Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/104

 colours under the clear Australian sky, and the shrill cries of swarms of parroquets glancing through the air imparted a foreign feeling even to those who were not already wearily conscious of their exile from England. Quail and snipe are occasionally abundant, though sometimes absent from a caprice unexplained by naturalists and unwelcome to sportsmen. The wedge-tailed eagle and numerous hawks soar for their prey, and descend upon it like a thunder-bolt. The bustard (turkey of the colonists) has been seen struck in air by an eagle and tumbling helpless to earth. The rare white hawk condescends to no carrion, but strikes his game for himself. The ibis visits in large flocks the cordillera country at intervals, and the early colonists gathered from its coming an apprehension of drought, believing that the evaporation of the waters of the interior drove it towards the high lands. Pigeons of large size and doves of singular beauty abound. Though song-birds are rare, the native thrush, without the sustained note of the European congener, has perhaps a mellower voice. The startling and melodious voice of the bird called by the early settlers "the coachman," from the likeness of his note to the crack of a whip, astonishes him who sees from how small a bird such sound can come. The bellbird, with metallic but mellow pipe, warns the wanderer that he is near water in some sequestrated nook. The skylark is common, but soars not so high in air as his northern congener, and has no song comparable to that of the lark of England. The clattering laugh of the gigantic king- fisher (the laughing jackass) was eccentric and unmusical, but the joyous note of the magpie (Gymnorhina tibicens), as he trolled his flutelike morning carol, was always pleasing.

The flowers of the forest are plentiful, and excite wonder now, as they did when in their honour Cook's landing-place was called Botany Bay. The lily, the waratah, and many others claim admiration from the eye. The sweet-scented pittosporum and boronia may challenge other lands to produce an odour which surpasses theirs. Numerous varieties of the mimosa make the air heavy with perfume, and the wafted odour of the musk-tree after rain seems to have come unalloyed from the Spice Islands. The flame-tree