e apart, from which long hard nails stuck out, resembled
the claw of some bird, so the drover turned to the white boys and said:
"What d'you think of that for a name? They've nearly all got names
like that. We'll shorten this one down a bit and call him 'Eagle'.
Look at his hand." He turned to Poona. "We call that one black-fella
Eagle. See? His hand aller same eagle's hand. Take um round Boss
Collins. P'raps him give it trouser, shirt, tobac."

In a few minutes the warragul black, duly enrolled as a stockman of
Sidcotinga Station, was strutting about in front of a group of native
women, dressed in a pair of khaki trousers and a striped store shirt,
and was puffing at a new clay pipe. The novelty of his occupation and
attire made up for their discomfort, and he would probably have been
willing to force his broad feet into boots if they had been given to
him, although he had never worn clothes in his life before, and must
have found that they hindered his movements at every stride.

Next morning, although it was summer and the sun rose very early, the
men had breakfast by the light of a hurricane-lantern, and the
mustering plant was all ready to start out before dawn. There were
Mick, the two white boys, six niggers, eight packed horses and the rest
spares, making thirty in all. The white boys were naturally interested
in the horses they were to ride. Sax had a grey mare named Fair Steel
to ride in the mornings, and Ginger, a gelding, for the afternoons.
Vaughan's two were both geldings: Boxer, a brown, and Don Juan, a tall
black. All four horses were well-bred and thoroughly suitable for the
month's hard work which lay ahead of them.

The plant made straight for the Musgraves. It was a brilliantly clear
day, and when the sun rose the range of mountains ahead of them seemed
to be only a day's ride away. But at the end of the second day, when
the packs were pulled off near a water-hole, the Musgraves did not look
to be any nearer. Mick and the white boys rode in the lead all day,
and the plant, driven by the black-boys, followed behind; this is the
method of travel all over Central and North Australia.

On the morning of the third day they started to muster. All around the
water-hole were the recent tracks of hundreds of cattle, and the day's
work consisted of riding out on these tracks till the limit was reached
beyond which no cattle had gone from that particular water. Then the
stockmen rode in, ga