VICTORIA 115 



CHARACTERISTIC BIRDS OF THE 



VICTORIAN AREAS 

 (Plate 1, Fig. 9; Plate 2, Figs. 47, 92) 



1. Estuarine and Coastal. 



2. Moist-cold country. 



3. Dry country; timbered. 



4. Dry country; open, grassed. 



There are in these areas four distinct parallel 

 lines of feathered life, map 47. 



The result of incoming shoals of fish is the visit- 

 ing flocks of web-footed birds. Some are direct 

 fish feeders, as the Terns; others, as the gulls, are 

 scavengers. An immigration of jelly fish (cephalo- 

 pods) draws in their train the smaller albatrosses. 

 When the estuaries have irregular visits of great 

 shoals of herrings and sprats, quite a number of 

 extraordinary birds pay visit. 



The coastal birds we expect by special circum- 

 stances to have characters in common, and different 

 from those of other zones. The cold moist country 

 between Cape Otway and Cape Howe is largely 

 tenanted with hill birds differing from all other 

 known birds. A list is given in the text to map 

 47, highland (a), lowland (d). 



The dry forest country (d) contains groups 

 absent from (a), and may be called the Mallee 

 group. The Goulburn Valley is a buffer area. 



