Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1892-01-16

and 90 to sleep, though it may be in tba
middle of the road and the occasion one AZ
serious exigency.
These particular black fellows ba3
promisedsto guide me 10 nest of the
had never seen one, and was very
anxious to do so. On my Journey nv
companions seemed necessarily to be LODI
ing for something to eat When opnor.
Unity served they climbed tall trees Co.
oysters. The rise and fall of the tides i,
Torres straits is enormous, and the ovstsrs
which are under water when it is bigb
icing attached to the trunks of trees am
left ten or twelve feet out of the wat
when it as the lowest. | saw two giganfic
kangaroos on that trip and measured tba
leaps OF one Of them. Thirty-two feat
the tape line showed for each jump, tax.
ing II from toe mark to toe mark, as thl
animal left them in the sand. 1t is marya.
lous to see one Of these great marsupiaIs
streaking across the county in immense
bounds, literally throwing itself through
the AIR with It's mighty hind limbs and
hardly seeming to touch the earth in IA
flight. The beast really looks as il il
vas flying, and | am not surprised that
Capt. Cooks naturalist should have
taken the first kangaroo he saw for a big
bird.
ION our way to find the nest, CANA
across a beautiful specimen of rare kind
of lizard commonly called the 'Ayino
dragon, because it sometimes appears 10
fly, supporting itsel in the air 70 soma
extent as does flying squirrel. fhis one.
which had an especially large and fine
ruffle around its neck, crawled into hollow
log to escape. | appended the log. when
it fell ont, and told one of the black fe
lows to pick it up. He did so, and imme.
diately carrying it to his mouth bit of its
head. was very angry to lose such a
treasure in that way: but, when scolded
the man looked astonished. rubbed his
stomach and said, Good, good. Soon
afterward may attention was called to
sort of Jack-in-in-the. pulpit that grew
In little dell. Its leaves were somewhat
withered, which fact was accounted for
when another of my aboriginal compan.
ions plucked the plant up by tue roots and
showed me, hanging from them, bright
green caterpillar, quite foot in length
This latter he cody held up by one end.
dropped it down his throat closed his ewes
in an ecstacy of gustatcry appreciation and
rubbed his stomach also.
We reached the nest at last, and it was
well worth seeing, 1t was a circular
mound feet high and % feet in diane.
ter. The birds begin the construction Of
such one by getting together big heap
of leaves. On top of and around this heap
they gather earth by scratching it back
ward toward the pile, and it was in this
way wholly that the great mound | de-
scribe was built up. All the surface soil
had been scraped away for long oist-
ance around, for adding to the accumua.
ton. When the birds have thus made
their earth heap ready for the seasons
laying, they cut cylindrical hole down
into the middle of it. Into this they get
one by one and lay their eggs, As soon
as all are through they fill up the hole
leaving a cavity shaped like wash basin
on the top of the mound. Rains come,
and the water retained in this hollow fit
ers through to the depot of leaves, which
are thus made to decompose. The heat Of
matches the EGGS and the
young fowls burrow their way ont of the
not upward, but through the
sides. 1t is a wise bird that knows its
own mother. for the parelt bird gives no
thought or care to their offspring after de-
posting their eggs. You can imagine
what a vast amount of material is put into
one of these nests when | tell you that
friend of mine in Australia made his
whole garden patch from one-half of one
Of these mounds. -Ciucipnati Commercial
Gazette.