FAUNA IN THE BLUE MOUNTAINS 7 



at an elevation of at least three thousand feet above sea level. 

 There are also a few lizards in the mountains ; but none 

 of these reptiles are sufficiently numerous to be character- 

 istic of the region. 



Probably the aborigines never frequented these moun- 

 tains ; and it seems certain that they never penetrated to 

 the enclosed valleys. Even the rudest of wandering 

 savages leave some records of their presence in a district ; 

 but I could never find the slightest trace of the former 

 presence of the natives in these districts ; and it seems 

 more than probable that the range proved as impenetrable 

 to the blacks as it so long did to the whites. Strange 

 that large tracts of the earth should lie for thousands of 

 years apparently useless to man and beast ! Such, however, 

 seems to have been the case in all the great divisions of the 

 globe, so far as man and the larger animals are concerned. 



Birds are the most attractive living objects in the Blue 

 Mountains, and they are sadly few in number, and are 

 daily becoming scarcer. Besides the parrots, whose 

 destruction by holiday makers I have mentioned, the lyre- 

 bird, one of the most characteristic birds of our continent, 

 has been cruelly persecuted, so that it has not only been 

 exterminated in many districts, but is now scarce every- 

 where, and in danger of total extinction. The Blue 

 Mountains are, or were, the headquarters of this very 

 remarkable bird, and of one or two others which must 

 always be objects of deep interest to the true naturalist. 

 I think these birds are worthy of a chapter to themselves ; 

 and, accordingly, the next division of this little work is 

 devoted to a description of what I have succeeded in 

 learning about their ways and habits. 



