GRALLATORES. 291 



elegant in all its movements, and its presence adds greatly 

 to the interest of the scenery. It is not unfrequently cap- 

 tured, and is very easily tamed : when at Paramatta I saw 

 a remarkably fine example walking about the streets in 

 the midst of the inhabitants perfectly at its ease ; and Mr. 

 James M'Arthur informed me that a pair which he had kept 

 in the immediate neighbourhood of his house at Camden, and 

 which had become perfectly domesticated, so far attracted 

 the notice of a pair of wild birds as to induce them to settle 

 and feed near the house, and becoming still tamer, to approach 

 the yard, feed from his hand, and even to follow the domes- 

 ticated birds into the kitchen, until unfortunately a servant 

 imprudently seizing at one of the wild birds and tearing a 

 handful of feathers from its back, the wildness of its disposi- 

 tion was roused, and darting forth followed by its companion 

 it mounted in the air soaring higher and higher at every circle, 

 at the same time uttering its hoarse call, which was responded 

 to by the tame birds below ; for several days did they return 

 and perform the same evolutions without alighting, until the 

 dormant impulses of the tame birds being aroused they also 

 winged their way to some far distant part of the country, and 

 never returned to the home where they had been so long 

 fostered. 



When near the ground the action of the wings is very 

 laboured ; but when soaring in a series of circles at such a 

 height in the air as to be almost imperceptible to human vision, 

 it appears to be altogether as easy and graceful ; it is while 

 performing these gyrations that it frequently utters its hoarse 

 croaking cry. 



It breeds on the ground, usually depositing its two eggs in 

 a slight depression on the bare plains ; but occasionally the 

 low swampy lands in the vicinity of the coast are resorted to 

 for that purpose. The eggs are three inches and a half long 

 by two inches and a quarter in breadth, and are of a cream- 

 colour blotched all over, particularly at the larger end, with 



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