Notices of New Books. 7697 



the air is disturbed by the wings and the cries of the birds as they fly 

 round the shooter's head. His quick ear can well distinguish the 

 different birds by their varied call-notes, — the soft musical hoop of 

 the black swan, the sharp loud quack of the black duck, the hoarse 

 croak of the mountain duck, the snort of the shoveller, and the shrill 

 call of the teal, are all familiar to him ; and as he gathers up his dead 

 birds he hears the ducks pitching again in various pails of the lagoon, 

 giving him promise of a goodly harvest by morning. When the dead 

 birds are collected, the pipe is lit, the gun charged, and he quietly 

 settles himself down in his rushy screen for another shot." — p. 75. 



There is a feature of this bush-life in Australia which reveals a sad 

 omission in expeditions that have attempted to ])enetrate the interior. 

 These have, without exception, been unaccompanied by a sportsman, 

 and thus have suffered the pangs of hunger in a land abounding with 

 the most nutritious food. It is humiliating to imagine the scenes so 

 graphically described in recent narratives, where men of energy, cou- 

 rage and endurance, are represented as in a state of starvation, although 

 the earth may be " full of fatness " and boon Nature spreading around 

 them the most ample feast, to be had for the mere asking. liCt me 

 cite a few passages in proof of the abundance of food. " My old mate, 

 Rendall, bagged 1500 couple of quail in one season ; 25 couple a day 

 was his general bag." — (p. 107). Speaking of one day's shooting at 

 Mordialloc, the author slates that he and a friend "brought home to the 

 tent at night 16^^ couple of quail, Sj couple of scrub quail, 1 rail, 

 3 couple of pigeons, 11 couple of snipe, 3 nankeen cranes, 1 red 

 lowry, 5 black ducks, 3 shovellers, 3 coots, 2 black cockatoos, 2 moor- 

 hens, 7 shell parroquets ;" in all 95 birds, and jnost of them excellent 

 as food : the author states apologetically that he does not give this list 

 " as anything extraordinary ; he has no doubt it has often been beaten. 

 * * * It will, however, give the reader some idea of the varied 

 contents of an Australian game bag." — (p. 101). But the leading 

 animal for food is the kangaroo, and this is indeed noble game. In 

 the introduction the author laments the absence of a market for the 

 produce of his gun, and looks forward to the increase of population 

 as a certain source of gain to the sportsman. Another lament of the 

 author's, by alluding to the decrease of game near towns, bears col- 

 lateral evidence to its abundance in more remote regions. "It cannot 

 be denied that the game is rapidly disappearing in all the settled dis- 

 tricts, especially near towns, and if steps are not taken to prevent the 

 wholesale destruction of the birds in the breeding season, which is now 

 carried on, in a few years the shooter's occupation in Victoria will be 

 VOL. XIX. 3 F 



