282 
WALLABIE HUNTING. 
knocked down with sticks or the tree is ascended as 
in the day time. 
Flying squirrels are procured in the same way as 
opossums. The sloth, which is an animal as large 
as a good sized monkey, is also caught among the 
branches of the larger scrub -trees, among which it 
hides itself ; but it is never found in holes. 
Wallabies are of many kinds, and are killed in 
various ways. By hunting with bwirris, by nets, 
by digging out of the ground ; the larger sorts, as 
rock wallabies, by spearing, and several kinds by 
making runs, into which they are driven. In hunt- 
ing with bwirris (a short heavy stick with a knob at 
one end) a party of natives go out into the scrub 
and beat the bushes in line, if any game gets up, the 
native who sees it, gives a peculiar 44 whir-rr” as a 
signal for the others to look out, and the animal is 
at once chased and bwirris thrown at him in all 
directions, the peculiar sound of the 44 whir-rr” 
always guiding them to the direction he has taken. 
It rarely happens that an animal escapes if the party 
of natives be at all numerous. 
In netting the wallabies, a party of seven or eight 
men go in advance, with each a net of from twenty to 
forty feet long, and when they arrive near the runs, 
usually made use of by these animals, a favourable 
spot is selected, and the nets set generally in a line 
and nearly together, each native concealing himself 
near his own net. The women and children who, 
in the mean time had been making a considerable 
