46 A NATURALIST IN TASMANIA ch. 



chasing a Rosella Parakeet with the greatest 

 anger, though of course they were incapable of 

 doing it any hurt. Another brilHantly coloured 

 bird, with red and blue plumage, which I met 

 with only on Bruny Island (but it is, I believe, 

 common elsewhere), is the small Swift Para- 

 keet ; this bird resorts in small flocks to the 

 Gum-trees when in flower and feeds on the honey. 

 On the rather remote sheep-runs flocks of the 

 large Yellow-crested White Cockatoo may be seen. 

 They are birds which always have sentinels 

 posted to warn them of approaching danger. 



The farming stations in Tasmania are generally 

 not very extensive, if judged bj'^ Australian stand- 

 ards ; the sheep-owners engaging especially in 

 the raising of pure Merinos for breeding. There 

 are also districts, such as Longford in the northern 

 midlands, lying in rolling country between Ben 

 Lomond and the Western Tiers, where the Palaeo- 

 zoic strata are overlain by extensive freshwater 

 deposits of Tertiary age, and where a few old 

 English families possess properties which in the 

 course of a few generations have been wonderfully 

 assimilated to the country seats of England whose 

 names they bear. At Brickendon, the property 

 of Mr. W. Archer, where I had the pleasure of 

 staying, the drives round the house are planted 

 with many varieties of Pine and Fir-trees ; Oaks 

 and Elms grow co-mingled with Wattles and choice 

 Australian shrubs ; an old-fashioned English or- 

 chard with nut-walks and Mulberry-trees sup- 



