22 Walter Goodfelloiv—A Collector on Melville Island


camp and gave me endless pleasure. Every morning at sunrise they

flew off with their well-known call, only just above the tree tops, in

the direction of the coast. They never deviated in the slightest from

the same line of travel. I always watched for them, and if they were

at all late I found myself getting quite anxious, fearing they had fallen

a prey to the blacks. They must have slept in a safe retreat in a swamp

for the dingos not to get them. They returned from the same direction

just after sunset. Before the last of my two camp neighbours left we

had many arguments about them, as he was always anxious to shoot

one. In the end he went off before daylight, and returned with the

female which he tried to eat, but found unpalatable, although, as I

have said before, he ate everything the blacks did. The Catholic

Fathers on Bathurst later told me they considered young Crane a

delicacy. After the death of his wife, the male was inconsolable, and

for nearly a week was calling all through the night, and kept me awake

too. He was also late in starting off in the mornings, and returned

earlier than before, probably hoping his wife might have returned

during his absence. It was sad to see him going off alone every day.

Then came an evening when he failed to return, and I began to think

he had left my part of the island for good. This was not so, for two

or three days later he turned up again with a new wife, but not quite

such a fine bird as the former one. After that nights were peaceful

again until they greeted the dawn, and resumed their usual routine

of travel morning and evening.


One afternoon during April, a black came into camp with

a snake for me. I saw he had left his “ lubra ” a little way off in the

bush, and she appeared to have some rather large object with her,

so I went to investigate, and found it was a young Crane she was

holding by the legs. They were not at all anxious to make a deal,

but it was eventually secured for some tobacco and a piece of calico.

It was so weak and weary I had great difficulty to get it to stand on

its tottering legs, and its wings hung down helpless like a Penguins.

I put some spoonfulls of boiled wheat down its throat, and kept this

up at intervals for the rest of the day. It was very excited when it

heard the pair flying over at sunset, and answered them in its feeble

voice. I put it under a box for the night, and when I let it out in the



