THROUGH THE BIG SWAMPS 



113 



the water at an acute angle. Before we left the 

 rookery I had been in this undignified position half a 

 dozen times. It is rather exciting, photographing 

 from a flattie. 



Near the Cormorants' rookery, on lofty branches, 

 were several nests of the Night Heron [Nycticorax 

 caledonicus] , known to the Lake Boga blacks as Yapul- 

 yapitch. Three of the beautiful birds rose from 



ON A SWAMP ISLET: BOILING THE BILLY. 



neighbouring boughs; but the nests contained neither 

 eggs nor fledglings. We landed at noon on an islet, 

 an acre or more of high land, and Rob soon had the 

 billy dangling over a brushwood fire. Meanwhile, I 

 turned over bits of bark around the bole of a big 

 gum tree, in quest of specimens. The "bag" was 

 meagre, consisting of a few beetles and a centipede. A 

 brown spider, with great furry legs, was disturbed, 

 and dodged into a crevice. A scorpion was killed 

 near the stump I had chosen as a seat. Snakes, 



