Walter Goodfellow—A Collector on Melville Island 25


Crane under one arm. We left the coast at 1 a.m by moonlight,

and I had to sit in one cramped position with the Crane across my

knees until 12 o’clock the next day. At the mission I had a small

house given up to me, where I lived for three weeks until the schooner

went over to the mainland. It was not possible at the mission to let

the Crane have its liberty, as there were too many savage dogs about,

and besides it was still very much afraid of the blacks. It just tolerated

the boys as far as the steps, and seemed to know they would not be

allowed further in, besides they brought him many frogs and lizards.

Once they brought a half-grown rat in a cage, and when I had killed it

I laid it on the floor for a secocd, and on turning round found only a

portion of the tail protruding from his bill. It was a tight fit to get

down, but with a little massage we managed it. Eats after that were

always cut up in joints. He disliked very much to be left alone, and

called loudly all the time. When it happened at night, his greeting

of “ cheep, cheep ” was quite different from that in the daytime. He

knew my footsteps in the distance, and was always waiting at the

door. He slept close to my bed at night, and never failed to make a

friendly noise whenever he heard me turn over. When settling down

for the night he purred very much like a cat. He got greatly excited

when we had one or two slight showers ; with wings outspread he ran

from end to end of the room. Most days I used to sprinkle him, but

water was too scarce to use much. I found this necessary or the

young growing feathers came defective and broke off. He ate large

quantities of very coarse grit, and much green food, particularly

the leaves of sweet potatoes. At first I only had a shallow tin for

his drinking water, but he soon found he could scoop it up much

better by sitting on his knees. When sleeping it is curious how flat

and invisible Cranes become, with legs doubled under and head tucked

back under the feathers. Judging by this one, Cranes are not quite

so fond of being petted as Cassowaries, but perhaps if taken very

small they might be. There is one disadvantage in having a long-

legged bird about the place, they can reach too far over a table, and

one does not always remember to put things out of reach. They are

not quite so bad in this respect as Cassowaries, who bolt a thing on

sight and reflect afterwards. If a thing does not suit a Crane’s palate



