40 A NATURALIST IN TASMANIA ch. 



round the eaves of the house, not genuine English 

 swallows these, but ' Welcome Swallows ' all the 

 same, which come to Tasmania in the spring in 

 the orthodox manner to nest and go north instead 

 of south when winter comes ; and once a whirring 

 flight of swifts swept past, swifts which visit 

 Tasmania for two months in the middle of the 

 Antarctic summer, and go north to Japan to 

 breed. A heavy rumbling of wheels, and a coach 

 and four draws up in front of the inn, passengers 

 and driver alight and order refreshments, ostlers 

 bestir themselves, and a small urchin climbs on 

 to the box and takes the reins, remarking that 

 he could drive the team into Hobart if required, 

 and we are back in the coaching days of the last 

 century. For in Tasmania, largely owing to the 

 mountainous character of the country, a great 

 part of the travelling is done by coach ; and in 

 most of the little townships along the main roads 

 there is an old-fashioned stone-built inn for the 

 accommodation of travellers, and very clean and 

 comfortable most of them are. 



But one must not exaggerate the English 

 appearance of the landscape, which really does 

 not extend beyond the immediate neighbourhood 

 of the villages. In the open country one soon 

 recognizes the characteristic Australian vegetation, 

 so utterly unlike the fresh green of Europe. Every- 

 where the dominant trees are Eucalypts, of which 

 there are several hundred species, all really very 

 similar and grading into one another, but differing 



