ISLAND FAUNA 87 



entitled to recognition, as well as the land of the gidyea, 

 the boree, and the bottle-tree ? Who has yet said or sung 

 of the mystery of the half-lit jungles of our coast, in con- 

 trast to the vivid boldness of the sun-sought, shadeless 

 western plains ; of our green, moist mountains, seamed 

 with gloomy ravines, the sources of perennial streams ; of 

 the vast fertile lowlands in which the republic of vegeta- 

 tion is as an unruly, ungoverned mob, clamouring for top- 

 most places in unrestrained excess of energy ; of still 

 lagoons, where the sacred pink lotus and the blue and 

 white water-lily are rivals in grace of form, in tint and in 

 perfume ? 



If I am successful in convincing that North Queensland 

 is neither a burning fiery furnace nor yet a sweltering 

 steamy swamp ; that the country is not completely saturated 

 with malaria ; that there are vast areas which no drought 

 can tinge with grey or brown, where there are never-failing 

 streams, where cool fresh water trickles among the shale 

 and shattered coral on the beaches, where sweet-voiced 

 birds sport and resplendent butterflies flicker, then these 

 writings will have been to some purpose. 



ISLAND FAUNA 



While the bird life of our island is plentiful and varied, 

 mammalian is insignificant in number. The echidna, two 

 species of rats, a flying fox (Pteropus funereus) and two 

 bats, comprise the list. Although across a narrow channel 

 marsupials are plentiful, there is no representative of that 

 typical Australian order here^ and the Dunk Island blacks 

 have no legends of the existence of either kangaroos, 

 wallabies, kangaroo rats or bandicoots in times past. But 

 there are circumstantial details extant, that the island of 

 Timana was an outpost of the wallaby until quite a recent 

 date. A gin (the last female native of Dunk Island) who 

 died in 1900, was wont to tell of the final battue at Timana, 

 and the feast that followed, in which she took part as a child. 



