east coast flocks of galar parrots and plain-pigeons will be found
feeding on the western slope of a ridge, but never by any chance crossing
on to the eastern.

Australia is rich in waders, and they are found all over the continent.
The beautiful jabiru, or gigantic crane, is equally at home in some
lonely waterhole in the far west and at the head of a coast swamp; so,
too, the GRUS AUSTRALIS, or native companion, and the quaint and
rich-plumaged ibis. The familiar laughing-jackass is to be found
everywhere, but his peculiar note differs somewhat in different parts; a
blackfellow from the south says that the laugh of the northern bird makes
him feel sick, whilst the northern native says the same of the southern
kingfisher. The great inland plains are the haunt of the flock-pigeon; in
countless myriads, these beautiful birds come at some seasons of the
year, and in the morning when flying in to the water they look like
distant clouds.

The fish of the tableland differ greatly from those of the coast. In some
of the inland lakes and permanent lagoons they are so fat as to be almost
uneatable, and at times so plentiful and easily caught that the
blackfellows scarcely trouble to get them, which is rarely the case
elsewhere. The Australian native is a man with an unknown history whether
he is an improvement on his remote ancestors or a degenerate descendant
it is impossible to form any idea.

Whoever they were they left nothing behind them, except this wandering
savage, and he has neither traditions nor customs that tell us anything
of the past. The language is a perfect confusion of tongues, and
dialects, words of similar sound and meaning are often found in places
hundreds of miles apart; in distinct tribes wherein the rest of the