Chap, xiv.] CAMP OF THE BLACKS. 305 



hit upon are easily shot. Several " Brush Turkeys " {Talegalla 

 Laiha/iii), were shot during our stay at Somerset, and the huge 

 mounds thrown up by them were common objects at the 

 borders of the scrubs, but the season was not far enough 

 advanced for them to have commenced laying eggs. 



A brilliant Bee-eater {Merops ornatiis) was common at Cape 

 York, and was to be seen seated, as is the wont of Bee-eaters, 

 on some dead branch, and darting thence from time to time 

 after its prey. A little Ground Pigeon {Geopelia), not much 

 bigger than a sparrow, was also abundant. 



A species of Swallow-shrike {Artamus leiicopygialis) was very 

 common, sitting in small flocks in rows on wires stretched for 

 drying clothes near one of the houses, just as swallows sit on 

 telegraph wires in England. The birds made excursions after 

 flies, flying just like swallows, and returned to their perching 

 place. Those which I shot all had their feathers at the bases 

 of their bills clogged with pollen from the flowers, in which no 

 doubt they had been searching for insects ; like some humming- 

 birds, they must act as fertilizers, carrying pollen from one 

 flower to another. 



In all my excursions I was accompanied by Blacks. An 

 encampment of natives lay at about half a mile from the shore ; 

 the camp was a small one, and composed of the remnants of 

 three tribes. There were 21 natives in this camp when I 

 visited it early one morning in search of a guide, before day- 

 break, before the Blacks were awake. Of these 21, about six 

 were adult males, one of whom was employed at the water 

 police station during the day time ; there were four boys of 

 from ten to fourteen years, two young girls, two old women, 

 two middle-aged women, and the remainder were young 

 women. 



One of the old women was the mother of Longway, who 

 acted as my guide, and who had a son about ten years old. 

 The Blacks were mostly of the Gudang tribe, a vocabulary of 

 the language of which is given in the Appendix to MacGillivray's 

 " Voyage of the 'Rattlesnake.' " * The natives were in a lower 

 condition than I had expected. Their camp consisted of an 

 irregularly oval space concealed in the bushes, at some distance 

 from one of the paths through the forest. In the centre were 

 low heaps of wood ashes with fire-sticks smouldering on them. 

 All around was a shallow groove or depression, caused partly 

 by the constant lying and sitting of the Blacks in it, partly by 

 the gradual accumulation of ashes inside, and the casting of 

 these and other refuse immediately outside it. On the outer 



* For a further account of Cape York, see Jukes, " Voyage of the 

 'Fly.'" 



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