8 THE AUSTRALIAN. NATURALIST, 
plants have changed whole districts, and are in many instances: 
more destructive and far reaching pests than animals. 
Thousands of acres of valuable land have been rendered practi-. 
cally useless through the spread of prickly pear; lantana 
scrubs occupy many acres on the northern rivers ; sweet briar. 
covers acres of our southern districts, and blackberry brambles 
much more ; though in the Bulli district the blackberries are- 
quite a source of revenue to the miners’ wives and families. 
On the plains hardy cosmopolitan vagabonds like thistles, 
cockspurs, docks, etc., shoulder out and choke our more: 
delicate native plants. 
Native animals in the same way are vanishing in many 
districts, and the large kangaroo and emus were doomed on. the. 
plains when wire fences came into vogue. The ring-barking of 
great tracts of country is death to the native bear. I was. 
told by an orchadist beyond Rylstone that as the area of dead 
trees spread around the native bears made their way into his. 
orchard, where he had in a very short time shot over three: 
hundred. Bad times during the drought sent a lot of men 
out trapping, and opossums were very nearly exterminated. 
in many districts; and when some ingenious person found that. 
a bit of cyanide of potassium rolled up in a morsel of pollard 
was a bait that no hungry opossum could resist, and killed the: 
unfortunate opossum on the spot, the poor beasts had a bad, 
time indeed. | 
In ,Southern Gippsland foxes have become so numerous. 
that all ground nesting birds are in a fair way to extinction.. 
The lyre bird builds its nests usually only a foot or two above 
the ground, and it is to be hoped that before the last of them 
fall victims to Mr. Reynard, they will learn to build out of, 
reach. 
In bringing this address to a close, I would point out that 
members of this Society are a band of workers and learners,. 
kindred spirits forming a small democracy, the only qualifica~ 
tion for which is a love of Nature. As field naturalists, we: 
differ fram the more pretentious societies, in the fact that we 
gather in the apprentices of the craft, many of whom later on 
will come into the higher societies, like the Linnean and Royal. 
Our little Society is now fairly established, and though our 
membership is small, it consists of sound members; and I see 
no reason, if we each work for the good of the Club, that our: 
number should not increase into hundreds when its objects are: 
better known and understood, for nature study is deep down in 
the hearts of all thinking people, and only wants bringing out. 
At the best we are but as “little children gathering up shells 
on the sea-shore.” But if only one of our shells is an original’ 
observation, we have added that mite to the Natural History 
of the world. 
