The unripe seeds of
Cochlospermum, when crushed, gave a fine yellow colour, shaded into an
orange hue.
Large flocks of Peristera histrionica (the Harlequin pigeon) were lying
on the patches of burnt grass on the plains, they feed on the brown seeds
of a grass, which annoyed us very much by getting into our stockings,
trowsers, and blankets. The rose-breasted cockatoo, Mr. Gilbert's
Platycercus of Darling Downs, and the Betshiregah (Melopsittacus
undulatus, GOULD.) were very numerous, and it is probable that the plains
round the gulf are their principal home, whence they migrate to the
southward. The white and black cockatoos were also very numerous.
John Murphy caught four perches, one of which weighed two pounds. The
purple ant of the east coast has disappeared, and a similar one with
brick-coloured head and thorax, but by no means so voracious, has taken
its place.
The flooded-gum and the bloodwood were in blossom: this usually takes
place, at Moreton Bay, in November and December. This different state of
vegetation to the northward and southward, may perhaps account for the
periodical migration of several kinds of birds.
June 21. - A shower of rain fell, but cleared up at midnight. We travelled
nine miles north-west to lat. 16 degrees 9 minutes 41 seconds, over a
country very much like that of the two preceding stages, and past several
fine lagoons, richly adorned by the large showy flowers of a white
Nymphaea, the seed-vessels of which some families of natives were busily
gathering:
