CKUs. 237 



bills. When kept about public parks and gardens they are usually placed in an inner wire 

 enclosure, with a notice " Beware of the Birds," a not unnecessary precaution, for they can 

 inllict a nasty wound. When I was a boy there used to be one kept in a large open-nieshed 

 wire enclosure, in the Botanic Gardens, Melbourne, near the fernery and the lake. Probably 

 owing to being teased by boys, it was a perfect old " rogue," for sheltered by the bushes growing 

 in the enclosure it would stealthily and silently approach, and soon mak'e its presence known 

 by a vicious and sudden thrust with its pointed bill through the open meshes, at any one within 

 reach. On one occasion I saw a lady, with a gentleman, attracted by the bird place her open- 

 netted gloved hand near the wire fence. I warned her that the bird would bite, but before she 

 could draw her hand away the bird suddenly drew back its head, and with lightning like rapidity 

 had struck her hand, causing the blood to How freely. From experience gained while shooting, 

 too great care cannot be taken with Cranes, Herons and Egrets, and similar long-billed and long- 

 necked birds, especially in dealing with a wounded bird. Stately in its gait the Australian Crane 

 undoubtedly is when walking on the plains, and grotesque in its actions and terpsichorean 

 evolutions, when a number are congregated together, and which in the late and wet summer 

 months may be frei]uently seen from a railway carriage window in Northern New South Wales, 

 on the open grassy plains between Narrabri and Moree. Near the Gwydir River I have 

 sometimes disturbed it in breast-high herbage. I also found it common about dams and grassy 

 flats covered more or less with surface water, in the neighbourhood of the Castlereagh River. 



Their Hight is slow and laboured near the ground, but they gradually rise in graceful circles, 

 and soar to an immense height. Frequently, too, they may be seen in wedge-shaped flocks or 

 in two lines, joined at one end in an acute angle. Their harsh grating noise is usually uttered 

 during iTight, but sometimes just as frequently it is emitted wliile standing on the ground with 

 head thrown back. At night time, in the neighbourhood of Zoological Gardens, it is usually the 

 loudest and most frequently heard of any bird. 



Mr. Frank Hislop, writing me from the Bloomfield River District, North-eastern Queensland, 

 remarks : — " The ' Native Companion ' (Grns aiistralasiana ) is only found about the salt-pans near 

 the sea. It does not breed here, and is not at all common. In this district it is usually 

 seen in small flocks of five or six, and is very shy. When in numbers these birds perform some 

 queer antics, something like dancing. On one occasion I shot a bird, breaking its wing, and 

 when I approached it attacked me, as they will do when wounded." 



In his interesting work '^ Mr. E. J. Banfield writes :—" Of the many corrobborees that I 

 have witnessed, the most novel in conception was performed on Dunk Island, North-eastern 

 Queensland, by blacks who came from the neighbourhood of Princess Charlotte Bay, some two 

 hundred miles to the north. The imitation of the frolicsome skip and wing-movements of the 

 Native Companion, is one of the typical dances of the .-Vboriginals frequenting open plains where 

 the great birds assembled. In its performance the men — decorated with streaks and daubs of 

 white and pink clay, and wearing in their hair down and feathers— form a circle, and bowing 

 their bodies towards the centre, chuckle in under tones to the pianissimo tappings of boomerangs 

 and the beating of resonant logs. In strict time to a crescendo accompaniment, the performers 

 throw out their arms, extend their necks downwards and upwards, simultaneously with squawks 

 in imitation of the bird, and finally whirl about. Happing their arms, ceasing instantly by a 

 common impulse." 



Mr. George Savidge sent me the following notes from Copmanhurst, in the Upper Clarence 

 ViisixicV.^" Autif^ouc anstvalasiana is a scarce bird in the Clarence River District. I have seen 

 small flocks on the swampy country at the head of the Coldstream, a tributary of the Clarence, 

 also on the swamp at Lawrence; a pair appeared on a swamp at South Creek, and I think they 

 were about to breed, but were fired at and deserted the locality." 



Confessions of a Beachcomber, p. 273 (190S). 



