PLACENTAL ANIMALS ABUNDANT 219 



across the wings, which is very prominent when the bird is 

 flying. This teal is rare on the coast between Swan River 

 and Shark Bay, some of the colonists never having seen it. 

 It seems to be more abundant in the north, and I saw four 

 flocks on the Gascoyne. It generally flies in very small 

 parties, those I have seen varying in number from eight to 

 thirty birds. It is wild, flys high, and is more often met 

 with on rivers and inland marshes than near the sea-coast. 

 I know that it is found along the shores of the Gulf of 

 Carpentaria, and in York Peninsula, and some other parts 

 of Queensland. 



There are two or three species of goose in the Champion 

 Bay and Swan River districts, of which the Australian 

 brent goose is the scarcest. This bird {Bernicla jubatd) is 

 only as large as a hen, and, like the teal, goes in small flocks 

 only, generally about a dozen individuals in each, or twenty 

 at most. It is a shy bird even in districts where it cannot 

 possibly be often disturbed ; and it is remarkable that this 

 shyness of disposition is a characteristic of so many 

 Australian birds. It is quite contrary to what one so often 

 reads of the birds in little frequented lands. The brent 

 goose is found on the sea-shore as well as about the 

 estuaries of streams and on marshes. I have never found 

 it, however, on marshes which were further than an easy 

 flight (some fifty or sixty miles at most) from the coast. It 

 feeds to a great extent on small crustacians, including 

 young crabs, crawfish, and such molluscs as are not pro- 

 tected by a shell too hard for it to break, though I have 

 seen it breaking mussels by beating them on hard ground. 

 As it eats grubs, slugs, etc., it is a useful bird to the 

 farmers, and is often seen wandering over ploughed fields — 

 a habit it must have learned, of course, since the settlement 

 of the country ; and it is surprising how many Australian 

 birds have modified their habits since the occupation of 

 the country by a civilised population. This modification 

 of habit is less marked in the mammals, which are, I fear, in 

 many instances doomed to extinction with the increase of 

 cultivated areas. 



Australia is invariably referred to as the land of 



