Orifice; if the hole be deep,
the furthest point to which the animal can recede is ascertained, and an
opening made near it with whatever implement he may be using. If the
whole trunk of the tree, or a large portion of it be hollow, a fire is
made in the lower opening, which soon drives out the game.
When opossums are hunted by moonlight, the native dog is useful in
scenting them along the ground where they sometimes feed, and in guiding
the native to the tree they have ascended, when alarmed at his approach.
They are then either knocked down with sticks or the tree is ascended as
in the day time.
Flying squirrels are procured in the same way as opossums. The sloth,
which is an animal as large as a good sized monkey, is also caught among
the branches of the larger scrub-trees, among which it hides itself; but
it is never found in holes.
Wallabies are of many kinds, and are killed in various ways. By hunting
with bwirris, by nets, by digging out of the ground; the larger sorts, as
rock wallabies, by spearing, and several kinds by making runs, into which
they are driven. In hunting with bwirris (a short heavy stick with a knob
at one end) a party of natives go out into the scrub and beat the bushes
in line, if any game gets up, the native who sees it, gives a peculiar
"whir-rr" as a signal for the others to look out, and the animal is at
once chased and bwirris thrown at him in all directions, the peculiar
sound of the "whir-rr" always guiding them to the direction he has taken.
It rarely happens that an animal escapes if the party of natives be at
all numerous.
In netting the wallabies, a party of seven or eight men go in advance,
with each a net of from twenty to forty feet long, and when they arrive
near the runs, usually made use of by these animals, a favourable spot is
selected, and the nets set generally in a line and nearly together, each
native concealing himself near his own net. The women and children who,
in the mean time had been making a considerable circuit, now begin to
beat amongst the bushes with the wind, shouting and driving the wallabies
before them towards the nets, where they are caught and killed.
Other species of the wallabie burrow in the ground like rabbits, and are
dug out. The large rock-wallabies are speared by the natives creeping
upon them stealthily among the rugged rocks which they frequent, on the
summits of precipitous heights which have craggy or overhanging cliffs.
In making runs for taking the wallabie, the natives break the branches
from the bushes, and laying them one upon another, form, through the
scrubs, two lines of bush fence, diverging from an apex sometimes to the
extent of several miles, and having at intervals large angles formed by
the fence diverging.
