18 PRESIDENTS ADDRESS. 



The aboriginal population was estimated by Flanagan, in 

 the whole of Australia, at 500,000. Krefft says that, in 1847, 

 the natives in Victoria were estimated at 5,000 souls. Though 

 these estimates were probably under the mark, and the native 

 population was comparatively scanty, in proportion to the size 

 of the country, they were uniformly scattered all over the 

 land. A nation of hunters, they moved on with the game, 

 and their numbers, in different localities, were regulated by 

 the food -supply. Their hunting assistants were the dingos, 

 which they were in the habit of catching as puppies, and 

 training. In hard times, they often ate their dogs ; and 

 several explorers have recorded how the natives of the in- 

 trior guarded their dogs, in fear that the intruders might 

 want them for the same purpose. Even the wild dingos used 

 to come and wander round the camps of the natives during the 

 lean times. 



After aboriginals and dingos, the most deadly enemy of 

 the marsupial was the eaglehawk, which would even attack 

 and kill a large kangaroo. Ernest Giles, speaking of Central 

 Australia, says, "The greatest enemy besides the blackmail 

 and the dingo, is the large eaglehawk, which, though flying 

 at an enormous height, is always on the watch ; but it is only 

 when the wallaby lets itself out on the stony open ridges, that 

 the enemy can swoop down upon it. The eagle trusses it with 

 its talons, smashes its head to quiet it, and finally, if a 

 female, it flies away with the victim for food for its young." 



No one, unless he has lived in unstocked country, has any 

 idea how numerous the eagles and hawks are, before poison 

 has been laid. I once counted forty dead eagles round a 

 poisoned carcase, on an out-station in the north-west. Gould, 

 in 1859, remarks on the number of hawks in Australia, and 

 records 40 or 50 kites (Milvus affinis) on a tree, on the Man- 

 ning River ; while, thirty years ago, the whistling eagles used 

 to congregate around every western homestead, like the 

 turkey-buzzards on the cathedral roofs in South American 

 towns 



