XESrS AXD AGGS Of .ll'STAAUAX BIHDS. 301 



and camping utensils fill up the rcniaiuder of the van. Tlie bird 

 trappers tlicn .set out, slopping in likely country to prosjKJct or take 

 out one of the iiorses and ride round a bit, and camping from day to 

 day till a load of birds is secured. Some 1,000 miles are travelled before 

 the desired object is attained. Early in the morning and towards the 

 evening the best catches or " pulls " arc Uiken. 



After a successful pull the trappers lake the birds carefully from 

 the net, a« a fisherman would lake fish, and plate them in the 

 " crowding ' c;ige. These aiges are in turn emptied into larger cages 

 in the van. The Finches thus confined are watered and fed once a 

 day, usually in the morning, and the cages cleaned evei-y other day. 

 The ideal bird catcher is not the lazy being some people imagine. He 

 has to use cunningly-devised means lo seciu'e bu'ds, and afterwards to 

 attend daily to them, besides looking to the horses and cooking his own 

 food. He must needs be enthusiastic, pcrscvciing, full of resources, 

 keen-sighted, with discriminating ears tor all bush sounds, especially 

 the voices of birds. 



What with left end pegs, right hand front cheek, side crooking and 

 bridle lines, and other technical terms, it would lake too long to describe 

 the nets. Even the mode of taking a pull of birds, if stated in ordinary 

 language, would px'ove incomprehensible to most readers. Sufficient to 

 state that an ingenious contrivance in the shape of a net with right 

 and left hand wings, each tliirly feet long by six feet broad, is 

 placed upon the gi-ound ; and when the wild birds are enticed by call 

 birds in cages, or by a " flur " or play bird, the two wings of the net, 

 with a dexterous pull of a line by the trapper in hiding, rapidly close 

 and overlap in a remarkably easy manner. Thus the most wily of birds 

 may be secui'ed. When the van is full the birds arc .sold to agents, 

 who sliip them to European markets. 



FAMILY— ALAUDID.E ; LARKS. 



412. MlUAFRA HORSFIELDI, Gould. (248) 



BUSH LARK. 



Figure. — Gould : Bircl.s of Australia, fol., vol. iii., pi. 77. 



Heftrene. — Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., vol. xiii., p. 604. 



Previous Descriptions of E<;gs. — Kamsay : Proc. Zool. Soc, ji. 68c 

 (1865) ; Campbell : Southern Science Record (18S3) ; North : 

 Trans. Roy. Soc, .South Australia, vol. xxii., p. 141 (1898). 



(reiiyrophirnl Dislrihution. — Whole of Australia. 



