144 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



nesting operations, while in the lower thicket the Brush Wattle 

 Bird's gurgUng voice is heard. 



But to return to the Karris. When a bush fire sweeps through 

 their wooded avenues the trees remain unharmed, not as the 

 hollow giants of eastern forests, which, after an invasion of the 

 fire-fiend, are left like high roaring chimney stacks. This remark- 

 able soundness of bole is applicable to nearly all western timber 

 trees, and may be attributed, in a measure, to the regular mean tem- 

 perature previously mentioned as pervading these magnificent forest 

 regions. The Karri, or rather "Karri-Karri" of the aboriginals, 

 is known in scientific lore as Eucalyptus diversicolor. Here is a 

 typical tree, and a grand forest patriarch it is, dressed in a smooth 

 grey coat, variegated with silvery patches; the base is protected 

 by small shields of a darker and more brittle outside bark, and 

 foot covered with verdant mosses. At a few feet from the ground 

 its swelling girth measures 30 feet. The first bulky arm is 130 

 feet from the earth, while mathematical computations based on 

 the theodolite prove its entire height to be nearly 264 feet. We 

 hear of individuals 400 feet in altitude, with bases 60 feet, but we 

 have not time to search for these colossal dimensions just now,, 

 though they may be yet found in the trackless " far-folded " 

 forest of th6 River Warren district, virhere the most gigantic 

 Karris are supposed to exist, and which repeat the grand and 

 noble features of the White Gums — the vegetable giants, not onl^ 

 of south-eastern Australia, but of the globe. It should be 

 mentioned that karri timber, like jarrah, is gaining world-wide 

 fame for its strength and durability. Sufficient to say that next 

 to Indian teak (which heads the list), and before the celebrated 

 British oak, the Australian karri and jarrah take their place on 

 the British Admiralty's schedule for ship-building and other im- 

 portant works. But we must now reluctantly withdraw our 

 footsteps from this western forest region, so replete with instruc- 

 tive and fascinating life. Did time permit we might have 

 mentioned the many beautiful feathered denizens — lovely Parrots 

 and two species of Black Cockatoos peculiar to western parts, 

 several graceful Honey-Eaters and pretty Robins that prefer to 

 saddle their shapely nests in the fork of a grass tree, well pro- 

 tecting with its rush-like canopy the home from rain or heat ;, 

 while of furred creatures the largest Kangaroo and the comical 

 little " Quaka " — the smallest of wallabies — are also found within 

 the charmed boundaries of a Western Forest. 



[The woodcuts of the Grey-breasted Robin's Nest and the Giant Karri 

 Tree have been kindly lent by Mr. Walter Davies.] 



