280 
AUSTRALIAN PICTURES. 
" They came soon on to the heath ; a dark, dreary expanse, dull to 
look upon after so long a journey upon the bright green grass. It 
stretched away right and left interminably, only broken here and 
there with islands of dull-coloured trees ; as melancholy a piece of 
country as one could conceive ; yet far more thickly peopled with 
animal as well as vegetable life than the rich pastoral downs further 
inland. Now they began to see the little brush-kangaroo, and the 
gray forester, skipping away in all directions ; and had it been 
summer, they would have been startled more than once by the brown 
snake and the copper snake, deadliest of their tribe. The painted 
quail and the brush quail (largest of Australian game-birds) whirred 
away from beneath their horses' feet ; and the ground parrot, green, 
with mottlings of gold and black, rose like a partridge from the 
heather, and flew low." Here, too, was seen a " White's thrush," the 
only known bird which is found in Europe, America, and Australia 
alike. Also, the emeu-wren, a little tiny brown fellow, with long, 
hairy tail-feathers, flitting from bush to bush. 
Yet one other picture : — • 
" The old stockyard stood in the bush a hundred yards from the 
corner of the big paddock fence, and among low rolling ranges and 
gullies, thickly timbered with gum, cherry, and she-oak ; a thousand 
parrots flew swiftly in flocks, whistling and screaming from tree to 
tree, while wattle-birds and numerous other honey-eaters clustered 
on the flowering banksias. The spur-winged plover and the curaro 
ran swiftly among the grass ; and on a tall dead tree white cockatoos 
and blue cranes watched the intruders curiously." 
From these bright pictures the reader may form some idea of the 
abundance and variety of bird-life in the Australian " island-continent ;" 
and if he turn to the " Recollections of Geoff"rey Hamlyn," he will learn 
something of the odd ways and intelligence of the Australian magpie, 
as a peculiar kind of crow is called, — in allusion, we suppose, to his 
mottled plumage and irrepressible curiosity. 
THE APTERYX OF NEW ZEALAND. 
Before we quit the Australian region, we must direct the reader's 
