bean; to which may be added, a fort of.parfleyafid'ptf-rfe-'
luin, and two kinds of yams; one Ihaped like a rhadifh, död"
the other round, and covered with ftringy fibresd both forts'
are very fmall, but fweet; and we never could find the
plants that produced them;- though we often faw the places-
where they had been newly dug u p ; it is probable that the
drought had deftroyed the leaves, and we could not, like the'
Indians, difcover them by the ftalks. H
Moft of the fruits of this country, fuch as, they are, have
bèen mentioned akeady; We Found one in the fouthem
part óf thé country refembling a cherry, except that the ftone
was foft; and another not unlike a pine-apple in appearance,
but of a very difagreeable tafte, which is well known
in the Eaft Indies, and is called by the Dutch Pyn Appel
Bagmen. .
Of the quadrupeds, I have already mentioned the dog,
and particularly defcribed the kanguroo, and the animal of
the opoffum kind, refembling the phalanger of BufTon ; to
which I can add only one more; refembling a polecat, which
the natives call Quoll-, the back is brown, fpotted with white,
and the belly white unmixed. Several of our people faid
they had feen wojves ; but perhaps, i f we had not keen tracks
that favoured the account, we might have thought them
little more worthy of credit than he who reported that he had
feen the devil.
Of batts, which hold a middle place between the beafls
and the birds, we' faw many kinds, particularly one which,
as-1 have obferved already, was larger than a partridge; we
were not fortunate enough to take one either alive or dead,
bur k was fuppofed to be the fame as BufFon has defcribed
by the name of Ilgnfet or Rpuget, -
The
. The fea and other water-fowl-of this country, are gulls, ‘ 77°-:
' k ’ . > Au&ult.
fhaggs, foland geefe, or gannets, of two forts; boobies, nod- e— ,--- /
dies, curlieus, ducks, pelicans of an enormous fize,' and
many qthprs. The land-birds, are crows» parrots, paroquets,
cockatoos, and other birds .of the. fame kind, of ejtquifite
beauty; pigeons, doyesr quails, buflards, herons, cranes,
hawks; and eagles. ;The pigeons flew in numerous flocks,
fo that, notwithftanding their extreme fhynefs, our people
frequently killed ten or twelve of them in a day : thefe birds
are. very beautiful, and crefted very differently from any we
had feen before.
Among other reptiles, here are ferpents of various kinds,
fome noxious, and fome harmlefs; fcorpions, ceritipieds, and
lizards. The infefts are but few. The principal are the
fnufquitd; and the ant. Of the ant there are feveral forts;
fome are as green as a leaf, and live upon trees, where they
build their nefts of various Tizes,; between that of a man’s
■ head and his fill. Thefe nefts are jpf a very curious ft rupture:
they are formed by bending down feveral of the leaves,
each of which is as broad as a man’s hand, and gluing the
points of them together, fo as to form a purfe; the vifcus
ufed'for this purpofe, is an animal juice,' Which Nature
has!enabled them to elaborate. Thdir method of firft bending
down the leaves; we had not an opportunity to obfe.rve';
but we faw thoufands uniting all their ftrength to hold them
in this pofition, while other bufy multitudes were employ ed
within, in applying the gluten’that was to prevent, their returning
back. To fatisfy.ourfelves that the.leaves were bent,
and held down by the effort of thefe diminutive artificers,
\ye difturbed them in their work, and as foon as they were
dixiven from their ftation, the leaves on which they were
employed fprung up with a force,much-greater than we
'‘ ‘ “g * " ......" ' ** " could
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