THE SPIRIT OF AUSTRALIA 159 



men? If so, it would seem that certain birds 

 regarded man as quite a gullible creature, and that 

 the fighting species considered themselves more 

 than a match for him in a "scrap." Manifestly, how- 

 ever, human-kind was not considered in the arrange- 

 ments at all; the pluck of some birds, and the clever- 

 ness of others, came into being from natural causes, 

 and, with the advance of civilisation, they have 

 blended into the national life out o' doors as part of 

 the indefinable Spirit of Australia. 



It is not only that our black and white birds are 

 prominent in particular areas. More than any other 

 birds of a definite color scheme, they are freely dis- 

 tributed over the whole continent. The Magpie, 

 the Magpie-Lark, the Black and White Fantail 

 (Wagtail), the Restless Flycatcher, the Black- 

 throated Butcher-Bird, and the White-shouldered 

 Lalage each one of these is to be found in every 

 one of the mainland States. It is the more retiring 

 of the bi-colored species, such as the Whip-Bird, the 

 Black and White Swallow, the Black and White 

 Robin, and the rare Pied Honeyeater birds without 

 any assertive system or means of protection that 

 are restricted to certain favorable areas. 



But the question of distribution becomes much 

 more problematical when it is noted how few pied 

 birds are known to Tasmania. Of all the birds men- 

 tioned above, only one (the Magpie) is a distinct 

 resident of the island State, while, among the others, 

 the Magpie-Lark and Lalage are recorded merely as 

 accidental visitors. Why should this be? How is 

 it that the common little Wagtail, for instance, is 

 not known to Tasmania? Are it and the other miss- 



