More Australian legendary tales. K. Langloh Parker

he watched his chance, and one day when he saw the crane fast asleep, he crept quietly up to him holding a fish-bone. This he stuck right across the root of the crane's tongue.

      Then he went off as quietly as he had come; careful, for once, to make no noise.

      The crane woke up at last, and when he opened his mouth to yawn he felt like choking. He tried to get the obstruction out of his throat. In the effort he made a queer scraping noise, which was all he could give utterance to. The bone stuck fast.

      And to this day the only noise a crane can make is, "gah-rah-gah, gah-rah-gah!" This noise gives the name by which he is known to the blacks.