Nephrurus asper.
Some time afterwards I made a journey to the west to a station owned by Mr. Barnard, and bearing the strange name Coomooboolaroo. The family of the squatter was particularly interested in natural history, an interest I had observed in several places, but rarely so marked as here. Mr. Barnard himself was a very able entomologist, and possessed a fine collection of insects, which he was constantly increasing. His wife was a great help to him, and made excellent drawings of the specimens. Their four sons had a similar taste, and they added to the family museum many valuable specimens. Upon the whole, these boys were the most skilful collectors I have ever met. They accompanied me on many excursions into the woods, when we camped together, and on such occasions I had the best opportunity of witnessing their matchless skill.
They climbed the trees as easily as any black man. When they had their tomahawks in their hands no tree was too high for them. Like the blacks, they cut niches in the bark for the support of their toes, and in this way they were able to secure insects found only in the highest tree-tops.
They were always barefooted, in order to get about more easily, and the stones and uneven ground gave them no trouble on our excursions, as they planted their supple and sure feet in the most difficult places. Ever on the alert, nothing escaped their attention. Even when they stood ready to fire their guns, they would suddenly start off to catch an insect flying by; and in the woods they were able to seize with their hands, while running, one beetle after the other that came flying past.
Their keen faculty of observation astonished me again and again. They studied the life and habits of animals, and gave me much valuable information, for they knew the fauna of the locality perfectly. They did not confine themselves to the neighbourhood of the station. Their father sometimes sent them on long expeditions, and they invariably returned with large collections.
There were many brush-turkeys (Talegalla lathami) in this region. So far as I am aware, it has not hitherto been known how the young of this bird work their way out of the peculiar mound in which the eggs are laid to be hatched by artificial heat, after the custom of the megapodidæ. Mr. Barnard thinks he has found this out. His sons had at one time brought home some eggs from such a mound made of earth and decayed plants. Two of them were laid under a hen, but rotted away. One egg he placed in a heap of goats’ manure near his house. When a few days later he went to look after the egg, and carefully removed the covering, he at once discovered the fact that a little bird was lying on its back and trying to work its way out of the heap of manure. It had already reached to within two inches of the surface.
His sons had also, in digging for talegalla eggs, observed young birds lying on their backs and trying to work their way out with their feet. The material of the mound seems to be more loosely put together at the bottom than at the top, where it is made of coarser stuff.
At a station in the neighbourhood there was a tame male talegalla which lived with the hens. It was in the habit of chasing them together into a little grove near the house, and the proprietor of the station was convinced that the bird in this manner was trying to compel the hens to build a mound. When the hens, not understanding what was expected of them, ran away, the talegalla would chase them back into the grove, and at last he became so troublesome that it was found necessary to shoot him.
Near Fairfield, close to the station, my young assistants found, in the month of September, nests belonging to the beautiful Australian parrot Platycercus pulcherrimus. Usually the nests were several miles apart. The eggs were partly hatched. The strange fact about these nests is that they are built in the hills of “the white ants.” There is an irregular entrance about two inches in diameter and about a foot above the ground. In the interior the parrot makes an opening about a foot high and two or three feet in diameter. None of the building material is carried away, but all the cells and canals are trampled down, so that there remains simply a wall one or two inches thick around the whole nest. Here the female lays five white eggs.
In this locality there were countless kangaroos. Though these animals are really harmless, still the colonists keep at a respectful distance from an old kangaroo which has been driven to a tree by the dogs. This is not surprising, when we learn that in a sitting posture it may attain a height of six to seven feet. A specimen measuring eight feet has been shot. It is said that the male marsupials, particularly kangaroos, continue to grow as long as they live. The kangaroos never make an attack, but I know of instances when this animal has given proof not only of its strength but also of its fearlessness.