60 SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 



is as great an art as their shooting. The suc(3ess of the day's bag depended 

 not only on the aim of the sportsman, but the skill and judgment of the 

 driver, who, driving gradually, not towards the feeding birds, but in ever 

 lessening circles, gradually brought the vehicle with the shooter sitting 

 behind within range of the watching bird. The moment the trap stopped, 

 the turkeys were up, and if the horse had been badly trained, and was^ 

 restless, it took a good shot to bag his bird at anything near 100 yards. 

 On very hot days, however, the wild turkeys were not so active, and had a 

 very curious habit (particularly if feeding in crab-holey or rough ground) of 

 " squatting," evidently under the impression they were concealed from the 

 approaching enemy. They would squat close to the ground, draw the head 

 and neck down on the body, and if the watcher happened to take his eye off 

 just before this vanishing trick was effected, it was often very difficult to 

 locate the exact spot where the game was hidden. Sometimes the trick 

 would be done on an absolutely bare patch of soil, and the bird would allow 

 one to get within easy range under the mistaken idea that it was quite safe. 



In north-west Australia, in from King's Sound, T have seen Bustards in 

 comparatively thick scrub land, but in New South Wales and Victoria 

 they are seldom seen off the plains. 



On 17th January, 1919, while at the Government Sheep-fly Experiment 

 Station near Moree, where wild turkeys were not uncommon in the long 

 grass, I obtained a bird only about a fortnight old, which one of the 

 boundary riders caught when it was coming into a dam with its mother to 

 drink in the evening. This active little creature was for several weeks 

 kept in a small yard, whei'e it became veiy tame, but frequently uttered a 

 very plaintive frightened cry if one went near or touched it. It would eat 

 almost any kind of food, but preferred raw or cooked mea£ cut into small 

 pieces. At the time of writing (nearly twelve months later) this bird is- 

 well grown and in our Zoological Gardens. 



The Mallee-fowl or Lowan {Leipoa ocellata). 



Gould's Handbook, vol. II, page 155, No. 477 ; Leach's Bird Book, p. 13, No. 2. 



This cu rious bird differs in form and coloration from all the other members- 

 of the mound-nesting birds known as Megapodes, and is found further south 

 than any other form of the group, ranging through the north-western 

 districts of Victoria, central South Australia, and across Western Australia 

 almost to the coast. The popular name of Mallee-hen or Mallee-fowl defines 

 it well, as it inhabits all that class of low scrub, dwarfed eucalypts, and other 

 scrubs known as the Mallee. Under the protection of this it constructs the 

 remarkable mound nest that attracted the attention of all the early 

 travellers and naturalists. Gould gave a long and interesting account of 

 these birds and their mounds in his " Birds of Australia," and was so- 



