S^^AKES AND REPTILES. 177 



appears upon the face of sucli a laud as Australia, it will 

 be easily seen that no one man, by his own unaided re- 

 search, could ever obtain a knowledge of the ornithology 

 of this country. Small as was my limit, and barren as 

 it might have been when compared with other districts, 

 I was always finding something new ; and I have no 

 doubt, were I to go over the same ground again, I 

 should fall in with very many things that I had over- 

 looked ; for as one of our best field naturalists — "White, 

 of Selborne — well observes, " It is with zoology as in 

 botany ; all nature is so full, that that district produces 

 the greatest variety which is most examined." 



I have hereafter noticed the snakes and the principal 

 ireptiles here. Thousands of small frogs inhabit the 

 swamps, and afford an unlimited supply of food to the 

 different aquatic birds. "We had three or four different 

 species ; none, however, large. The commonest of all 

 was a very little frog, bright green, which used to sit 

 upon the caudock leaves and rushes, uttering a most 

 melancholy croak. But the deep regular clock of the 

 bull-frog, as we used to call it — which, by the way, is 

 a very small fellow for the noise he makes — is the 

 deepest and loudest of all. The frogs appear to come 

 into the swamps as soon as they fill ; and I recollect one 

 year, when the swamps filled early, they first croaked 

 about April, which is the autumn here ; and at the same 

 time I observed the fry of some small fish in one of the 

 lagoons. We had a curious-looking tree-frog, light yellow 

 brown, with very long legs, which lived in the bark of the 



