6 IN THE BLUE MOUNTAINS 



within easy distance of Picton or Penrith, that are as quiet 

 and little frequented as they must have been in the days 

 of Captain Cook. That is, they are practically unknown. 

 An occasional Government inspector, or wandering 

 prospector, may have visited them, but the foot of the 

 average traveller or sight-seer has never trod the rock in 

 the localities I have in my mind. Here are some of the 

 most delightful of the valleys, though the smallness of 

 their area has led to their being overlooked, and here it is 

 that the naturalist has the best opportunities of studying 

 the animal life of the Blue Mountains, though that life is 

 not very abundant in any part of the range that I have 

 visited. 



I have spent hours cautiously walking among the trees 

 on the summit of the range, hoping to make discovery of 

 some new bird or mammal, and heard no sound except 

 the mournful murmuring of the breeze in the tree-tops. 

 Birds there are, it is true, but they are not often seen in 

 great numbers, and the habit the people of Sydney, and 

 the smaller townships, have of going to the mountains to 

 shoot parrots and wallaby — a habit that was formerly very 

 generally indulged in — has tended to reduce greatly the 

 number of Australian birds. Wallaby are only found 

 among the rocks on the lower slopes of the mountains, 

 and about their bases. If they ever existed in the valleys, 

 they have long since been exterminated. They have 

 become scarce everywhere on the coast side of the range, 

 the result of continual persecution by gunners from the 

 towns, and stockmen anxious to preserve every blade of 

 grass for the use of the cattle. The valleys, too, are free 

 from the rabbit pest — that prolific, feeble folk not having 

 succeeded in passing the forbidding line of barrier cliffs. 

 Flying foxes, or phalangers, and opossums are found in 

 many places, but as these animals are mostly nocturnal 

 in their habits, they are not often seen unless specially 

 watched for, and there is nothing to be recorded of them 

 in this place. 



A few snakes of the genus Dendrophis are met with ; 

 and on two or three occasions I have seen diamond-snakes 



