Sydney Porter—Notes from Australia



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NOTES FROM AUSTRALIA


By Sydney Porter


My visit to Australia was undertaken, not so much because I wanted

to go there, although I always hoped to visit it one day, but more

or less as a kind of duty. People knowing that I travelled a good

deal always used to say, “ Now when you were in Australia, etc.,”

and I shamefacedly had to admit that I had never been there !


Australia had never seemed a far distant or even remote country ;

it had always seemed strangely near and familiar, possibly because

I had always been interested in the Australian avifauna and for years

had made a study of it. And as it so often is with familiar places we

seem to have a habit of putting off visiting them until we have seen

other places first. Algeria, Sicily, Egypt, Ehodesia, all seemed to me so

much farther away than Australia.


Perhaps it was a good thing that I did visit other countries first for

had I gone to Australia in the first place I might not have wanted to

go elsewhere ! From the little I saw of it during a two months’ stay

or more I can definitely say it is one of the most attractive countries

I have ever been to, and one which every English person, if he has the

time and cash, should visit. Its cities, Adelaide, Melbourne, and Sydney,

are finer, cleaner, and more friendly than any cities in Europe, but it

is the birds we want to talk about, so perhaps we had better leave the

cities to be described by a more facile pen than mine. Sufficient to say

that I shall live for the time when I can visit its shores again and

renew all too short friendships which I made there.


There is little doubt that the bird life of Australia is fast decreasing.

A great many agencies are at work and combined together they make

an opposing force which it is impossible for the avifauna to withstand.

Haphazard shooting with pea-rifles by youths on sheep and cattle

ranches is a great factor in the diminution of the bird life. These

“ larrikins ” as they are called in Australia go out armed with a pea-

rifle or small shot-gun and shoot everything on sight. I was told of

youths who go out in the district where the very rare Orange-bellied

Grass Parrakeets live and shoot these birds and just leave them lying

on the ground. I met some individuals in South Australia who had



