BRUSH-TURKEY 176 



the journey was a mere ramble, and never intended or 

 considered as anything else, I felt sorry at the time that 

 I had not brought a few instruments to enable me to 

 fix points on my route. As it is, I can only state the 

 position approximately. We were probably halting on 

 the date named at about 120.30 E. by 30 S., and were 

 consequently more than two hundred miles north-east of 

 Perth. 



The only ground animals seen so far were the wallabies 

 already mentioned and a rat, but there was a tolerably 

 good number of birds about this part of the river bed. 

 At our last halting-place on it (2nd May) several emus 

 and many smaller birds came to a water-hole just above 

 our camp to drink. The emus were very shy, but I shot 

 one with my rifle at a distance of three hundred yards. 

 A nearer approach to them I found to be impossible. 

 As I advanced they moved away, keeping to the now 

 dry bed of the river, and at length I fired, fearful of 

 losing the chance of a shot at them. This emu (Z>. 

 irroratus) was eaten and greatly relished by the two blacks. 

 It seemed to me to be a very light bird for its size. Of 

 course I had no means of weighing it, but by guess I 

 thought it did not exceed forty pounds. It was a cock 

 bird, and the flesh on its breast and thighs — and there 

 was very little on other parts — was scarcely better than 

 a mass of tough sinews. 



Two more shots were obtained at emus, but at ranges 

 which were too great for our marksmanship. Some of 

 the smaller birds fell victims to our necessity, and the 

 most remarkable of these was a species of brush-turkey — 

 the megapode {Lipoa ocellatci). This bird, in size rather 

 larger than a common pheasant, is of special interest on 

 account of the huge mounds it raises to serve as nests. 

 On the 2nd May we passed through a tract of country 

 in which there were many of these mounds, sometimes 

 placed in groups and sometimes scattered over the face 

 of the country. The birds were also plentiful, but not 

 quite so easy to shoot as some observers have stated, 

 but there is no doubt that the natives had recently been 



