iij Hardy, The Forests of Victoria; [voLXXXii. 



branchlets. I have seen, in the Northern districts — e.g., 

 Heathcote — the roads littered with the small branches bearing 

 these galls. Although the tree as a whole is not affected 

 seriously, there is caused a considerable shortage in the supply 

 of pollen and honey for the apiaries. 



Of meteorological agencies, we have wind erosion and dune 

 formation, to the detriment of forest growth along the coast. 

 (Of prospective inland danger from this cause 1 shall have 

 something to say when referring to climate.) Electrical summer 

 storms are the occasional cause of fires, it is almost certain; 

 and we have evidence of the shattering of large timber trees 

 by lightning. There is also the local effect of storms resembling 

 tornadoes, which have at times cleared a path through a dense 

 forest and reduced solid trunks to kindling wood. I recently- 

 exhibited at a F.N.C. meeting a soft mass of tangled wood-fibre 

 which had resulted from the spiral wrenching of a eucalyptus 

 tree from its base near the root. 



V. — Protection and Improvement. 

 We may take it for granted that before the advent of the 

 white man, agencies of destruction, restoration, and protection 

 were in fair equilibrium. Insect pests and vegetable parasites 

 abounded, the former being held in check by birds. The 

 aboriginals — who kept to the open plateaus, the savannahs, 

 the coastal dunes and river flats for hunting and fishing, and 

 avoided fearfully the mountain forests — were probably instru- 

 mental in causing lowland lorest fires, which incidentally 

 destroyed insects, together with snakes and creatures oi 

 beneficent character, such as insectivorous birds, other reptiles, 

 small marsupials, and bats. Insect eaters, such as the Goanna, 

 the Blue-tongued Lizard, the Frilled, and smaller lizards, 

 suffer greatly in forest fires, while the larval forms oi many 

 species oi insects have subterranean safety. The first-named, 

 though an arrant egg-thiei and eater "I nestling birds, devours 

 much Eoresl vermin, and to-day i-. like the snake, an enemy 

 of the rabbit, which is a desideratum at othei than war 

 times. In tin- humid forests the porcupine, Echidna, is the 

 only animal thai I know which, by burrowing, < an get ;it the. 

 timber-eating termites. I lie insectivorous bandicoot unearths 

 much hidden larvae; the Black Cockatob ii|>s the bark oi thi 

 Messmate and Stringybark trees and destroys countless grubs 

 (.I Masters's Gum Borer; Black Jays discover their lurking in 

 prey under the loose bark oi the decorticating eucalypts and 

 amongsi tin- ground litter oi the forest. Myriads oi smallei 

 birds wrens, robins, tits, honey-eaters, tree-runners, 

 creepers, and the like help in preserving the [on t, inn are 

 diminishing in numbers before the increasing pea-rifle and 



shot-gun in the hand-, oi boys and " port 



