THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA. 



171 



After all, there is nothing like the charm given to Nature by 

 the presence and the voices of the birds. Certainly there is 

 nothing more distinctively Australian than the music of the 

 Bush the plaintive chromatic scale of the Green Cuckoo, the 

 soft laughter of the Bronzewing, 



" Dulce loquentem," 



the vulgar hullabaloo of the laughing Jackasses, the crack of the 

 Stockwhip-bird, the sweet weird melody of the black Magpies. 

 Years are passing away too quickly since I said good-bye to 

 those charmed scenes under the Southern Cross ; but the voices 

 of the Bush ring in my memory still. 



VI. 



