e verandah every morning with
my gun, but more with an eye to the pot than for any other reason.

Beautiful as the scene always was, it struck me that day as being of
unusual splendour. The tall gum-trees, with their naked stems, and
curious hanging leaves that exasperate the heated traveller by throwing
the scantiest of shadows, glistened dew-beaded in the rising sun. The
laughing jackass, perched upon a bare limb, was awaking the forest
echoes with his insane fits of laughter, alternating from a
good-humoured chuckle to the frenzied ravings of a despairing maniac.
Suddenly ceasing, he would dart down upon some hapless lizard, too
early astir for its own safety, and, with his writhing prey in his
bill, would fly to some other branch, and after swallowing his captive,
burst forth into a yell of self-gratulation even-more fiendish than
before. The delicate little "paddy melon," a small species of
kangaroo, turned his gracefully-formed little head, beautiful as a
fawn's, and, startled at the strange figure in the verandah, stood
hesitatingly for a few seconds, and then, bending forward, bounded into
the scrub, the noise caused by the flapping of its tail being audible
long after the little animal itself was lost to sight. The white
cockatoos, alarmed by the outcry of the sentry--for, like the English
rooks, they always tell off some of their number to keep a
look-out--who with sulphur-coloured crest, erect and outstretched neck,
kept up a constant cry of warning, rose from the maize patch, the
spotless white of their plumage glancing in the sun, and forming a
beautiful contrast to the pale straw-colour of the under portion of
their extended pinions. With discordant screams they circle about, as
if a little undetermined, and then perch upon the topmost branches of
the tallest trees, where they screech, flap their wings, and engage in
a series of either imaginary combats, or affectionate caresses, until,
the coast being clear, they are again enabled to continue their repast.

A curious and indescribable wailing cry is heard in the air, singularly
depressing in its effect, and a string of some dozen black cockatoos
flit from tree to tree, the brilliant scarlet band on the tail of the
male flashing as he alternately expands and contracts it, to keep his
balance whilst extracting the sweets from the flowers of the
'Eucalypti'. Few things present so great a contrast as the cries of
these two birds--of the same family, an