YHE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 129) 
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where it was easily shot. As we improved in out shooting, we used 
to send a rifle ball through the centre of the nest, thus doing for 
bird and eges at the same time. Then the male bird’s prudence 
broke down, and he invariably lost all forethought, or became 
totally regardless of the life of his future partner. After the 
loss of the first one, he would scud about to and fro with great diligence 
until he secured a new mate. She would take charge of his desolate 
home, lay her eggs, commence to sit, only to experience the fate of her 
predecessor. The twice bereaved widower either then lost heart, or 
the season became too far advanced to negotiate a third matrimonial 
alliance. 
Should you shoot a crow out of a flock, it is a very common 
occurrence for the survivors to create a discordant fuss over their 
fallen comrade. It seems to be either surprise or anger that 
prompts them to do this, as if it were fear they would in all probability 
take themselves off. Sometimes I have shot half a dozen, one after 
another, before they would leave the spot, and I have thought that 
with a breech-loader, when they get into that state, a person could 
make the gun red- hot with firing: at them. Perhaps it was not the 
firing of the few shots that at last impelled them to fly away, but 
that your muzzle-loader could not be worked quick enough to occupy 
their attention with fallen birds. White cockatoos, even when they 
are disturbed, have the same trick, with this difference, that they 
have a fair estimate of how far heavy shot travels, or how long it 
takes to charge the old-fashioned gun. 
When I first went down to the Murrumbidgee, a place then noted 
for old shepherd’s ideas, it was said that strychnine was not fatal to 
crows. The manager of the station used to keep us supplied with 
that deadly poison, etl sometimes I tried experiments with it. My 
general way of proceeding was to get a sheep, which had been 
smothered in the mud of the drinking ditch, partially skin the 
animal, cut the heart and liver into tempting little slices, and touch 
lightly with the poison. These I scattered about the carcass, also 
putting some into the sheep in tempting spots. While these 
preparations were being made, the birds would sit around on dead 
trees glancing obliquely at me, as if they guessed I. was up to 
something crooked, All being ready lw ould adjourn to the hut, 
telling my fellow employés to look out for sport. Before I could 
get my pipe ready for a smoke, down the sable rascals would pour. 
At first they would advance with ereat caution, casting suspicious 
looks around. Perhaps one would march boldly up, look again 
askance, and retreat with a sudden hop backwards, with a caw to 
show he was not frightened. Again he would go forward, pause, 
gather fresh courage, and at last. tush valiantly into the jaws of 
death. This was a signal for the rest to fall to. For the ensuing 
ten minutes, what feasting and revelry there was, every loose morsel 
