February, 1934 The Queensland Naturalist 
5 
those means were I need not enter into ; they have no 
bearing on the bird subject. It is sufficient to say they 
kept up the balance of Nature. With the advent of the 
white man the native rapidly decreased, and so we 
started to upset the balance. We introduced flocks and 
herds, we ringbarked millions of acres of forest trees, 
and cut down thousands of acres of rain forests, thus 
destroying not only the shelter for birds, but also the 
food for billions of insects on which the birds fed. Small 
wonder our birds found it hard to exist. 
On top of all this, we introduced Rabbits, and then 
scattered poison broadcast. 
Still not satisfied, we let loose the fox and domestic 
cat, animals of destruction of which Australia had no 
parallel. 
The herds of cattle and sheep fed down the grasses 
till they completely killed out many of the best kinds, 
thus destroying the food of the flocks of seed-eating par- 
rots and finches, also quail and pigeons. 
By making pads (miles in length) going to the 
water-holes to drink, the earth washed into the swamps 
and water-holes till they gradually silted up, till now, 
in all those fine creeks and swamps there is not a drop 
of water left. Stock are now watered in troughs, from 
dams and bores. 
Think of it, where there were hundreds of miles of 
water-holes teeming with fish, weeds, and insects, now 
dry beds of sand. 
I have given a few instances of how the white man 
upset conditions in Australia, there are many others. Let 
us now see what hand Nature had in aiding the destruc- 
tion. In 1883, 84, and 85 disastrous drought conditions 
occurred, and from then on the seasons became drier. 
“The months of January, February and March, our nor- 
mal wet season months,” became drier and drier till the 
rain in those months practically ceased. These condi- 
tions culminated in the disastrous drought of 1901 and 
1902. The timber on miles and miles of forest and scrub 
land died, and one could ride all day without seeing a 
tree with a green leaf. The ground was quite bare, even 
the roots of the grass appeared to have gone. Birds died 
in hundreds, no in thousands. 
When the rain fell in December of 1902 hardly a 
bird remained. Some of the species never returned to 
those parts. In 1903 copious rains fell, and as there were 
no stock left, the grass made a wonderful recovery and 
seeded freely. As a result many birds from the far 
