THE TASMANIAN BUSH.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 9 May 1925, Page 16

THE TASMANIAN BUSH.

BIRDS. BEASTS AND FLOWERS

MARJORY TANNER’S DESCRIPTION. Oeo lid., Oeo. My dear Smile Qneen, —1 think 1 like the Tasmanian climate best, it is a clear heat and it is not too hot and not too cold all the year. Australia is too hot and Taranaki has a muggy heat and is too wet. I cannot remember what, the'Hawke’s Bay climate is like. \Ye landed at Launceston in February. 1916. After staying in Launceston a few days we caught the. train to travel to Scottsdale. Alter we had gone a short distance through meadows, we were surrounded by lovely bush. When we had gone some distance through this we came to a small clearing on which stood a little homestead. When we were about hall way between Launceston and Scottsdale, the- train was shunted «n to a side line while they picked lip some timber. We arrived in Scottsdale in the dark. We lived there for two months and then shifted on to our farm about six miles out, of town Our farm was surrounded bv bush i n which the com. mone.st, animals were: —Kangaroos, wallabies, opossums, badgers, kangaioo rats, wallaby rats, blue-tongued lizards, small lizards, snakes and bloodsuckers. Thera were also numerous birds. There were magpies, laughing jackasses, robin redbreasts, swallows, parrots, cuckoos, black crows a.nd fantails besides many others.

The bush is tub- of heatli, which grows on a prieky plant and has pink, white or red bells on it. There are lovely big gum trees which have no branches op the trunk at all. The kangaroos, wallabies and opossumfc are shot «*for their finr. the kangaroo rats and wallaby rats are like the kangaroos and wallabies in appearance. The blue-tongued lizards are about two teet long in the body and six inches along the tail, and they have four legs. When you go near them they flatten themselves out. They do not bite people. The small lizards are Jmueh the same only they are iibout six inches long. If you t-oucli "the tail of one of these lizards it . drops oil' and new ones grow. They curl tip and go to sleep all the winter and wake up during the summer. There are numerous kinds of snakes. The smallest is a little one about ns long as la pencil. It is called the pencil or minute snake. Then there are the whip snake, the black snake and a number of others. One day I almost picked a whip snake up, thinking it was a stick.

The magpies make lovely pets. They build their nests in very high trees. One day I found a young one which had falen out of its nest, but it did not live. Laughing jackasses sit up in the trees, apd laugh at you. But the prettiest bird is the little robin redbreast. It is a sweet little bird. The eagle hawks arc big. They sometimes carry sheep or children off. Iho parrots carry oft all your fruit. They come in mobs and eat all the apples fche'v can.

In spring the- bush is so pretty, for the red, pink and white heath is all in bloom and the wattles look like a solid mass of gold at a short distance. In the winter, when you rise early, the sun is sending its first golden fays over the trees, and, as the dew hangs o n the Waves the drops look like diamonds; the sun also sending its bright, clear rays over the frozen flax-bushes, causing them to sparkle and glitter. Well, dear Smile Queen, I shall have to bring my narrative to a close, not because there is want of news, but because it is taking up too much time and room. So good night till next Saturday night. Your senior® smile, Marjory O. Tanner.

[You write splendid descriptions Marjory. 1 enjoy readihg them very much indeed. Do not fear that they will take up to much of mv time ospace. Hawke’s Bay climate is drier and much hotter than that of Taranaki. I think it would be nice to go to Napier, for it has the most sun in New Zealand. Of course we need the rain here, and then we are on the west side of the Island and so get more rain than the east. I think the heath bushes would be pretty;. and gurus I know are beautiful, especially when those, feathery flowers- are out. There are some lovely little hooks called The Gum Nut Babies. I would like to live in Tasmania to have baby kangaroos, wallabies Or opossums for pets. Lizards are quaint looking reptiles; 1 like them and I would also enjoy having some of the bird life, but 1 would not like snakes, nor bloodsuckers. W<e are fortunate in New Zealand : we have nothing disagreeable like that and we. may go anywhere without fear. T like that voting fellow the laughing jackass. You have to laugh when he starts. He’s good fun. The New Zealand manuka is beautiful. It., with our clematis and rata flowering amid the glorious greens in our bush, and the poliutukawa along the coastline, leave litt-’e to be desired. —S.Q.]