64 
NATURE NOTES. 
I thank Thee, Lord, I may enjoy 
Thy holy Sacrament of Spring ! 
For dancing heart when leaflets toy, 
Or when birds warble, and wave wing ; 
For tears, for April tears of joy ! 
The cuckoo thrills me as of yore. 
The nightingale is more than wine ; 
Bluebells in the wild woodland pour 
Hues purpler, but not more Divine 
Than blithe fresh hues of Heaven on high ; 
I thank Thee, Lord, before I die. 
***** 
May we all join in thus Returning Thanks. 
E. H. Hickey. 
WILD LIFE IN TASMANIA. 
II. 
N awaking early in the morning of a fine spring day, 
what a chorus of bird voices greets our ear ! The 
first to tune up soon after dawn is the native sparrow, 
with two oft-repeated long whistling notes, very like 
those of the quail, but with this difference — that the second 
note of the latter soars upward until at the termination it be- 
comes almost a little shriek, whilst that of the sparrow descends. 
He is immediately answered by other sparrows in the vicinity, 
until the place resounds with these notes. There is a brown- 
plumaged bird here with a very curious whistle which pene- 
trates to a good distance, and somewhat resembles the police 
whistle ; this, however, is usually heard later in the day. 
The cuckoos have a cheerful rippling sort of note, one of the 
pleasantest sounds in the bush ; it is entirely unlike the call of 
the English bird, although one of our cuckoos (for there are at 
least three species here) has a double whistle which bears a very 
distant resemblance to it. The robin has a short, very plaintive 
song, and the long-tailed wren warbles forth a tiny, though 
more cheerful, ditty. The melodious piping whistle of one of the 
larger honey-eaters is an early morning sound, as is also the 
distant hoo-o-o, hoo-o-o, of the splendid bronze-wing pigeon. 
A pair of hawks are circling overhead, uttering shrill cries, 
while from ' the dark green myrtles down the creek comes the 
ka-ka, ka-ka of the black jayc 
Let us strike through this little patch of ti-tree scrub and 
so out on to the road, and see what others of Nature’s children 
are bestirring themselves. A typical bush road it is, partly 
“ corduroyed,” or formed of young trees cut into lengths and 
laid side by side with sand thrown upon them, and partly in a 
