20 RECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM 



Rabbits had been eradicated or had disappeared, the felines — 

 now become wild and of increased size — turned their attention to 

 the ground and low-bush frecjuenting birds, destroying large num- 

 bers of many species, and causing the total extinction of others 

 where they were once common. 



Poisoned baits laid for Wedge-tailed Eagles, Ravens, and 

 Crows, are also frequently taken by Magpies and other useful 

 species. 



The Fox, that acclimatised curse in Victoria, and which is 

 rapidly extending over the southern portions of New South 

 Wales, in addition to robbing poultry-yards, is rapidly diminish- 

 ing the numbers of one of the most interesting species of the 

 Victorian avifauna. Mr. G. A. Keartland informs me that in 

 the lair of one of these animals in the Dandenong Ranges, the 

 remains of upwards of thirty tails of Queen Victoria's Lyre-bird 

 were found, mostly those of females, the birds being presumably 

 captured while sitting on their nests. 



By the newspapers, I also observe that "great ravages have 

 been made by Foxes among the young lambs in the Corowa 

 District of New South Wales this season."" 



Tens of thousands of birds, principally Finches and Parakeets, 

 used to be trapped annually on the western plains of New South 

 Wales, but their numbers are now sadly diminished. To give an 

 instance : the pretty little " Budgerigar," or Warbling Grass 

 Parakeet, used to be sent to Melbourne and Sydney many years 

 ago in thousands, but seldom now any great number of these birds 

 is to be seen in dealer's shops. In 1839, in the early days of settle- 

 ment of the State, Gould records that on arrival at Breeza, to the 

 north of the Liverpool Plains, he found himself surrounded by 

 numbers of these birds, breeding in the hollow spouts, and that 

 since his return to England in 1840, he had more than once seen 

 two thousand at a time in a small room at a dealer's in Wapping. 

 I have several times passed over the Liverpool Plains, and through 

 Breeza in the breeding-season, without hearing so much as the 

 twitter of one of these birds, and during the last decade it is rarely 

 one meets with them in New South Wales in any considerable 

 number. I do not wish to infer that all these birds have been 

 exterminated by trappers or by poisoned grain, only that a vast 

 number has been captured and destroyed, and they are not found 

 in their old haunts, where they were once abundant. 



Periods of long-continued drought, from which the western 

 district of the State has suffered for years past, is an important 

 factor in the disappearance of many granivorous species, for with- 

 out an abundant rainfall, the various plants and grasses, on the 



3 Sydney Daily Telegraph, 10th September, 1900. 



