SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 17 



districts, each man of a shooting party can shoot three deer, but no more, im 

 the season, while in some States a farmer can shoot animals and birds on his. 

 own land as pests, but not outside the boundaries of his farm. 



In going through the works of the earlier naturalists one is often struck 

 with the remarks they make on the early extinction of our larger birds and 

 animals. Dr. George Bennett in his "Gatherings of a Naturalist in 

 Australia," published in 1860, says: "We find in England many useful birds 

 (designated by the ignorant as vermin) have been exterminated, and in 

 consequence of the increase of destructive insects they have had to be 

 reintroduced. Now the Australians ought to take a lesson from the 

 experience of others ; for under the present system of destruction many 

 valuable species of thai country will be swept away. It is requisite to 

 preserve the indigenous birds which are now destroyed, not for food, but for 

 mere wantonness, regardless of whether they are useful or obnoxious. In 

 the settled parts of the colony, many of the more common tribes indigenous to 

 the country are no longer seen, and the kangaroos and emus are fast sharing 

 the same fate." Gould said : " I must content myself by praying that 

 protection may be afforded to that noble bird the emu in order that it may 

 not be extirpated from the continent as it neax'ly has been from Tasmania." 

 Yet experience has since shown us that many of our birds and animals not 

 only have held their own, but have increased, regai'dless of advancing civilisa- 

 tion, to such an extent as to become pests. In spite of all its enemies the 

 emu requires very little protection to multiply beyond what was normal 

 before the white man reached these shores. Yet the emu has no friends 

 among the squatters. In Queensland especially, perhaps, this bird has been 

 treated very badly and is denied the protection through breeding-time accorded 

 to nearly all others. 



Introduction of Foreign Animals and Birds. 



The alteration of the balance of power in nature by the introduction of 

 foreign animals and birds is worthy of careful consideration. The far-reaching 

 complications that have arisen over the greater part of Australia through the 

 abnormal increase and spread of the rabbit, and by the destruction of native 

 animal life through the methods adopted by the landholders to destroy this 

 pest, ha.ve ah'eady been touched upon. Poisoned baits are respon.=«ible for the 

 death of some birds ; but the poisoning of water in summer to kill the 

 rabbits is much more deadly to bird life, and it is a method that should only 

 be permitted under proper supervision by stock inspectors. The domestic cat 

 is a very much more serious manace to bird life than most people imagine. 

 Numbers of ownerless cats are roamina; over our parks and gardens about 

 Sydney, and as they have to steal or catch their food, they are responsible for 

 the disappearance of hundreds of our most valuable insectivorous birds. In 

 the country, cats wander away from the homesteads or shepherds' huts, and 

 taking to the bush, revert to their natural hunting habits, and bring up 

 families more predaceous than themselves. 



