A Kangaroo Hunt 



were feeding, was very sparsely wooded, 

 and any moving object upon its surface 

 would be very likely to attract the atten- 

 tion of the watchful sentinel of the herd. 

 Now, I have already observed that, under 

 ordinary circumstances, it is nearly impos- 

 sible to successfully stalk a herd of feeding 

 kangaroos. First, of course, because of 

 the vigilant " old man " who is always on 

 guard ; second, and more important, on 

 account of a strange bird, called the kan- 

 garoo-warner, which is always to be found 

 in the neighborhood of a feeding herd, ever 

 ready to give instant warning of the ap- 

 proach of any suspicious-looking intruder. 

 I was never able to obtain a satisfactory 

 explanation of this peculiar habit of the 

 Australian jay, — for such it is, — and the 

 question seems to be still a moot one among 

 Australian ornithologists ; but I was in- 

 formed that in former times a kangaroo- 

 warner was never seen save in the company 

 of its favorite marsupial. It is, of course, 

 just possible that this belief might be traced 

 to a certain natural desire for poetic sym- 

 metry upon the part of the native mind. 

 If this is not the case, then one is inevita- 

 bly led to the conclusion that the kanga- 

 roo-warner must be sadly in want of an 

 occupation at the present day. In any 



