AUSTRALIAN GAME. 343 



at certain seasons are the only specimens of the gallinaceous 

 tribe. The lakes and swamps contain many varieties of the 

 web-footed species, together with the black swan and 

 pelican. The bustard,* or, as he is here most improperly 

 termed, the wild turkey, stalks alone, or in large flocks, over 

 the solitary and least frequented plains, and is certainly the 

 largest and most delicious of all game birds, making up for 

 Australian deficiencies in other respects. Several sorts of 

 plover, and the beautiful "native companion,"t frequent the 

 same description of ground ; and far away from gold-diggings, 

 and with a few exceptions, from civilization, the kangaroo 

 and emu still roam unmolested over their native wilds, but 

 have vanished almost entirely from the settled and inhabited 

 portions of Victoria. 



But, as if to make up for the absence of ornithological 

 gibier, birds of beautiful plumage, yet worthless flesh, abound 

 in these sylvan retreats. Parrots of every variety of size and 

 colour flash and sparkle like so many winged jewels in the sun. 

 The black cockatoo (a living specimen of which we have as 

 yet been unable to send to England) utters its harsh screams, 

 far exceeding in extraordinary discordance the notes of its 

 white brethren. The laughing jackass, from his leafy bower, 

 pours forth his mocking notes as if in derision of everything 

 and everybody around 'him. Magpies, dissimilar to our own 

 in plumage, but alike in habits and character, form a very 

 large proportion of the winged population, and the wattle- 

 bird, something resembling a thrush, adds its shrill piping 

 to the inharmonious concert. The scenery where the latter 

 species are certain to be found is well described by a writer 

 on Australia : 



" On every side a labyrinth of gum-trees, with silvery and 

 mottled trunks and feathery foliage, which offers no shade 



Otis Tarda. f Grus Australiensis. 



