Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-07-06

platypi feed upon small water insects shell
fish, beetles and vegetable particles. They
are sometimes speared by the blacks and
the whites sometimes catch them with
night lines.
Where the Mermaids Come From.
Some of the queerest things of this con-
tinent. are found along the coast. You can
see penSuins on some of the islands of the
far south, and the bfg-billed pelican is COM
mon, especially In the coral reefs off
Queensland. There are also seals and a
sort of sea cow, which excited great inter-
est some years ago on account of it's like
ness to the fabulous mermaid. In the first
days of Australia fisherman who was
of party collecting beche-demer off
North Queensland imagined he saw some
of these wonderful creations, half-woman,
half-fsh He came running to the boat,
saying that he had seen a party of mer-
maids lying among the sea grass, rolling
about and disporting themselves. One of
them had raised her head and shoulders
out of the water and looked at him. Later
on the men discovered that the supposed
mermaids were the Australian dugongs,
the mothers of which constantly hold their
young to their breasts, and while so doing
look not unlike the traditional mermaid.
The dugong is somewhat like a porpoise.
1t has a smooth half round body, a broad,
fat tail and two anterior fippers which are
short, thick and fieshy. Its head has a
rounded muzZe and the mouth of the male
has projecting tusks. When grown the
dugong is from eight to ten feet in length,
but it sometimes attains to as much as
twelve feet. 1t is a sort of a sea COW, the
animals asSociating in herds of from half
a dozen to forty. They swim about in lit
tie colonies, the females being more nu-
merous than the males. The mother
dugongs cry like human beings when nurs
ing their babies, and 1t is probable that the
dugong which posed as mermaid was
nursing at the time she took in the sailor.
lit u,
tropical waters about the north coast. The
natives hunt them under the superintend-
ence of Europeans. They chase them In
boats or bark canoes, spearing the cows
with harpoons, to which long lines are at
tached The best place to strike Is through
the tail. This causes the dugong to en-
tangle itself In the line, and by means of
a second spear it is dispatched.
The Wild Dogs of Australia.
Every Australian knows the dingo and
despises him. This is the name of the
wild dog of the country. 1t is found every
where, and it is everywhere hunted. 1t
attacks the sheep to such an extent that
bounties are given for dingo scalps. The
animal IS a sort of cross between
dog but a wild one with curious habits
1t does not bark or growl like an ordinary
dog but simply howls. 1t is skulking,
sneaking animal cunning as a fox. 1T
q
for miles 1t breeds in holes in the rocks
and in hollow trees and lives on such ami
mails as it can find.
The dingO is caught by the blacks ana
tanned and used for hunting. The whites
hunt the dingo. They have no friendship
for him and shoot him on sight One OF
the sports of Australia is dngo hunting,
the dingo being chased just the fox is
chased in England On the great sheep
ranches men are employed to defend the
flocks from these animals. They use pol
SON injecting strychnine into leg of NUT
ton which is then hung from a branch or
a tree so near the ground that the dlngoes
can reach It.
Queer Australian Birds.
7 wish I could show you some of the odd
birds of Australia. The continent has
more than seven hundred varieties, some
of which are found nowhere else. Here
In the Brisbane Museum there are scores
of different kinds of parrots, some as white
as snow others Of delicate pink and
others as red as fresh blood. One of the
curious birds is the Tyre bird, which has
a tail shaped Just like a Tyre, and another
is a satin-bower bird. which builds up q
playground near the tree in which its nest
is. These Fairgrounds, or assembly plat
forms are sometimes three feet In diam
eter They have q floor raised in the center
made of sticks woven together. Upon this
central place they build little bower OF
woven twigs and decorate 1t with all the
beautiful things they can find. They weave
CAV feathers of parrots and other birds
among the sticks, put bones and shells
here and there, and collect everything that
they can to beautify it. Some bowers
which have been found In the vicinity OF
settlements are ornamented with pieces of
broken china and glass and one was re-
Gently discovered in which a number of
blue cotton rags evidently picked up from
deserted native encampment, had been
woven. These bowers are not nests nor
are they the homes of the birds. They are
supposed to be the rendezvous or playing
grounds at pairing times, when the little
birds run In and out of the passages, APP
parently having a game together. The
bowers are built by the females.
The bower birds are bright green when
young. but when full grown the males are
of a deep, shining blue black closely re-
semblng satin. They have blue bills, yell
low at the tip, and their legs and feet are
yellowish white. The females are green
and brown, with bills of dark horn color.
The birds are found all along the east
| coast of Australia and in many parts OF
| the interior
The Festive CassOwaries.
| You may have heard of the touching lit
| tie poem by the small boy who was in
| dignant at his pennies going into the Sun
! day school box, one verse Of which reads:
| II wish were a cassowary
| In the widS of Timbuctoo,
| Wouldn't l eat a missionary,
Australia is as much the land of the
! cassowary as the emu. The northern part
| of the ,ountry has thousands of these
| great bids, which resemble the ostrich
and the emu, but which have many pecu-
| larities of their own. The ostriches and
| emus live the open plains. The casso-
| varies are found in the forests and brush
woods. They very wary birds and
| seldom come out Of the jungles. / have
seen a number of them during my stay In
! Australia The fuii-grown bird is about
four and a half feet high, having black
| feathers, brown at the base. They have
eyes like eagle and long, thin necks,
| with stately. naked heads, and fat, but
powerful, bills. Their necks are bright
| red and blue where they join the feathers
They have very strong legs They look
| more like clubs than the bird legs, and
| end in three large claws like those Of an
| emu. ~s-s-s-1=so-
| The National Bird of Australia.
The emu Is the national bird Of Australia
It Is larger than the cassowary, often five
or six feet in height and sometimes over