A Small Broad Fish With Sharp
Belly, And A Long Ray Behind The Dorsal Fin, Was Also Caught.
It was
highly amusing to watch the swarms of little finches, of doves, and
Ptilotis, which came during the heat of the day to drink from our water
hole.
Grallina australis, Crows, Kites, Bronze-winged and Harlequin
pigeons, (Peristera histrionica, GOULD), the Rose cockatoo (Cocatua Eos),
the Betshiregah (Melopsittacus undulatus), and Trichoglossus versicolor,
GOULD, were also visitors to the water-hole, or were seen on the plains.
The day was oppressively hot; and neither the drooping tea-trees, nor our
blankets, of which we had made a shade, afforded us much relief Clouds
gathered, however, in the afternoon, and we had a few drops of rain in
the course of the night and following morning. Charley and John had gone
out on horseback to obtain some emus, with which the country seemed to
abound; they returned, however, at night, without any emus, but brought
in about twenty-two whistling and black ducks, one goose and several
waders, which they had obtained at a lagoon which was several miles in
length, and varied from 50 to 300 yards in breadth, covered with
Nymphaeas, and fringed with a dense vegetation; it was surrounded by fine
pasture. Never, as they described, had they seen so many ducks and geese
together; when they rose, their numbers darkened the air, and their noise
was deafening. They had observed a wooden post, cut with an iron
tomahawk, rammed in the ground and propped with several large stones;
which seemed to be the work either of white men or Malays.
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