Vol. VII. 



1008 



j Legge, Location of Birds. 143 



In the early days of the taking up and settlement of this 

 part of the Island, the Break-o'-day plains were clothed in part 

 by tracts of open timber, the trees being, of course, for the most 

 part in the vigour of their life, and based with a certain amount 

 of undergrowth. The flat country thus clothed was backed by 

 thick bush at the foot of the ranges, which extended up their 

 slopes in an endless wilderness of forest. The thinning out of 

 the plains timber, consequent on settlement, with the usual 

 procedure of ringing and burning out, led to inroads on it from 

 wind and frost, these effects being followed by the decay and 

 falling of smaller trees, and the destruction likewise of all young 

 seedlings by sheep and cattle. 



From these causes, birds that were no doubt common on the 

 plains in the days of the aboriginal gradually moved back to the 

 thicker bush at the foot of the ranges. This was combined by 

 an alteration in habits on the part of species which originally 

 frequented the primeval undergrowth, and which in after years 

 took to the newly planted hedges and other introduced 

 " shelter." 



Climate and settlement had caused such a change eventually 

 that on coming out to the colony more than twenty years ago 

 the writer found the country round his homestead almost quite 

 denuded of Australian timber, such as eucalyptus, acacia 

 (including both kinds of wattle and blackwood), banksia 

 (honeysuckle), casuarina (sheoak), and so on. Sweetbriar — that 

 unfortunately introduced pest — gorse, broom, and genista 

 formed the hedges planted by the early settlers for ornament 

 and shelter. Provision of shelter by the introduction of quick- 

 growing exotic conifers was a consideration, and that admirable 

 tree Piniis insignis was chosen for the purpose, with such good 

 effects by continuing the planting year after year that a complete 

 change in the aspect of the surrounding landscape has been the 

 result. This has been combined with a yearly increasing 

 provision of shelter from the tempestuous winds, which, coming 

 from Ben Lomond and the central Tasmanian highlands, 

 annually sweep these plains.* Single rows, or belts, of trees 

 were first tried, then double, and both these shelters abandoned 

 finally for clumps and small plantations of the size and shape to 

 suit the locality and elevation of land. The effect of this 

 re-afforestation, combined with the existence of the shrubberies 

 originally planted in the first half of last century in the vicinity 

 of the house, has been to induce a variety of species, some of 



• The Kreak-o'-day plains comprise an area of about 3 miles broad by 5 to 6 in 

 length, through which the river of that name flows towards its junction with the 

 South Esk. The tract is bounded on' aW sides but the west by high tiers, rising 

 abruptly from the upland, which has a general elevation of about 800 to 840 feet. 

 Being swept by strong westerly and south-westerly winds, coming in the winter from 

 snowclad plateaux, the climate is one of the most rigorous of any of the settled areas 

 of similar altitude in Tasmania. 



