Amongst other noteworthy Australian birds is the Lyre Bird, in two or three species. This is a distant connection of thrushes and warblers, the size of a pheasant, and with very pheasantlike habits. Although the colour of its body is simply brown of various tints, the male bird has a most remarkable tail, the larger feathers of which exactly reproduce the form of a lyre. This creature is one of the minor wonders of the world, and it is therefore surprising that the great Commonwealth of Australia should take no measures to prevent its extermination at the hands of thoughtless and ignorant settlers, for, unlike the cockatoos, it does no damage to crops.
Australia also possesses the Black Swan, and it has a strange-looking, long-legged Goose, which has scarcely any web between its toes. There are numerous Eagles and Hawks, but there is no Vulture. There is also no True Crow, but there are Choughs and many crow-like developments of the Shrike, Oriole, and Starling groups, and in the extreme north of Australia, besides one or two Birds of Paradise, there are the singular Bower Birds (really belonging to the same family), who build little palaces and ornamental gardens of sticks, shells, feathers, pebbles, and other bright and attractive objects, as places in which they can go through their courtship ceremonies. The mound-building Megapodes or Brush Turkeys (which do not hatch their eggs by sitting on them, but bury the egg in a mound of decaying vegetation) also inhabit eastern and northern Australia, and are the only representatives there of the gallinaceous order. Amongst Kingfishers is the celebrated Laughing Jackass, which lives not on fish but on insects and carrion. Australia has no Woodpeckers, no Hornbills, no Cuckoos, and no True Pheasants, and a good many other bird families are remarkable for their absence from this region.
The scenery of New Zealand, in contrast to that of Australia, is nearly everywhere beautiful—as nature made it—though the modern settlers have robbed the island of much of its loveliness by cutting down the forests recklessly, destroying the ferns, and shooting the song birds. In the North Island of New Zealand are the most remarkable examples of volcanic activity, and this region has, or had—for they sometimes disappear in earthquake convulsions—beautiful crater lakes of deep blue or emerald green and terraces of congealed lava or pumicestone that assume lovely tints of pink, pale yellow, green or bluish grey.
The trees and plants of New Zealand have a character quite as peculiar and distinct as those of Australia. Amongst them grow beech trees similar to those of South Australia, and allied to the beeches of South America. There are only two species of a single genus of palm (Rhopalostylis), but there are many conifers allied to those of New Guinea and South America rather than to the conifers of Australia. The Kauri "pine" (Agathis) has been already mentioned. None of the conifers of Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea, and New Caledonia are "pines", "cedars", or "firs". The members of the pine family are entirely restricted to the Northern Hemisphere. The magnificent "pines" of New Caledonia and its adjacent islands are Araucarias ("monkey puzzles"). Besides an abundance of ferns (including the bracken), the undergrowth of New Zealand is chiefly composed of Veronica bushes, of fuchsias, and calceolarias. New Zealand has no deserts, and is blessed with a constant and a fairly abundant rainfall. It is as unlike Australia in appearance as it could well be, and much more resembles in general appearance our own country of England or the southernmost parts of South America.
New Zealand and New Caledonia were evidently cut off from their ancient connection with the New Hebrides and New Guinea before mammals had spread in that direction. New Zealand was entirely without any form of beast, except bats and seals, when first colonized by the Maoris; but this Polynesian people brought with them in their canoes a rat which they bred for eating, and a small, foxy-looking, domestic dog. Of the bats there are two kinds: one a small nocturnal bat, allied to the European Pipistrelle; and the other a very remarkable and isolated form, a "day" bat (Mystacops), which climbs about the trees, has very narrow wings, and does not fly much. The seals on the coast, which made New Zealand so attractive to the American and English whaling ships, consisted of a "Sea Bear" (Otaria), the Sea Elephant (now extinct), and four other large Antarctic species of true Seal. New Zealand had no great variety in species of birds, which belonged mainly to the Goose, Rail, Eagle, Parrot, Honeyeater, and Corvine groups. Amongst the most noteworthy of modern New Zealand birds are the Kaka Parrot of North Island and the handsome Kea Parrot of the South Island (both of the genus Nestor). The last-named has lately taken to attacking sheep. Another very interesting form is the Stringops or Tarapo Ground Parrot (sometimes called the Owl Parrot). The Huia is a chough-like bird with orange wattles and a beak which, though straight in the male is sickle-shaped in the female. The Tui Honeyeater or parson bird has two delicate white plumes below each cheek. But it is the extinct birds which will always make New Zealand interesting. Amongst these was the largest type of bird which has probably ever existed—the Moa. We now know that besides Moas with long necks and small heads, which stood about 12 feet high, and were bigger than ostriches, there were other and much smaller types of the same order. One of these still survives: it is the so-called wingless Apteryx, which comes out at night, and with its long beak searches for worms. These Moas, of many sorts and sizes, probably still lived in the three islands of the New Zealand dominion when they were first discovered by the Polynesians; but being without any adequate means of defence, and quite unable to fly, they were soon exterminated, only the nocturnal Apteryx remaining. It is possible that these great ostrich-like birds reached New Zealand from the direction of Queensland and New Caledonia. [New Caledonia possesses one bird, which is found nowhere else in the world, though it has relations in South America. This is the Kagu, a pretty, grey, heron-like creature, which is really a sort of dwarf crane.] Two other remarkable bird developments once existed in New Zealand: a large, flightless goose (Cnemiornis), and a huge, thick-set Harpy Eagle (Harpagornis). This last no doubt fed mainly on the Moas, and died out when they became extinct.
New Zealand has only one kind of frog, no snakes, no tortoises, and only one true lizard (a Gecko), but it possesses all to itself an indigenous reptile of the greatest possible interest. This is the Tuatera (or Sphenodon), now restricted in its range to three or four islets off the northernmost coasts of New Zealand. Once this creature, which is about 3 to 4 feet long, ranged over the whole of New Zealand. It has been killed out mainly by the white settlers, and unless some effort is made will soon have disappeared altogether. This would be a great pity, for it is one of the most interesting of living things. It is the scarcely changed descendant of a very early order of reptiles which came into being millions of years ago and inhabited Europe and Asia.