HUNTING WITH THE BOOMERANG. 
261 
ever passes attracts their notice, and calls forth their cries ; and 
when one flock arrives in the neighbourhood of another, the din 
which immediately resounds through the forest is indescribable in 
words. 
The Australian aborigines adopt a curious method for the capture 
of these birds. Sir George Grey describes it as exceedingly interesting. 
The weapon employed is the boomerang — that is, a piece of hard wood 
shaped like a scythe, which the savages can hurl through the air for a 
distance of upwards of one hundred yards. As it cleaves the air it 
describes a series of graceful circles, but though diverging from a straight 
line it is almost certain to reach its goal. Such is the weapon, made 
of wood or iron, which the natives of the Australian interior use with 
so much effect. 
A native starts in pursuit of a company of cockatoos, in the plain 
or in the forest, preferring those localities where a pool or watercourse 
is overshadowed by tall trees ; for there the birds love best to congre- 
gate, assembling in countless flocks, climbing from branch to branch, or 
flying from one tree to another. There, too, they pass the night. The 
hunter advances warily ; he glides between the trees, and creeps from 
bush to bush, taking every precaution not to give the alarm to birds so 
keenly vigilant. But at length they detect him; and a general stir and 
agitation indicate the approach of the enemy. The cockatoos feel that 
a danger threatens them, though they know not what it is. When he 
reaches the brink of the pool, he no longer attempts concealment. The 
winged populace immediately spring into the air, and at the same 
moment the fatal boomerang is hurled. It glides, revolving, on the 
surface of the water, then with curving motion rises and strikes into 
the midst of the birds. It is followed by a second, a third, a fourtl). 
In vain the perplexed cockatoos attempt to fly ; they are paralyzed by 
the apparently capricious course of the deadly missile. One is hit, then 
another, then a third ;, they fall to the ground stunned or with broken 
wing. The air rings with their screams of pain and anger ; and it is 
not until the hunter has satisfied his desire of acquisition that the 
remainder of the flock reassemble, to seek together a new and safer 
asylum in the thickest shades of the tallest trees. 
17 A 
