WILD TURKEY-SHOOTING. 359 



but with no better success; it was evidently not the vehicle 

 they had been accustomed to, and spreading their huge wings, 

 and darting forward with rapid strides, they sailed heavily 

 away, to alight at no great distance from the place where 

 they had been at first disturbed. 



The next day my companion and I arranged our plan of 

 operations by putting the services of an old blind cart-horse 

 and the police dray into requisition, having well covered the 

 bottom of the latter with thick trusses of straw, in which, 

 together with the driver, we ensconced ourselves, so as to 

 prevent, as far as it was possible, any part of our persons 

 being seen above the sides of the cart, or at least to effect 

 this plan when we arrived at our shooting ground. We 

 then steered our course in the direction of the open hilly 

 country I have above described. The ground was hard, 

 rugged, and full of stones, land-cracks, and fissures, so that 

 the motion of the dray was of the most dislocatory descrip- 

 tion, and it was only the certainty of meeting with bustards, 

 and the probability of getting shots at them from this novel 

 conveyance, that enabled us to support the awful bumping 

 we endured; and which, indeed, had we not held on like 

 grim Death, would have jerked us out of the cart like racket- 

 balls. 



The circumstance of horse and bullock drays continually 

 passing through the country must have familiarized the 

 bustard with their appearance, and lessened the caution with 

 which this bird regards any of the appurtenances of civilized 

 life; at least such was the opinion, and proved by expe- 

 rience, of old Australian sportsmen. Having travelled for 

 some distance in this most uncomfortable manner, and gained 

 the summit of a ridge, the driver (one of the policemen) 

 directed our attention to some moving objects amidst the 

 long grass near the creek below, and which we ascertained 

 to be a line of heads in motion, the bodies not being 



