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The calf was killed, and the mother remained with her dead offspring, whereby she comprehended her loss, and this will prevent her endeavouring to return to it after we leave. We obtained a good many bronze-winged pigeons here, and I called the place the Pigeon Rocks.
I am afraid these products of Nature will never reach maturity, for the natives are continually burning the rough grass and spinifex, and on a favourably windy occasion these will consume everything green or dry, down to the water's edge. There seems to be very little native game here, though a number of bronze-winged pigeons came to water at night and morning.
At noon, flies came forth to bask on the stones; the furze, decked with yellow flowers, was visited by countless bees; and bronze-winged beetles crept among the thorny branches of the hawthorn and the sloe.
We also are on the watch, and during the momentary struggle, before the eagle can so quiet his victim as to be able to fly away with it, up gallops Reechy, Alec and Tommy, and very often we secure the prize. Round this spot at Buzoe's Grave, just while the water lasts I suppose, there were crows, small hawks, a few birds like cockatoos, and many bronze-winged pigeons.
To these we gave the name of Pigeon Islands, the common bronze-winged pigeon being found there in great numbers. The harbour we named Recruit Harbour, from its affording fresh supplies of the small kangaroo, in addition to the fish found everywhere else.
We had every prospect of passing the night without water, as the sun was sinking fast; but we fortunately reached a small hole before dark, containing a little water, which we had to share with our horses, with a small brown snake, and with a large flight of bronze-winged pigeons; the latter, surprised at our presence, first alighted on the neighbouring trees to observe us, and then hurried down to take their evening draught.
The clianthus pea and the vetch pea they ate ravenously, and when they can get those they require very little water. No natives appeared to be now in the immediate neighbourhood. This was a very pretty and charming little oasis-camp. We got a few bronze-winged pigeons that came by mistake to water that night.
After travelling about 3 1/2 miles north, we were stopped by a Bricklow scrub, which compelled us to go to the east and south-east. I encamped, about three miles north-east by north from my last resting place, and examined the scrub: it was out of the question to cross it. Mr. Gilbert shot three black cockatoos and a bronze-winged pigeon. Oct. 28.
Observing this, he stopped and looked up and down the road. No one was in sight. He sat down on the bank with his hand on his hip. His face changed from a frown to an expression of sharp pain. In five minutes he had grown from a fresh elderly man into an old man, his face drawn and gray, but he only muttered "the devil!" and sat still. A big bronze-winged beetle whizzed past him, z z ip!
Bronze-winged pigeons also were occasionally startled as we wandered about the rocks; these birds must have water, but they never drink except at sundown, and occasionally just before sunrise, then they fly so swiftly, with unerring precision, on their filmy wings, to the place they know so well will supply them; and thirty, forty, or fifty miles of wretched scrub, that would take a poor human being and his horse a whole day to accomplish, are passed over with the quickness of thought.
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