21 



body the animal travels for some distance, and requires track- 

 ing to secure it. 



The large frugivorous bats ( Pteioyua yualdij, known as 

 flying-foxes, which are nocturnal in habit, are fond of con- 

 gregating during the daytime in very large numbers in the 

 foliage of bamboos and mangroves, where they hang, head 

 downwards, until dusk. It is an easy matter for the blacks 

 to approach them, and fell a sufficient number with sticks 

 and stones to make a feast. The animals that fall stunned 

 to the ground are gathered and bitten, one by one, in the 

 neck and rump, by the hunters — in the former spot to kill, 

 in the latter as a preliminary test of condition. The restric- 

 tion of this diet from the uninitiated has already been men- 

 tioned. 



Emus are most readily killed by climbing into the 

 iDranch-es of a tree, the fallen seeds of which are known to be 

 eaten by the birds. The blackfellow ascends the tree in the 

 early hours of morning, and awaits his chance, keeping per- 

 fectly silent and motionless w^hen an emu draws near. A 

 special, heavy spear, of the malligirrima type, known 

 as n'inimerrima, is held in readiness. If the bird comes to 

 a spot immediately below the concealed native, the weapon 

 is thrown (without a spear-thrower) in the manner depicted 

 in fig. 7 ; if, however, it is at some distance off, the spear 

 is held in a slightly different manner, as is shown in fig. 8. 



Fig. 7. Fig. S. 



Large flocks of wild semipalmated geese ( Anseranus 

 indanoJdtcaj visit the same localities periodically. The 

 blacks have got to know these localities well, and, during the 

 absence of the birds, make an excavation in the ground, and 

 cover it over with twigs, paper-bark, grass, and soil, leaving 

 only one or two small lookouts open. A couple of natives 

 sit in this hole and await the return of the geese. As soon 

 as a head or leg of a goose comes near to the window, it is 

 seized, drawn below, and its neck wrung. In this way many 

 birds may be secured. 



