Volume I Part 24 (1/2)

To describe the birds common to these parts requires more time than to detail the names of the few quadrupeds to be found; indeed in no other country that I have yet visited do birds so abound. Even the virgin forests of South America cannot, in my belief, boast of such numerous feathered denizens; yet I cannot, after all, a.s.sert that the number of genera and species is at all proportionate to that of individual birds.

The contrary is probably the real case.

BEAUTY OF THE BIRDS.

The birds of this country possess in many instances an excessively beautiful plumage; and he alone who has traversed these wild and romantic regions, who has beheld a flock of many-coloured parakeets sweeping like a moving rainbow through the air whilst the rocks and dells resounded with their playful cries, can form any adequate idea of the scenes that there burst on the eyes of the wondering naturalist.

The beginning of the month of February, or the end of January, is the season in which the birds in these parts pair. In the beginning of March I found many nests with eggs in them; and in the end of that month eggs nearly hatched were observed in most of the nests, as well as young birds occasionally.

RAPACIOUS BIRDS.

Of rapacious birds I saw but four kinds, but these are by no means common:

The first species was a very large bird, of a dark colour (Aquila fucosa, Cuvier) in size, appearance, and flight closely resembling the golden eagle which I have often seen, and have once shot on the north-west coast of Ireland. I have approached these birds closely--so closely indeed that I have on two occasions shot them, but each time they fell into a thick mangrove inlet and I was not fortunate enough to procure either of them; they appeared to me always to frequent the sh.o.r.es, for I never saw them further inland than a mile from the sea. The large nests Captain King mentions as having been found upon the coast I imagine must have belonged to this species.

The second species was a sort of hawk (Haliaeetus leucosternus, Gould) rather larger than the sparrow-hawk, of a light cinnamon colour, with a perfectly white head. They also frequent the sh.o.r.es, but I never shot one.

The third species was a Peregrine falcon (Falco melanogenys, Gould) which is nearly allied to that of Europe. I was not fortunate enough to procure a specimen of this bird.

The fourth was the Athene b.o.o.book. Belly brown and white; wings brown, with white spots; third quill-feather, longest; legs feathered, lightish brown colour; tail brownish white, marked with transverse bars of a darker brown; eye prominent; iris blue. The only difference I could observe between the male and female is that the female is rather larger than the male, and her colours somewhat lighter. These birds inhabit the whole of that part of North-western Australia lying between the Prince Regent and Glenelg Rivers, and probably may be distributed over the greater portion of the Continent. They feed on insects, reptiles, and birds of the smaller kind. I have always found them seated in holes in the rocks, or in shady dells, and have never seen them fly in the daytime unless compelled by fear; they are very stupid when disturbed, and in flight and manner closely resemble the common English owl. I cannot however recollect having ever seen one on the wing during the night.

Upon describing the two singular birds mentioned above in Chapter 9 to Mr. Gould he informed me that they were most probably of the rare species Anas semipalmata.

REMARKABLE NEST.

I have already spoken in the 9th chapter of a very curious sort of nest which was frequently found by myself and other individuals of the party, not only along the seash.o.r.e, but in some instances at a distance of six or seven miles from it. This nest, which is figured in Ill.u.s.tration 19, I once conceived must have belonged to the kangaroo rat I have above mentioned, until Mr. Gould, who has lately returned from Australia, informed me that it is the run or playing ground of the bird he has named Chalmydera nuchalis.

These nests were formed of dead gra.s.s, and parts of bushes, sunk a slight depth into two parallel furrows, in sandy soil, and then nicely arched above. But the most remarkable fact connected with them was that they were always full of broken sh.e.l.ls, large heaps of which protruded from each extremity of the nest. These were invariably seash.e.l.ls. In one instance, in the nest most remote from the sea that we discovered, one of the men of the party found and brought to me the stone of some fruit which had evidently been rolled in the sea; these stones he found lying in a heap in the nest, and they are now in my possession.

EMUS.

I have seen no Emus in North-western Australia, but on two occasions their tracks were impressed in the mud on some plains lying on the banks of Glenelg River; and Mr. Dring, of H.M.S. Beagle, informed me that, whilst that vessel was employed in the survey of Fitzroy River, about seventy miles to the southward of the former, he not only several times saw traces of them but that, on one occasion when he was in the bush, two of them pa.s.sed within a few yards of him. They may, I conceive, therefore be considered as inhabitants of this part of the continent.

ALLIGATORS.

No alligators were seen by the land party in any of the rivers of North-western Australia, but the crew of the schooner saw one in Hanover Bay. I can however safely a.s.sert from my own experience that they are by no means numerous upon this coast. At the islands of Timor and Roti however they abound.

TURTLES.

Turtles were abundant on the coast, and a freshwater tortoise was found inland.

PLANTS.

Amongst the vegetable kingdom I shall only observe generally that the Calamus, or rattan, which in King's voyage* is considered to be peculiar to the primary granitic formation on the east coast, is abundant in the interior of the north-west between lat.i.tude 15 and 17 degrees south.

(*Footnote. Appendix, volume 2.)

I found a dwarf cabbage-palm between 15 and 16 degrees south lat.i.tude, always in moist situations in the neighbourhood of streams, although not immediately on the banks.

Of the family of Urticeae many species of Ficus were observed.

The Banksia, common to Swan River, and bearing a yellow flower, is to be found in many of the valleys on the north-west coast; thus appearing to form an exception to Mr. Cunningham's observation inserted in Captain King's voyage,* wherein he says: