348 ALL ABOARD FOR SUNRISE LANDS.

have a membrane of skin extending along the hind and fore legs, and it

 

4 FAMILIAR CREATURE.

 

keeps them up in the air
so that they can take long
leaps. There is our ‘laugh-
ing jackass,’ a bird that
makes a queer noise, and
is really the great kine-
fisher. They call it the
settler’s clock, for it cries
or brays at an early hour,
and at sunset.”

Ralph looked at Rick
and smiled, but the hero of
the kangaroo-hunt found

it convenient to be watching something overhead.

“Then there is the emu, a tall bird with long legs, and reminding you

of the ostrich; and there is the
black swan. The black swan
was thought by the ancients to
be an impossibility, but Australia
furnishes it. Then we have that
funny creature, which so puzzled
naturalists, the duck-billed ani-
mal, for it is an animal: the
platypus, it is sometimes called.
When it was first exhibited, it

was thought to be a manufac-

tured prodigy, but they might
have concluded that the animal
was none too queer for us. It is

 

THE BOWER-BIRD.