INTRODUCTION.
Geological researches into the structure of the globe show that a succession of physical changes have modified its surface from the earliest period up to the present time, and that these changes have been accompanied with variations not only in the phases of animal and vegetable life, but often in the development also of organization; and as these changes cannot be supposed to have been operating uniformly over the entire surface of the globe in the same periods of time, we should naturally be prepared for finding the now existing fauna of some regions exhibiting a higher state of development than that of others; accordingly, if we contrast the fauna of the old continents of geographers with the zoology of Australia and New Zealand, we find a wide difference in the degree of organization which creation has reached in these respective regions. In New Zealand, with the exception of aVespertilioand aMus, which latter is said to exist there, but which has not yet been sent to this country, the most highly organized animal hitherto discovered, either fossil or recent, is a bird; in Australia, if compared with New Zealand, creation appears to have considerably advanced, but even here the orderRodentiais the highest in the scale of its indigenous animal productions; the great majority of its quadrupeds being theMarsupiata(Kangaroos, &c.) and theMonotremata(EchidnaandOrnithorhynchus), which are the very lowest of the Mammalia; and its ornithology being characterized by the presence of certain peculiar genera,Talegalla,LeipoaandMegapodius; birds which do not incubate their own eggs, and which are perhaps the lowest representatives of their class, while the low organization of its botany is indicated by the remarkable absence of fruit-bearing trees, theCerealia, &c.
My investigation of the natural productions of Australia induces me to believe, that at some remote period that country was divided into at least two portions, since, with a few exceptions, I find the species inhabiting the same latitudes of its eastern and western divisions differing from, but representing each other. Some writers, Captain Sturt and Mr. Jukes,e.g.are of opinion that its subdivision was even greater, and that the sandy deserts now met with in the interior were formerly the beds of the seas that flowed between the archipelago of islands of which they suppose it to have been composed. In a valuable paper by Mr. Jukes, entitled ‘Notes on the Geology of the Coasts of Australia,’ read at the meeting of the Geological Society on the 17th of November 1847, that gentleman stated, that “The eastern coast is occupied by a great range of high land, appearing like a continuous chain of mountains when seen from the sea, and rising in several places to 5000 feet or more above the sea-level. This chain has an axis of granite, with occasionallarge masses of greenstone, basalt and other igneous rocks. It is flanked on both sides by thick beds of palæozoic formations, chiefly sandstone, but also containing limestone and coal. In the northern portion of the chain Dr. Leichardt found similar formations—and especially trap and granite near the Burdekin river. In the Port Phillip district there are similar igneous rocks, and on the coast tertiary formations resting on the edges of upturned palæozoic beds. In West Australia, the Darling range consists of granite below, covered by metamorphic rocks; and between it and the sea is a plain composed of tertiary beds. In the colony of North Australia there is a great sandstone plateau, rising about 1800 feet above the sea, and probably of palæozoic age; whilst on the immediate shore and round the Gulf of Carpentaria are beds supposed to belong to the tertiary period. Similar formations constitute the substratum of the central desert; in which Captain Sturt was compelled to turn back, when half-way to the Gulf of Carpentaria, from the southern coast. Hence these tertiary rocks are probably continuous through the whole centre of the island, and during the tertiary period all this portion of the country was submerged, whilst the high lands on the coast rose like four groups of islands from the shallow sea.”—Athenæum,Nov. 24, 1847.
Whichever of these opinions be the correct one, we certainly find the natural productions of all these portions of the country composed of precisely the same types, the generality of which differ entirely from those of the islands of the Indian Archipelago on the one hand, and of New Zealand and Polynesia on the other.
With respect to the position of Australia, it will only be necessary to state that it is situated between the 10th and 45th degrees of south latitude, and the 112th and 154th degrees of longitude east from Greenwich; its extent, in round numbers, may therefore be said to be 3000 miles in length, or from west to east, and inclusive of Van Diemen’s Land nearly the same in breadth, or from north to south. In its present uplifted position its form is nearly square, with a depressed centre bounded by an almost continuous range of hills and plateaux, which, varying in altitude from one to six thousand feet above the level of the sea, in some places approach the coast and present lofty and inaccessible cliffs to the ocean, while in others they trend towards the interior of the country at a distance of from twenty to eighty miles from the coast-line; but inasmuch as these elevations are all of an undulating and not of a precipitous character, no part of the country can be considered as strictly alpine. Nothing can be more different than the features of the country on the exterior and interior of this great barrier, particularly on the eastern coast, where, between the mountains and the sea, the vegetation partakes to a great extent of a tropical character; it is there, on the rich alluvial soil, formed by the debris washed down from the hills, that we find various species ofEucalypti,Fici,and other trees, many of which attain an immense altitude, and forests of towering palms; the surface of the ground beneath clothed with a dense and impervious underwood, composed of dwarf trees, shrubs and tree-ferns festooned with creepers and parasitic plants in the richest profusion, the continuity of which is here and there broken by rich open meadow-like districts admirably adapted for the pasturing of cattle, and to which, from the frequent occurrence of theAngophoræ, a tribe of trees in which the settlers see a fancied resemblance to the apple-trees of Europe, the name of Apple-tree Flats has been given. Within the ranges, on the other hand, we find immense open downs and grassy plains, studded here and there with detached belts and forests ofEucalypti,Acaciæ, &c., presenting a park-like appearance, to which, as we advance farther towards the interior, succeed either extensive marshes or land of a most sterile description. The face of this vast country consequently presents much variety of aspect; theinfrequency of rain tends much to give a sombre brown hue to the surface of the ground, which however is relieved by the constant verdure of its trees, the peculiar lanceolate form and the pendent position of which render them almost shadowless. It is in the neighbourhood of the few rivers which intersect the country, and in the lower flats flooded by the waters, when floods occur, that we find the vegetation more luxuriant and the trees attaining a far greater size; the sides of the rivers are moreover fringed withCasuarinæand other trees, which, although of large size, never arrive at the altitude of the statelyEucalypti, which attain, under favourable circumstances, a size and height which appear perfectly incredible. Mr. Backhouse states that one measured by him on the Lopham Road, near Emu Bay in Van Diemen’s Land, which, “was rather hollow at the bottom and broken at the top, was 49 feet round at about 5 feet from the ground; another that was solid, and supposed to be 200 feet high, was 41 feet round; and a third, supposed to be 250 feet high, was 55½ feet round. As this tree spread much at the base, it would be nearly 70 feet in circumference at the surface of the ground. My companions spoke to each other when at the opposite side of this tree from myself, and their voices sounded so distant that I concluded they had inadvertently left me, to see some other object, and immediately called to them. They in answer remarked the distant sound of my voice, and inquired if I were behind the tree! When the road through this forest was forming, a man who had only about two hundred yards to go, from one company of work-people to another, lost himself: he called, and was repeatedly answered; but getting further astray, his voice became more indistinct, till it ceased to be heard, and he perished. The largest trees do not always carry up their width in proportion to their height, but many that are mere spars are 200 feet high.”
A prostrate tree noticed by Mr. Backhouse in the forest near the junction of the Emu River with the Loudwater “was 35 feet in circumference at the base, 22 feet at 66 feet up, 19 feet at 110 feet up; there were two large branches at 120 feet; the general head branched off at 150 feet; the elevation of the tree, traceable by the branches on the ground, was 213 feet. We ascended this tree on an inclined plane, formed by one of its limbs, and walked four abreast with ease upon its trunk! In its fall it had overturned another 168 feet high, which had brought up with its roots a ball of earth 20 feet across.” There are other remarkable features, which, as they appertain to districts frequently alluded to in the course of the work, it becomes necessary to notice, namely the immense deltas formed by the descent of the waters of the interior, such as the valley of the Murray near its embouchure into the sea, spoken of as the great Murray scrub of South Australia; this enormous flat of nearly one hundred miles in length by more than twenty in breadth is clothed with a vegetation peculiarly its own, the prevailing trees which form a belt down the centre consisting of dwarfEucalypti, while the margins are fringed with shrub-like trees of various kinds. Nor must the immense belts ofBanksiæ, which grow on the sand-hills bordering the sea-coast and in some parts of the interior, or the districts clothed with grass-trees (Xanthorrhæa), be passed over unnoticed; in the intertropical regions of Australia, of which at present so little is known, we find, besides theEucalypti,Banksiæand other trees of the southern coast, dense forests of canes, mangroves, &c. Each of these districts has a zoology peculiarly its own: for instance, theBanksiæare everywhere tenanted by the trueMeliphagi; theEucalyptiby thePtilotiandTrichoglossi; the towering fig-trees by the Regent and Satin birds; the palms by theCarpophagæor fruit-eating Pigeons, and the grassy plains by the ground Pigeons, Finches and grass Parrakeets. The circumstance of the boles of the trees being destitute of a thick corrugated rind or bark will doubtless account for the total absence of any member of the genusPicusorWoodpeckers, a group of birds found in all parts of the world with the exception of Australia and Polynesia.
Such then is a transient view of a few of the great physical features of Australia to which I have thought it requisite to allude in the Introduction of the present work, and I cannot conclude this portion of the subject without mentioning the very remarkable manner in which many of the Australian Birds represent other nearly allied species belonging to the Old World, as if some particular law existed in reference to the subject, the species so represented being evidently destined to fulfil the same offices in either hemisphere. As instances in point, I may mention among theFalconidætheF. hypoleucusandF. melanogenys, which represent theF. IslandicusandF. Peregrinus; our Merlin and Kestril are equally well represented by theFalco frontatusandTinnunculus Cenchroïdesof Australia; the Osprey of Europe also is represented by theP. leucocephala; among the wading birds, the Curlew and the Whimbrel of Europe are beautifully represented by theNumenius AustralisandN. uropygialis, and the bar-tailed and black-tailed Godwits by theLimosa uropygialisandL. Melanuroïdes. Both Europe and Australia have each one Stilted Plover, one Dottrell (Eudromias), and one Avocet. Among the water birds the Cormorants and Grebes of Europe are similarly represented by thePhalacrocorax Carboïdes, &c., andPodiceps Australis,P. NestorandP. gularis; and other instances might be noticed, but as they will all be found in the body of the work, it will not be necessary to recapitulate them here. Although so many curious instances of representation and of nearly allied species are found to occur, no country possesses so many genera peculiar to itself as Australia, such asÆgotheles,Falcunculus,Colluricincla,Grallina,Gymnorhina,Strepera,Cinclosoma,Menura,Psophodes,Malurus,Sericornis,Ephthianura,Pardalotus,Chlamydera,Ptilonorhynchus,Struthidea,Licmetis,Calyptorhynchus,Platycercus,Euphema,Nymphicus,Climacteris,Scythrops,Myzantha,Talegalla,Leipoa,Pedionomus,Cladorhynchus,Tribonyx,Cereopsis,Anseranas, andBiziura.
In a country of such vast extent as Australia, spreading over so many degrees of latitude, we might naturally expect to find much diversity in the climate, and such is really the case. Van Diemen’s Land, from its isolated and more southern position, is cooler and characterized by greater humidity than Australia; its vegetation is therefore abundant, and its forests dense and difficult of access. The climate of the continent, on the other hand, between the 25th and 35th degrees of latitude, is much drier, and has a temperature which is probably higher than that of any other part of the world; the thermometer frequently rising to 110°, 120°, and even 130° in the shade; and this high temperature is not unfrequently increased by the hot winds which sweep over the country from the northward, and which indicate most strongly the parched and sterile nature of the interior. Unlike other hot countries, this great heat and dryness is unaccompanied by night dews, and the falls of rain being uncertain and irregular, droughts of many months’ duration sometimes occur, during which the rivers and lagoons are dried up, the land becomes a parched waste, vegetation is burnt up, and famine spreads destruction on every side. It is easier for the imagination to conceive than the pen to depict the horrors of so dreadful a visitation. The indigenous animals and birds retire to the mountains, or to more distant regions exempt from its influence. Thousands of sheep and oxen perish, bullocks are seen dead by the road-side or in the dried-up water-holes, to which, in the hope of relief, they had dragged themselves, there to fall and die; trees are cut down for the sake of the twigs as fodder; the flocks are driven to the mountains in the hope that water may there be found, and every effort is made to avert the impending ruin; but in spite of all that can be done the loss is extreme. Atlength a change takes place, rain falls abundantly, and the plains, on which but lately not a blade of herbage was to be seen, and over which the stillness of desolation reigned, become green with luxuriant vegetation.Orchideæand thousands of flowers of the loveliest hues are profusely spread around, as if nature rejoiced in her renovation, and the grain springing up vigorously gives promise of an abundant harvest. This change from sterility to abundance in the vegetable world is accompanied by a correspondent increase of animal life, the waters become stocked with fish, the marshy districts with frogs and other reptiles; hosts of caterpillars and other insects make their appearance, and spreading over the surface of the country commence the work of devastation, which however is speedily checked by the birds of various kinds that follow in their train. Attracted by the abundance of food, hawks of three or four species, in flocks of hundreds, depart from their usual solitary habits, become gregarious and busy at the feast, and thousands of Straw-necked Ibises (Ibis spinicollis), and other species of the feathered race, revel in the profusion of a welcome banquet. It must not however be imagined that this change is effected without its attendant horrors; the heavy rains often filling the river-beds so suddenly, that the onward pouring flood carries with it everything that may impede its course; and woe to the unhappy settler whose house or grounds may lie within the influence of the overwhelming floods! A painful instance of the desolating effects of this sudden irruption of the waters came under my own observation while travelling in the plains bordering the Lower Namoi in New South Wales. On pulling up my horse at one of the huts erected by the stock-keepers charged with the flocks and herds depastured in this vast grazing-ground, I found it occupied by Lieut. Lowe and his nephew, who had gone thither for the purpose of being present at the shearing of the flocks belonging to the former gentleman. Although strangers, their reception of me was warm and hospitable, and I left them with a promise of making their abode a resting-place on my return. My second welcome was such as friends receive from friends, and rejoicing that I had made the acquaintance of persons so worthy and estimable, I left them busy in their operations, happy and prosperous. Seven days after my departure from their dwelling heavy rains suddenly set in; the mountain-streams swelled into foaming torrents, filling the deep gullies; the rivers rose, some to the height of forty feet, bearing all before them. The Namoi having widely overflowed its banks, rolled along with impetuous fury, sweeping away the huts of the stock-keepers in its course, tearing up trees, and hurrying affrighted men and flocks to destruction. Before there was time to escape, the hut in which Lieut. Lowe and his nephew were sojourning was torn up and washed away, and the nephew and two men, overwhelmed by the torrent, sank and perished. Lieut. Lowe stripped to swim, and getting on the trunk of an uprooted tree, hoped to be carried down the eddying flood to some part where he could obtain assistance. But he was floated into the midst of a sea of water stretching as far as he could discern on every side around him. Here he slowly drifted; the rains had ceased, the thermometer was at 100°, a glaring sun and a coppery sky were above him; he looked in vain for help, but no prospect of escape animated him, and the hot sun began its dreadful work. His skin blistered, dried, became parched and hard, like the bark of a tree, and life began to ebb. At length assistance arrived—it came too late; he was indeed just alive, but died almost immediately. He was scorched to death.
Sir Thomas Mitchell, in his recently published “Journal of an Expedition into the interior of Tropical Australia,” has given a most vivid picture of the manner in which floods occasioned by distant rains fill the river-beds, and which I beg leave to transcribe. Sir Thomas being somewhat unwell while encamped on the banks of the Macquarie, the channel of which was deep and dry, sent Mr. Stephenson, one of his party, to Mount Foster, to make inquiries about the river and the stations on it lower down. Mr.Stephenson returned early with two of the mounted police. To his most important question, “What water was to be found lower down in the river, the reply was, ‘Plenty, and aflood coming downfrom the Turòn mountains.’ The two policemen said that they had travelled twenty miles with it on the day previous, and that it would still take some time to arrive near our camp.... In the afternoon, two of the men taking a walk up the river, reported on their return, that the flood poured in upon them when in the river-bed so suddenly, that they narrowly escaped it. Still the bed of the Macquarie before our camp continued so dry and silent, that I could scarcely believe the flood coming to be real, and so near to us, who had been put to so many shifts for the want of water. Towards evening I stationed a man with a gun a little way up the river, with orders to fire on the flood’s appearance, that I might have time to run and witness what I so much wished to see, as well from curiosity as from urgent need. The shades of evening came, however, but no flood, and the man on the look-out returned to the camp. Some hours later, and after the moon had risen, a murmuring sound, like that of a distant waterfall, mingled with occasional cracks, as of breaking timber, drew our attention, and I hastened to the river-bank. By very slow degrees the sound grew louder, and at length so audible as to draw various persons besides from the camp to the river-side. Still no flood appeared, although its approach was indicated by the occasional rending of trees with a loud noise. Such a phænomenon in a most serene moonlight night was new to us all. At length the rushing sound of waters, and loud cracking of timber, announced that the flood was in the next bend. It rushed into our sight, glittering in the moonbeams, a moving cataract, tossing before it ancient trees, and snapping them against its banks. It was preceded by a point of meandering water, picking its way, like a thing of life, through the deepest parts of the dark, dry and shady bed, of what thus again became a flowing river. By my party, situated as we were at that time, beating about the country, and impeded in our journey solely by the almost total absence of water,—suffering excessively from thirst and extreme heat,—I am convinced the scene never can be forgotten. Here came at once abundance, the produce of storms in the far-off mountains that overlooked our homes.... The river gradually filled up the channel nearly bank-high, while the living cataract travelled onward much slower than I had expected to see it; so slowly, indeed, that more than an hour after its first arrival the sweet music of the head of the flood was distinctly audible, as the murmur of waters and diapason crash of logs travelled slowly through the tortuous windings.... The next morning the river had risen to within six feet of the top of its banks, and poured its turbid waters along in fulness and strength, but no longer with noise. All night that body of water had been in motion downwards, and seemed to me enough to deluge the whole country.”
So little has as yet been ascertained respecting the climatology of western, north-western and northern Australia, that it is not known whether they also are subject to these tremendous visitations; but as we have reason to believe that the intertropical parts of the country are favoured with a more constant supply of rain as well as a lower degree of temperature, it is most probable that they do not there occur.
Independently of the vast accession of birds attracted by the great supply of food, as mentioned above, there are many species which make regular migrations, visiting the southern parts of the continent and Van Diemen’s Land during the months of summer, for the purpose of breeding and rearing their progeny, and which retire again northwards on the approach of winter, following in fact the same law which governs the migrations of the species inhabiting similar latitudes of the Old World. There are also periods when somespecies of birds appear to entirely forsake the part of the country in which they have been accustomed to dwell, and to betake themselves to some distant locality, where they remain for five or ten years, or even for a longer period, and whence they as suddenly disappear as they had arrived. Some remarkable instances of this kind came under my own observation. The beautiful little warbling Grass Parrakeet (Melopsittacus undulatus), which, prior to 1838, was so rare in the southern parts of Australia that only a single example had been sent to Europe, arrived in that year in such countless multitudes on the Liverpool plains, that I could have procured any number of specimens, and more than once their delicate bodies formed an excellent article of food for myself and party. TheNymphicus Novæ-Hollandiæforms another case in point, and the Harlequin Bronze-winged Pigeon (Peristera histrionica) a third; this latter bird occurred in such numbers on the plains near the Namoi in 1839, that eight fell to a single discharge of my gun; both the settlers and natives assured me that they had suddenly arrived, and that they had never before been seen in that part of the country. The aborigines who were with me, and of whom I must speak in the highest praise, for the readiness with which they rendered me their assistance, affirmed, upon learning the nature of my pursuits, that they had come to meet me. TheTribonyx ventralismay be cited as another species whose movements are influenced by the same law. This bird visited the colony of Swan River in 1833, and that of South Australia in 1840, in such countless myriads, that whole fields of corn were trodden down and destroyed in a single night; and even the streets and gardens of Adelaide were, according to Captain Sturt, alive with them.
If we compare the ornithology of Australia with that of any other country in similar latitudes and of the same extent, we shall find that it fully equals, if it does not exceed them all, in the number of species it comprises; and those parts of the country that are still unexplored doubtless contain many yet to be added to the list of its Fauna.
In the course of the present work it will be found that I have given a wide range of habitat to some of the species, and that I have at the same time pointed out slight variations, not amounting to a specific difference, in individuals from different localities. This difference I am unable to account for. I do not believe the birds to be distinct species, but am inclined to regard them as varieties or races of the same species, modified by the character of the situations they frequent. I may mention some curious instances in point: theArtamus sordidusis a migratory bird in Van Diemen’s Land, and is partially stationary in New South Wales, yet all the examples procured in the former country are the largest and most vigorous, which we should naturally attribute to the excess of food afforded by its more humid climate; but precisely the reverse of this occurs with regard to theGraucalus parvirostris, which is also a migratory bird in Van Diemen’s Land, and examples of which, killed in that island, are much more feeble and diminutive than theGraucaliobtained in New South Wales. TheHalcyon sanctus, again, whose distribution is universal in Australia, varies somewhat in size in every colony, still not sufficiently so as to afford any tangible specific characters.
Upon taking a general view of the Australian ornithology, we find no species of Vulture, only one typical Eagle, and indeed a remarkable deficiency in the number of the species of its birds of prey, with the exception of the nocturnal Owls, among which the members of the restricted genusStrixare more numerous than in any other part of the world; a circumstance which is probably attributable to the great abundance of small nocturnal quadrupeds.
Among the perching birds there is a great excess of theInsectivoræ—Podargi,Meliphagidæ,Maluridæ,Gymnorhinæ, &c., of theGranivoræ, such as various species of theFringillidæand of thePsittacidæ. The latter tribe of birds is more numerous in Australia than in any other part of the world, and forms four great groups, viz. the Calyptorhynchi, which mainly procure their food from theBanksiæ,CasuarinæandEucalypti; theCacatuæ, which feed upon the terrestrialOrchideæ, &c.; theTrichoglossi, which subsist upon the nectar they extract from the flower-cups and blossoms of theEucalypti; and the ground and grass Parrakeets, which feed almost exclusively on the seeds of the various grasses that abound on the plains; the united groups amounting to nearly sixty species.
Of the Rasorial forms,—while the Pigeons and Hemipodes are numerous, the larger and typicalGallinaceæare entirely wanting; their only representatives being a few species ofCoturnixandSynoïcus. The Grallatorial birds are about equal in number to those of other countries; and among the water birds the true Ducks are but few, while theProcellaridæwhich visit the coast are more abundant than in any other part of the world. On a retrospect of the whole we find a greater number of nocturnal birds than is comprised in the ornithology of any other section of the globe. I must not omit to mention too the extraordinary fecundity which prevails in Australia, many of its smaller birds breeding three or four times in a season; but laying fewer eggs in the early spring when insect life is less developed, and a greater number later in the season when the supply of insect food has become more abundant. I have also some reason to believe that the young of many species breed during the first season, for among others I frequently found one section of the Honey-eaters (theMelithrepti) sitting upon eggs while still clothed in the brown dress of immaturity; and we know that such is the case with the introducedGallinaceæ, three or four generations of which have been often produced in the course of a year.
Another peculiar feature connected with the Australian ornithology is that of its comprising several forms endowed with the power of sustaining and enjoying life without a supply of water, that element without which most others languish and die; for instance, the Halcyons, which I found living and even breeding on the parched plains of the interior during the severe drought of 1838–39, far removed from any water; the food of these birds being insects and lizards.
A considerable number of the older-known of the Australian birds have been described in the general works of Vieillot, Latham, Shaw and others; but their descriptions are so vague, and the species themselves so frequently referred to genera widely different from those to which they really belong, that it has been impossible to identify the whole of them; but wherever they could be identified with certainty their names have been adopted, or quoted in the synonyms.
The “Birds of Europe” were arranged according to the views of the late Mr. Vigors; and in the “Birds of Australia” the arrangement is mainly the same, with some modifications of my own which appeared to me to be necessary.
I have been constrained, for the sake of uniformity in size, to divide the present work into seven volumes; the first of which comprises theRaptores, the small number of which will account for its being somewhat thinner than the others; the second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth volumes comprise theInsessores,RasoresandGrallatoresin one continuous series, and the seventh theNatatores.
The following synoptical table will give a general view of the whole; it contains all the additional information I have received, or been able to procure, during the progress of the work; the characters of the new genera I have found it necessary to institute, &c.; and the references to the volumes in which the respective plates are arranged will render it easy to consult and to quote them.