was 41 feet round. A third, calculated to be 250 feet in height, was 55 round. As it spread much at the surface of the ground, it was there nearly 70 feet in circumference. A prostrate tree found near the junction of the Emeu River with the Loud water, was 35 feet in circumference at the base, 22 at a height of 66, and 19 at 110. It threw out a couple of large branches at the height of 120 feet, and its general head began to branch off at 150 feet. Its total length, as traced upon the ground, was 213 feet. A party of four abreast walked with ease along its trunk. In its fall it had upset an aspiring young neighbour, whose height had been 168 feet. Great deltas are formed in New Holland, as elsewhere, by the descent of the interior rivers near their junction with the sea. Such is the Great Scrub, near the mouth of the Murray, an enormous flat of 100 miles in length, by above 20 in breadth, and clothed with a peculiar vegetation, dwarf Eucalypti forming a central belt, margined by shrub-like trees of various kinds. Immense belts of Banksia clothe the sand-hills of the sea-coast, and of some parts of the interior. Other districts are covered with grass-trees, (Xanthorrhoæ,) while the intertropical regions, so far as known of those almost Terræ incognita, produce, besides the Eucalypti, Banksia, and others of the southern coast, thick forests of canes, mangroves, &c. Now all these peculiar forest regions present an ornithology in a great measure peculiar to each. The Banksia are everywhere frequented by the true meliphagous or honey-sucking birds; the Eucalypti by the Trichoglossi and Ptiloti; the lofty fig-trees (so called) by the beautiful regent and satin birds; the palms by the Carcophaga, or fruit-eating pigeons, and the verdurous plains by the ground pigeons and grass parrakeets. Perhaps the most remarkable fact of a negative nature connected with the distribution of New Holland birds, is the entire absence of the woodpecker tribe, a race which occurs in all parts of the world except Australia and the Polynesian Islands. Mr. Gould attributes this absence of the genus Picus to the fact, that the New Holland trees are destitute of a thick or corrugated bark. It is interesting to study the relationships and dependencies which may thus be so often traced among existing things, especially in those between which we do not at first perceive the likelihood of any natural connexion. On analyzing Mr. Gould's great work on the Birds of Australia, containing, as we have said, 636 distinct species, it will be found, when we re-arrange them in relation to their occurrence in certain great districts of the country, that 385 species inhabit New South Wales, 289 South Australia, 243 Western Australia, 230 Northern Australia, and 181 VanDieman's Land. Of these 88 are peculiar to New South Wales, 16 to South Australia, 36 to Western Australia, 105 to Northern Australia, and 32 to Van-Dieman's Land. "The great excess," he observes, "in the number of species inhabiting New South Wales, is doubtless attributable to the singular belt of luxuriant vegetation, termed brushes, which stretches along the southern and south-eastern coasts, between the ranges and the sea, and which is tenanted by a fauna peculiarly its own. Although this part of the continent is inhabited by a larger number of species than any other, it is a remarkable fact, that the species peculiar to Northern Australia are much more numerous than those peculiar to New South Wales. It is curious to observe also, that while Southern Australia is inhabited by a much larger number of species than Western Australia, those peculiar to the former are not half so numerous as those peculiar to the latter. The more southern position, and consequently colder climate of Van-Dieman's Land, will readily account for the paucity of species found in that island.”—Introduction, p. 134. By the term peculiar, Mr. Gould does not desire to convey the notion that the species referred to are strictly or exclusively confined to the respective districts named, but merely that as yet they have not hitherto been discovered elsewhere. We shall now notice a few of the more special features of Australian Ornithology. It will be remembered that so early in the history of New Holland as the days of Cook and Flinders, nests were observed of extraordinary magnitude. They were built upon the ground, rose to a height of two feet, were of great circumference, and very capacious in the centre. They were composed of branches and twigs of trees, and other materials, sufficient to fill a cart. Cook found one upon Eagle Island, on the east coast. Flinders fell in with another which contained residual masses resembling, though on a larger scale, the pellets of fur, and bones of mice, &c., disgorged by owls in England. They consisted in this case of the hair of seals and land animals, of the scaly feathers of the penguins, and the bones of other birds, and of small quadrupeds. "Possibly," says Flinders, "the constructor of the nest might be an enormous owl, and if so, the cause of the bird being never seen, whilst the nests were not scarce, would be from its not going out until dark; but from the very open and exposed situations in which the nests were found, I should rather judge it to Curious Instinct of the Buzzard. 339 be of the eagle kind, and that its powers are such as to render it heedless of any attempts of the natives upon its young." The Navigator was, in all probability, right regarding the group to which the bird belonged, although he took rather too much of a Sinbad-the-Sailor view of its supposed prowess or powers of resistance. It is now believed that these nests belong to the beautiful white-bellied sea-eagle, (Haliatus leucogaster,) by no means a ponderous species, nor requiring for itself and young so large a dwelling; but as these and several allied species continue to resort to the same eyry for a long succession of seasons, and carry fresh materials for re-construction and addition every year, it is easy to account for the eventual mass. Mr. Gould informs us that he found similar nests on rocks and promontories on islands in Bass's Straits, and took from them the young of Hal. leucogaster. Only one species of buzzard has been discovered in New Holland-Buteo melanosternon. A curious anecdote regarding it was transmitted to Mr. Gould by his assistant, Mr. Gilbert. The bird is so bold, that when it discovers an emeu, an almost gigantic creature of the ostrich tribe, seated on her nest, it will attack her with such alarming ferocity as to drive her off. The hawk then takes up a stone between its talons, hovers with it in the air, lets it fall upon the eggs, to break their shell, and then descends to feed on their contents at leisure. Along our own shores we may every day observe the carrion and grey crows flying suddenly upwards high in air, each with a mussel in its bill, which it drops from its airy height upon a stone or rocky ledge below, so as to smash the shell and render its contents available. Knowing the latter fact to be true, we see no reason to doubt the former. In the one case the stone is made to fall upon the food, in the other the food is dropt upon the stone. In both the knowledge of cause and effect is much the same. Does this knowledge proceed from reason or instinct? Several swifts and swallows are found in New Holland, all distinguished, as in Europe, by their almost never ceasing flight. A species with a peculiarly constructed tail (Acanthylis caudacuta) belongs to a group possessed of extraordinary powers of wing. It is a migratory bird in Australia, but from whence it comes and whither it goeth no man knows. A specimen was killed in England not many years ago, but why and by what route it came may be more easy to surmise than ascertain. Among the Halcyonidæ, or king-fisher family, (including the king-hunters of the forest and more central districts,) the genus Dacelo comprises the largest species, and forms one of the most Voyage, vol. i pp. 64-81. peculiar and conspicuous features of Australian ornithology. They are confined, however, to the south-eastern and northern provinces, the south-western possessing no species of the genus. Dr. Leichardt, in his "Journal," states, that when near the Gulph of Carpentaria, the "laughing jackass," as these birds are called, was of a different species (Dacelo cervina) from that of the eastern coast, being smaller in size, and "speaking a different language." Mr. Gould believes that these birds seldom or never drink, so their laughter cannot be supposed to proceed from any undue excitement. The allied genus Halcyon has many habits in common with Dacelo. The species "dwell, among other places, in the open plains, far away from water, and consequently must live for considerable periods without a supply of that element.” The genus Alcyon, although found in New Guinea and the Indian islands, is more abundant in Australia than in any other country. The species differ from the preceding in frequenting the margins of rivers, where they prey on insects and small fish, and have much in common with the beautiful king-fisher of Europe, the type of the now restricted genus Alcedo. Among the most extraordinary of the Australian birds, so far as concerns certain peculiar habits, are the bower-birds, so called from their constructing little galleries or covered ways for their own amusement and recreation, in no way connected with their nests. Those of the spotted bower-bird (Chlamydera maculata) are almost three feet long, constructed outwardly of twigs, and beautifully lined with tall grasses, so disposed that their points converge above. The most singular thing is, that these little arbours are profusely, if not richly, decorated in various ways, being strewed over with shells, the skulls of small quadrupeds, bones, and miscellaneous articles. "I have frequently," observes our author, "found these structures at a considerable distance from the rivers, from the borders of which they could alone have procured these shells and small round pebbly stones; their collection and transportation must, therefore, have been a task of great labour and difficulty. As these birds feed almost entirely on seeds and fruits, the shells and bones cannot have been collected for any other purpose than ornament.”* The actual nest of this bird is very similar to that of the common thrush of Europe. It was found among the smaller branches of an acacia, overhanging a pool of water. "I found matter of conjecture," says Captain Stokes, in relation to an allied species, "in noticing a number of twigs with their ends stuck in the ground, (which was strewed over with *Birds of Australia, vol. iv. Plate 8. |