Page:The Present State and Prospects of the Port Phillip District of New South Wales.djvu/140

 have white eyes, and their caw has a most ludicrously dismal sound. The shrike crow, the magpie of the settlers, is very numerous, and has a deep melodious whistle, which always announces the dawn of day. Cranes are numerous; one of these (the native companion, as it is called) is about six feet high. The hawks are also a very numerous tribe, and consist of a great number of varieties. The eagle hawk is a large and handsome bird, but is, I believe, an impostor, being neither an eagle nor a hawk, but only a vulture. I should not omit honourable mention of the laughing jackass, whose name (derived from its loud peculiar note) is familiar in Europe. It is an ugly grey bird, somewhat larger than a crow, with an amazing strong beak, with which it has the reputation of destroying serpents.

There is much to interest the entomologist at Port Phillip. Ants are very numerous, and there is a considerable variety of species. One of these is called the soldier-ant; it is about three quarters of an inch long. Two of these animals will, if irritated, fight until one of them is killed—whence the name. These insects are of all sizes, from that of the soldier-ant down to that of a pin's head. There are luckily no white ants amongst them, and those which there are, are not troublesome; indeed they are sometimes of use, as they destroy fleas, which abound to a great extent all over the country, and are a great nuisance. Mosquitoes are seldom troublesome; they are dreadful at Sydney. There is a great variety of spiders, the largest of which is called the tarantula, and by the old hands the triantelope; its bite is said to be poisonous; but I never knew any