282 
(c) Birds. We have very few exotic plantations, and the effect of birds on 
native forests has not been ascertained. Even where birds are reported to do harm in 
forests, it is difficult to arrive at a judicial pronouncement on the subject. As a very 
general rule, birds should be protected, and those who lay down poison, or who use a 
poisonous spray for the purpose of coping with insect pests, assume a very grave 
responsibility, and are probably acting prejudicially to their own interests. 
(d) Insects. Insects are difficult to deal with owing to the extensive and irregular 
areas of many of our forests. Preventive rules are noted at Schlich iv, 144. 
A few years ago it was not generally known that White Ants will attack living 
trees, but in New South Wales, at least, ihis is well ascertained now. Sometimes the 
first obvious evidence that anything is wrong with a particular tree is when, weakened 
by the insidious enemy, it has been blown down by a gust. 
A bushman's observation is that White Ants in a tree are to be found on the 
opposite to the " weather " side. 
Mr. E. H. F. Swain* has briefly written on the ravages of white ants in a few of 
our northern timbers. 
There are some notes on the ravages of insects in forests by Rev. Peter Macpher- 
son,t and the late Dr. A. W. Howitt.J 
For information on Chafers stripping trees in Britain, see White's " Selborne." 
In September, 1902, Mr. Froggatt, Government Entomologist, reported that on a 
recent visit to the Gunnedah district he found large tracts of the scrub upon the ranges 
dying from what the residents considered to be the effects of the long drought. He 
states that 10 miles from Gunnedah a large belt of gum-tree scrub, chiefly Eucalyptus 
hemiphloia var. atbens (White Box), was quite dead, the brown leaves hanging to the 
twigs just as if they had been ringbarked. At Mount Mullaley, 12 miles further on, the 
same conditions prevailed, and on all the ranges round belts of dead trees were scattered 
over the hills, giving them a very curious mottled appearance. Examination proved 
that every one of these trees was infested with the. large white grubs of some undeter- 
mined longicorn beetle (probably belonging bo "the genus Phoracantha), which commence 
by feeding upon the sapwood beneath the bark, and as they become more developed 
boring inwards towards the centre of the trunk, where they will pupate about the end. 
of the year. Many of these trees contained a dozen or more grubs. It is quite possible, 
that the long drought had caused the trees to become weakened and sapless, but the 
immediate cause of their death is the presence of the longicorn grubs, which have killed 
thousands of trees just as effectively as if they had been ringbarked. Mr. Froggatt 
reports that it is remarkable that only two species of gums were destroyed, the bulk 
of which are Eucalyptus hemiphloia. 
" The Forests of the Bellinger River," Bulletin No. 6, Forest Dopt,, N.S.W., p. 7. 
t Proc. Boy. Soc., N.S.W., XIX, 85, 86, 91. 
J Train. Boy. Soc.. Viet., ii, 112. 
