Native Companion.
The native companion (Grus Australasiensis)—Goor-rook of the Yarra natives, and Korurik of the Western district—is a very elegant bird, of exquisite plumage, and almost too beautiful to be eaten. He is quite friendly in his habits, and may be seen sometimes following the plough, and busily engaged in picking up grubs and worms. The natives kill this bird with a stick, a boomerang, or a waddy. When a flock is flying low at evening, they come within range, and a skilful man will easily secure at least one out of a flock.
The flesh is said to be very good. The bird is cooked in the same manner as the emu and the turkey.
The weight of a full-sized bird is about twenty-five pounds. It feeds on fish, lizards, mice, &c.
Catching Ducks and other Wild-fowl.
Aquatic fowls supplied the natives with food at all seasons—indeed whenever a native was hungry he would take one if he could secure it either by boomerang, or waddy, or spear, or by following it in the water and catching it. As far as I can gather, they did not have a "close season" in Victoria. They took the birds when they could get them.
A common method of catching ducks is by fixing a net, about sixty yards in length, across a watercourse, a river, a swamp, or a lagoon—the lower part being three or four feet above the water. The ends of the net are either fixed to trees or held by natives stationed in trees. One man proceeds up the river or lagoon, and cautiously moves so as to cause the ducks to swim towards the net. When they are near enough, he frightens them, and they rise on the wing, and at the same time another native, near the net, throws up a piece of bark, shaped like a hawk, and utters the cry of that bird. The flock of ducks at that moment dip, and many are caught in the net. Four men are usually employed when this sport is pursued. This account was given to me by Wye-wye-a-nine, a native of the Lower Murray.
Mr. Beveridge says that sometimes three dozen ducks are caught in this manner at one time, without the breakage of a single mesh of the net.
Major Sir Thomas Mitchell mentions this method of catching wild-fowl. He says:—"The natives had left in one place a net overhanging the river, being suspended between two lofty trees, evidently for the purpose of catching ducks and other water-fowl. The meshes were about two inches wide, and the net hung down to within about five feet of the water. In order to obtain water-fowl with this net, it is customary for some of the natives to proceed up and others down the river, in order to scare the birds from other places; and when any flight of them comes into the net, it is suddenly lowered into the water, thus entangling the birds beneath until the natives go into the water and secure them. Among the few specimens of art to be found in use with the primitive inhabitants of those wilds none came so near our own manufacture as the net,
