96 



IN AUSTRALIAN WILDS 



the Banded Ant-eater [Myrmecobius fasciatus]. 

 After an ants' or termites' mound has been dug open, 

 the spoiler protrudes its long tongue among the 

 swarming insects, and when the organ is covered with 

 tiny victims, retracts it, and swallows the lot. It is 

 wholesale slaughter. 



ECHIDNA, BURROWING. 



To reach Cantalla, a lonely lake in the Mallee, I 

 travelled nearly 300 miles down the Murray in a small 

 paddle steamer from Swan Hill. It was summer- 

 time, but the river voyage was pleasant. The flood 

 waters had not receded, and on either side the river 

 were billabongs and vast areas of swampy land. Bird 

 life was abundant. Like gray shadows, thousands 

 of Marsh Terns skimmed low over the water, dived, 

 or revelled in the sunshine above the tree-tops. Ibises 

 and Herons patrolled the flood-lands, and Black Swans 



