How Thick They Were
Can Be Judged From The Result Of One Barrel, Which Killed Fourteen.
It was a pretty sight to watch the birds drinking, as we sat in Breaden's
sick-room, the cave.
By keeping quite still we could watch them all. All
day long the sparrows, diamond and black, are fluttering about the water,
chirping and twittering, until the shadow of a hawk circling above
scatters them in all directions. Then morning and evening flocks of
little budgerigars, or lovebirds, fly round and round, and at last take a
dive through the air and hang in a cloud close over the water; then,
spreading out their wings, they drink, floating on the surface. The
galahs make the most fuss of any, chattering away on the trees, and
sneaking down one by one, as if they hoped by their noise to cover the
advance of their mate. The prettiest of all the birds is a little plump,
quail-like rock-pigeon or spinifex-pigeon, a dear little shiny, brown
fellow with a tuft on his head. They arrive at the water suddenly and
unexpectedly from behind rocks and trees, and stand about considering;
then one, more venturesome than the rest, runs quickly down to drink, and
is followed by a string of others; then they run up again ever so fast,
and strut about cooing and spreading their crests - one seldom sees them
fly; when they do they rise straight up, and then dart away close to the
ground and drop suddenly within a few yards. Of all birds the crow has
most sound common sense; there is no dawdling in his methods; down he
swoops with beautifully polished feathers glistening in the sun, to the
water's edge, stands for a second to look calmly from side to side; then
a long drink and away he goes, thoroughly satisfied to mind his own
business and nobody else's.
The two boys were splendid marksmen with short sticks, which they threw
into the flights of love-birds and sparrows as they passed. Whenever they
killed one they squatted down and heated it on the ashes, and ate it
straight away; and so small bird after small bird went down their throats
all day long, and they never thought to keep them until they had
sufficient for a good square meal. No doubt in their family circle they
have to take what they can get, and only make sure of keeping what they
have, by eating it at once.
Wandering about the hills I saw an emu, the first I had seen since
leaving the Coolgardie districts, though we had found their tracks at
Woodhouse Lagoon. He was too shy for me, and I failed to get a shot
after a lengthy stalk. Godfrey returned late that night with several
wallabies, and many bruises and abrasions, for he had had a nasty fall in
the dark down one of the many ravines.
The next morning was a sad one, for it disclosed the death from
poison-plant of poor old Shiddi, one of the best and noblest of camels - a
fine black, handsome old bull.
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