TASMANIA 153 



because a thousand Godwits have congregated, and 

 are over anxious to return to the land of their birth 

 in Siberia. They have all the nervous ways of a 

 people about to cross an uncharted sea. 



One of the abnormal giant flights of non-migra- 

 ting birds is seen in c, map 64. Parrots and Rails 

 through an unexpected cause have got to c, the 

 Macquarie Islands. There they live an unenviable 

 life, without trees and on soils that are super- 

 saturated. 



Birds that get far out in these seas with an off- 

 shore gale either drown, get temporary sanctuary 

 on a ship, or meet a desolate island. The rails 

 and parrots in this case had the better fortune to 

 be blown on the Macquarie Island, so well-known 

 as a base of Antarctic expeditions. 



TASMANIAN SEAS 



Littoral and Pelagic. 

 (Plate 3, Fig. 91) 



Coast-line birds are the littoral species, being 

 open toed if terrestrial, and webbed if marine. The 

 food of one is insects roaming the grass and bushes. 

 The feeding ground of the other is in the sea, or 

 on its surface, where vast millions of small crus- 

 tacea live. 



We have a fauna that keeps almost entirely to 

 the salt bushes of the coast, while certain trees 

 give preference to the shoreline. These trees har- 



