66 A Bird Collector's Wanderings. 



" has a most roniarkal)lc liabit of never appearing in the same part of the 

 " country during two successive years. In fact, when they do come 

 " they make their api)earance suddenly, and disap])ear as suddenly and 

 " as mystcriouslv. but whence they come and whither they go no man 

 " knoweth. One year one may perhajis see several hundreds in a day, 

 " and for years afterwards onlv an odd one or two, or maybe, none at 

 " all. Similar mysterious irruptions are made by Hock pigeons. (^ne 

 "year thev a])])ear in particular localities in thousands; then perhaps for 

 " years none will be seen there at all." 



" Another of the birds oi the nor-wesl that I nmst not omit to 

 " mention is tlie jabiru. a big stork with an enormous bill a foot in 

 " length, and as sl.arp as a needle. It is a fish eater, but Mr. Rogers 

 " has seen one tackle a dead kangaroo." 



HAVOC WROUGHT I'.V CATS. 



" At the outset I mentioned that that uorsl u{ enemies of bird life — 

 " the domestic cat gone wild — had appearetl on the scene. This is very 

 " sad. for it means the end of all ground-nesting birds and the decimation 

 " of tree-nesting birds as well. Mr. Rogers tells me that the whitc- 

 " bellied pigeons once numerous are going fast. The cats multiply 

 " rapidly, and grow much bigger than the ordinary- house cat. Mr. 

 " Rogers saw them as far out as Tananii, ami the probabilities are that 

 " they are carried alH)Ut by the blacks frcnn settlements, and thus get 

 " distributed over the country. Anyhow, this is very bad news for 

 " bird-lovers, for it inevitalMy means the doom of man_\- t)f our most 

 " interesting birtls. The fo.x is bad enough, but the cat is ten times 

 " worse. 1 appeal to you. reader, never to let a cat escape if _\ou should 

 " happen across one in the bush and have the means of despatcliing it. 

 " But the}' are notoriously hard to kill; and so, good-bye to the birds!" 



THE BALANCE OF NATURE. 



" A curious feature about the settled portions of the nor'-west. 

 " according to Mr. Rogers, is that all the larger mammals are increasing. 

 " and the small ones rapidly decreasing. There used, he tells me, to be 

 " any number of opossums, squirrels, bandicoots, and rats on the Fitxroy 

 " River when the whites first went there some 20 years ago. Now they 

 have almost disappeared, as is always the fate of small animals in sheep 

 "' country. The agile wallaby is increasing. Twenty years ago they 

 " were only found here and there. They had become such a pest in 190J 

 " that it was decided to give a bonus of fourpence per scalp and something 

 " like a million scal])s have been got to date. Mr. Rogers accounts for 

 ■' the great incre.ise in wallabies b\- the fact that the blacks are disappearins:;. 

 " and now work, and ;ire fed on the stations insleatl of hunting in the 

 " bush, and that the wtdge-tailed eagle and the dingo, the natural 

 " enemies of the wallaby, have to a large extent been destroyed. When 

 " the balance of Nature gets upset soinething is bound to happen. That 



