all, as we used to say, the bird earned its share and 

 deserved encouragement. 



Round the camp fire at nights it was no uncommon 

 thing to see some one jump up and let out with what- 

 ever was handiest at some poisonous intruder. There 

 was always plenty of dead wood about and we piled 

 on big branches and logs freely, and as the ends burnt 

 to ashes in the heart of the fire we kept pushing the 

 logs further in. Of course, dead trees are the home 

 of all sorts of ' creepy-crawly ' things, and as the log 

 warmed up and the fire eat into the decayed heart 

 and drove thick hot smoke through the cracks and corri- 

 dors and secret places in the logs the occupants would 

 come scuttling out at the butt ends. Small snakes 

 were common the big ones usually clearing when 

 the log was first disturbed and they slipped away into 

 the darkness giving hard quick glances about them ; 

 but scorpions, centipedes and all sorts of spiders were 

 by far the most numerous. 



Occasionally in the mornings we found snakes 

 under our blankets, where they had worked in 

 during the night for the warmth of the human body ; 

 but no one was bitten, and one made a practice of 

 getting up at once, and with one movement, so that 

 unwelcome visitors should not be warned or provoked 

 by any preliminary rolling. The scorpions, centi- 

 pedes and tarantulas seemed to be more objectionable ; 

 but they were quite as anxious to get away as we were, 

 and it is wonderful how little damage is done. 



One night when we had been watching them coming 

 out of a big honeycombed log like the animals from the 



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