168 IN AUSTRALIAN WILDS. 



velocity until it was blowing half a gale. And we 

 were still four miles from Jerilderie when a towering 

 wall of darkness came sweeping across the plains. 

 There was no hope of escaping the duststorm, so we 

 stopped the pony, and, with muffled heads bent low, 

 awaited the onslaught. For several minutes the 

 landscape was blotted out by whirling clouds of dust, 

 and we were enveloped. Breathing was difficult, and 

 had the air not cleared quickly we would have been 

 half-suffocated. Our clothes were coated with dust, 

 and the pony appeared to have changed its colour. We 

 watched the storm tearing towards the town, and 

 followed in its tracks. Our troubles were not yet 

 over, for another duststorm overtook us, and we en- 

 tered Jerilderie in semi-darkness. These storms are 

 not unusual on the plains in summer, and Riverina 

 folk have become used to them ; but they are decidedly 

 unpleasant, and sometimes do damage. 



My friend the naturalist was also a bird trapper, 

 and in the course of our rambles the question of bird 

 protection was discussed from different points of 

 view. He was aware that many ornithologists de- 

 sired to have the Rose-breasted Cockatoo or Galah 

 [Cacatua roseicapilla] included among protected 

 species, and explained the position. If trapping were 

 forbidden, he stated, the birds would increase beyond 

 measure, and farmers would continue to war against 

 them with poisoned wheat, which would claim other 

 feathered victims besides Galahs. Poisoning had 

 already resulted, in his district, in a considerable de- 

 crease in the numbers of one species of Parrot, which 

 was not regarded as a pest by wheat -growers. This 

 argument was weighty; but I wished to judge from 

 personal observations whether the Galah should be 

 branded as a pest, and also to see how birds were 

 caught. So I arranged to join a party of trappers. 

 Their outfit consisted of nets, etc., a waggon sur- 

 mounted by a large cage, divided into several com- 



