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ALMOST HUMAN 
of their conduct on the ponds. After they had succeeded in dispossessing 
every small bird of its rights to use the shallows or to patrol the banks, 
they systematically rooted up every vestige of greenery growing near 
the water’s edge, and were better than half-a-dozen floods for eroding 
the banks themselves. In their ceaseless search for yabbies, crabs, or 
worms, they unearthed the roots of every bamboo or other aquatic plant 
within their reach. Their zeal in ridding the place of these small 
creatures was laudable enough, but it was exactly similar to the eager 
determination of the starling to get at the core of every apple in the 
hope of flnding a Codlin moth — that sore plague of the orchardist. To 
vary Touchstone’s opinion of a shepherd’s life, ‘in respect that it destroys 
grubs, we like it very well ; but in respect that it destroys an incredible 
amount of excellent material, it is very vile.’ They dug every bit of 
cement away from the stones building up the banks, and had they been 
allowed to continue their mining operations would soon have had the 
ponds overspreading the whole place. Then, too, they became a source 
of considerable danger to children. Being in sole command of the 
shores they were “at the receipt of custom*’ with a vengeance, for they 
got all the toll in the shape of children’s gifts. In taking peanuts from 
them they were apt to let the little ones know the razor-qualities of their 
beaks, and several children got severe bites in this way. To prevent any 
repetition of these accidents in their paddocks, where they are even keener 
to snap at any such dainties, a double fence has been erected to keep 
a respectful distance between their daggers and children’s Angers. 
A NATIVE CORROBOREE. 
The Australian Crane is known better by its second name of Native 
Companion. In the Australian collection at the Melbourne Museum, 
there is a large case holding seven or eight of these handsome birds posed in 
the correct attitude for their ceremonial dance, which is believed to have 
been the inspiration of the aborigines’ corroborees. The two dances 
are identical, and it is certainly more probable that men imitated birds 
than that birds copied men. 
For their dance these birds choose an open surface, preferably a 
mound, covered with a heap of twigs. The entertainment begins with 
one bird spreading his wings as the bird is doing in the illustration. A 
second bird, standing next to this one, will stretch his neck up to its 
fullest extent, and with uplifted head begins the “music” without which, 
of course, a dance would be impossible. He sets up an incredibly mono- 
tonous “ka-ka-ka-ka-ka,” and then the other birds begin high-stepping 
around this central pair, quite methodically and rhythmically, advancing 
