Ill THE LAKE DISTRICT 75 



Spirifera, the fern Glossopteris, &c. A certain 

 amount of coal of moderate quality has been 

 found associated with these strata, especially 

 round Mount Wellington (Sandfly Colliery) and 

 Ben Lomond. (For geological features see map.) 



Wherever the sandstone prevails among the 

 lowland hills the country is open, and thinly 

 timbered with Gums, Wattles, and Honeysuckles, 

 with rich grazing pastures spread out under them ; 

 but on ascending the lower tiers the bush becomes 

 thicker, and the unprofitable nature of the green- 

 stone is shown by the vast tracts of unreclaimed 

 forest country, stretching for miles in all direc- 

 tions. The undergrowth in these gum forests is 

 never very dense, and there are large upland 

 plains between the tiers covered with coarse 

 sedges ; one is at once struck with the quantity of 

 Crows and Crow-shrikes that haunt these regions, 

 the jet-black Crow (Corvus coronoides), whose cry 

 is a raucous caw; the Black Magpie {Sirepera 

 fuliginosa), a large black bird with some white 

 tail feathers, which is verv common here and 

 nowhere else, though it is found rarely in south- 

 eastern Australia ; and the White Magpie with its 

 curious bell-like call. In the forest country, too, 

 large flocks of noisy, inquisitive Miners are met 

 with, and the Wattle-bird {Anthochaera inauris), 

 another of the Meliphagidae or Honey-eaters, 

 is very common in summer time. This extra- 

 ordinary bird, the largest of the Honey-eaters, 

 being about the size of a pigeon, slaty-grey in 



