194 NATURAL HISTOBY SKETCHES. 



kangaroo handy, they would stroll away from the tent at 

 night, run an old " 'possum up a tree," and stand barking 

 under it till they brought one of us out to shoot it. No 

 kennels for them ; each had its own little den under 

 some old tree-root close to the tent, and we always 

 slept in perfect security. 



It is dangerous to go up to a bush tent or hut after 

 dark, on account of the dogs ; and the best plan, as soon 

 as one sees the camp-fire, is to " Coo e, e," to warn the 

 inmates of one's approach. 



I can often fancy a shooter at home seeing the turn- 

 out for a day's sport here. In my shirt-sleeves, with a 

 game-bag on my back, and my pack of mongrels at my 

 heels (for no matter, whatever was the sport all the dogs 

 were sure to follow us), one a half-bred bull and terrier, 

 a large half-bred mastiff and hound, a fine-bred grey- 

 hound terrier, and a long-backed spaniel, worth, in the 

 eyes of an English sportsman, to use an old phrase of 

 the road, " about ninepence a side, pick 'em all the way 

 round," I looked far more like a rat-catcher than any- 

 thing else. Yet these were the dogs upon whom we 

 depended, not only for our personal safety, but our daily 

 bread. Little fear of any one molesting us at night with 

 these protectors round us ; and as for sporting, they were 

 ail close-hunting dogs for quail and snipe would retrieve 

 a black duck from the thickest rushes ; and, in " fur," 

 scarcely anything, from a kangaroo or opossum down to 

 a bandicote or bush-rat, escaped them. 



There is a small tax now of Is. Gd. per year laid upon 



