58 THE VICTOKIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. XXVI. 



from tree to tree. All of our ground-dwelling animals, such as 

 the bandicoot and the kangaroo rat, suffer very severely, as they 

 are quite helpless against such a large, active, and eager enemy 

 as the fox. 



But, although the furry tribe are suffering badly, by far the 

 most serious of the fox's depredations are those upon our birds. 

 It happens, unfortunately, that a large number of our finest birds 

 are ground-frequenting in their habits. Some of them, such as 

 the emu, the wild turkey, and the swan, do not use trees at all ; 

 while others, such as the lyre-bird and the duck family, use them 

 to only a limited extent. And it can be laid down as an axiom 

 that all birds which do not roost in trees fall a more or less easy 

 prey to the fox. The full-grown emu, of course, is able to 

 defend itself against a fox — at least, I have not yet heard of any 

 being killed by foxes. But the young ones are constantly taken. 

 The lyre-bird, which is a slow breeder, and is steadily being 

 driven back by civilization, is one of the fox's most easy victims. 

 The wild turkey, another shy breeder, is constantly being killed 

 by the fox. In these and many other cases the habit of doing 

 his hunting by night — which is always the practice of the fox — 

 helps him greatly. The wild turkey is sitting on her solitary egg, 

 on the bare ground, when the fox, after an easy stalk, pounces 

 upon her. After killing her, he disposes of the egg. At one 

 time a large number of these fine birds used to nest on our open 

 western plains. Now a nest is a novelty, and a station manager, 

 who has spent most of his life on the plains, told me lately that 

 almost the whole of the responsibility for this sad state of affairs 

 rested on the fox. Time and again, while riding over his estate, 

 he has come upon the mangled remains of nesting birds. A 

 heavy toll is also taken of the eggs of the smaller ground-building 

 birds, such as the quail and plover, and the young of hundreds 

 of these birds are also eaten. 



It would perhaps be thought that the water-fowl would be safe 

 from molestation, as the fox has no love for water. But his 

 hunting instinct has been able to overcome even this difficulty. 

 The native companion, as a rule, nests on an island in a lake, or 

 on a piece of rising ground in a swamp. There she lays her two 

 large eggs. But the fox doesn't mind the water-logged rushes 

 that lie between him and his prey, and so the nest of this fine 

 bird is broken up and the eggs devoured. The swan nests in 

 the rushes and the reed-beds of the lakes, lagoons, and swamps, 

 and sometimes in a clump of reeds in a quiet river bend. She 

 lays from four to six, or even eight, eggs in a clutch, so that a 

 swan's nest is a regular windfall to a fox. Prowling about night 

 after night, he is so active and energetic that very little escapes 

 his notice. Not only will he wade amongst the reeds, but, if the 

 occasion demands it, he will also swim. I know of a large reed- 

 bed in a lake that is always completely surrounded by about three 



