4 BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



the culminating points probably of some great sunken con- 

 tinent, where bird-life reigned supreme ; for we have no evi- 

 dence that any mammals, either placental or marsupial, except 

 Bats, ever roamed over its surface — mighty birds taking the 

 place of Mammalia, as is evidenced by the remains of the 

 great 8triithio7ies which are almost daily exhumed from the 

 morasses, alluvial beds, and caves of New Zealand. 



Australia, lying as it does between the 10th and 45th 

 degrees of south latitude, is subject to many varieties of 

 climate. The northern portions are visited by monsoons ; 

 while the southern have seasons similar to those which 

 occur in countries lying under the same degree of latitude 

 north of the line ; in a word, summer and winter are as in 

 England, but of course at reversed periods of the year ; as a 

 natm^al consequence, when the sun retires for a period from 

 any portion of the land, vegetation sleeps and insect-life 

 becomes inert. Bird-life follows the law of nature, as seen in 

 the northern hemisphere, and is much more rife at one season 

 than at another. The Swallow and its congeners come and go 

 as regularly in the southern portion of Australia as in England ; 

 and so do the Cuckoos, of which there are several species, 

 and not only a single one as with us. Besides these, there 

 are many other birds that are thus influenced ; but the extent 

 of their journeying has not been clearly ascertained further 

 than that they generally proceed north when the sun retires, 

 and return when he approaches : that they do not cross the 

 equator is certain, for we should then find these peculiar 

 species northward of the line, which we never do. There are 

 also some non-migratory species which appear to perform a 

 kind of exodus, and entirely forsake the part of the country 

 in which they have been accustomed to dwell, and to betake 

 themselves to some distant region, where they remain for five 

 or ten years, or even for a longer period, and whence they as 

 suddenly disappear as they had arrived. Some remarkable 

 instances of this kind came under my own observation ; for 



