SOUTH AND CENTRAL AUSTRALIA 177 



The Wedge-tailed Eagle thrives on the unhappy 

 feeble turkeys and emus ; taking toll of animals too 

 weak for substantial defence. The Galah Cockatoo 

 by careful search will find food in fallen seeds of 

 salt bush and grasses. The Bare-eyed Cockatoo 

 goes north to the better country of N.W. Queens- 

 land. Thousands of birds of various small sized 

 species quietly stay beneath the low cover and no 

 longer see the open or the early morning burning 

 sun. Their food has gone and their present end 

 has come. Their bodies just cease to be. The next 

 flood will take a year or two to repair the destruc- 

 tion of feathered life and the erratic balance of 

 things. Birds will lay twice the quantity of eggs 

 in the season, and the waiting millions of seeds will 

 germinate. The land is already again blossoming 

 and yielding its prosperity. 



The low-rainfall country between Victoria and 

 South Australia has had the effect of making in the 

 southern part of South Australia races derived from 

 Victorian species. The uncertainty of many of 

 these races remaining constant is deepened by the 

 result of good seasons in the north bringing over 

 by immigration quantities of the parent stock from 

 other areas. 



We find this in the Babblers, Tree-creepers, and 

 Honey-eaters. The Blue-bellied Lorikeet is a race 

 in Eyre Peninsula, and it annually migrates be- 

 tween Queensland and the Peninsula, via the Dia- 



