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Birds of N.S Wales I have caught and kept.



the difference between hunting in these rugged parts and at home is

worth comparing. The country is very rough and rugged ; one gets

across the creeks best as one can, and some are fairly deep. The

trees are very tall, covered with Elk and Staghorns, their crowns

meeting and shutting out all sunlight. Below twilight reigns always,

whilst the atmosphere is damp, heavy and mildewy. The under¬

growth is so thick that it is often impossible to get through even

with a brush-hook. Creepers and climbing plants are interlaced

between and from tree to tree, often making beautiful caves and

bowers. The greatest curse of all vines are the so-called lawyer and

barrister vines, a species of trailing palm with hook-like thorns. It

is little use trying to tear away from their embrace ; they hold tight,

and only patience will get one out of their grasp by undoing hook

after hook separately. The reason they are called lawyer and

barrister vines is, I am told, that the former will only retain the

cloth, the latter will take your flesh as well ! On the Brunswick

river, where I was shooting once, these vines are called “ Wait-a-bit,”

and most appropriately. Of course, in those virgin forests, fallen

and decayed trees are everywhere hindering progress, and as one

makes an effort to climb them hundreds of leeches stretch out their

slender bodies like small browm flames, feeling upwards for a support.

One invariably carries a few away, and it is not until there is a

squelching sound in one’s boots that one realizes that some of these

brutes have got home ! It is not so much the bite or loss of blood

which makes these leeches so loathesome, but the frightful itching

the bite causes later on, lasting often for days. Then there is the

stinging tree ; the sting of its leaves is about the limit of stings !

Adding to these troubles the scourge of mosquitoes, one begins to

wonder whether the sport of hunting Pigeons, Parrots, Turkeys and

the like is worth such unpleasant experiences,—yet one goes again.

The wild fig trees come in specially for visits of nearly all the

fruit-eating birds in the Scrub, but a strong glass is required to

discern the various species, in fact to see them at all in the dense

foliage.


In my next article I will write about the smaller soft bills of

New South Wales, some of which I hope to bring with me to

England during my forthcoming trip in June.



