The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1873-05-09

was told that it takes a very good,
fast, and lasting horse to run an emu
down, especially as the poor bird In its
last struggle makes its fastest running.
They do not attempt to aid themselves
with their wings, but toddle along with
their long legs, keeping ever straight
line. I do not shoot, myself, but am
able to say that there are birds to be
shot-snipe, very much, like our own
snipe except in regard to flavor, wild
ducks, pigeons, and brush-turkeys. The
ducks, and the turkeys, and the pig
cons, are all good enough for table-pur-
poses to help to make up a banquet;
but they are dry and favorless in COM
parison with European and with some
American birds. ] must here declare
that some of the Australian fish are very
good indeed, especially the whiting at
Melbourne. There is a fish too at
Northampton called the Burra Mundl
I hope I spell the name rightly
which is very commendable as is also
the trumpeter at Hobartstown in las
mania. did not myself care much for
the Murray cod, fresh-water fish found
in the Murray and its tributaries, which
enjoys'a very high reputation in Austria
liza.
It is strange, but undoubtedly the
fact, that animals brought from Europe
and acclimated in Australia, are already
thrusting out the aboriginal creatures
of the country. The emus are nearly
gone. The kangaroos are departing, to
make way for sheep. Sparrows have
become numerous. The wild-bee of
the country is not nearly so common as
the much more generous and buster bee
from Europe which the bush ma
ny miles from the coast is already SO
plentifully filed that honey is custom
airy delicacy with all the settlers. The
rabbit has become SO great a plague in
Victoria and parts of Tasmania that
squatters in some localities are spend
ing thousands with the hope of exter-
minating them One gentleman in
formed me that he himself had expend-
ed upward of seventy-fve thousand
dollars in subduing the rabbits on his
own run. But the herds of wild cattle
and wild-horses-all of course from
imported stock-which roam at will
over the pastures of distant squatters,
afford perhaps the most remarkable
evidence of Australian fecundity. It is
by no means an uncommon thing for a
squatter to drive in four or five hun
bred wild-horses, to yards prepared for
the purpose, and there to slaughter
them. If any of them be branded,
| thereby showing that they are not in
truth wild, but are or have been the
property of some individual, the brands
are advertised and the horses pounded,
so that the owner may recover them on
| what should be done. It is, I fancy,
/ L. b oh
| and to destroy the skin-so that no tes-
timony may be left as to the brand.
| The skins and hair of those which are
really wild are sold, and the carcasses
are destroyed. Now and again wild
horse may be found as to which it is
decided that he shall be kept, aud bro
ken ia, and used. The value of the
animal, however, seldom pays for the
trouble and cost. They are very pretty
to look at as they are seen securing over
the plain or rushing into the thick
| scrub; they are sleek and bright-eyed,
well furnished with name and tail and
| they go with free action but they are
! not often well made or fit for use, hay
ing almost always poor shoulders, with
straight limbs and narrow chests. They
are already becoming a pest to the
squatter, destroying his fences, eating
his grass, and entieing his own horses
out of the horse-paddock. The work
of running them in is not bad sport;
but they who do it must be we'll mount
ed, and the doing of it is utterly de-
structive to the horses ridden.
Having begun with mosquitoes, I
have allowed myself to be carried away
into animal life generally-a subject of
which I know nothing. It was impos-
sible, however, not to say something of
snakes, emus, and wild-horses; and now
the subject may be dismissed from these
pages.-Anthony TrOLLOpe.