The Biggest
Sort Of These Were Not Bigger Than Larks, Some No Bigger Than Wrens,
All Singing With Great Variety Of Fine Shrill Notes; And We Saw Some
Of Their Nests With Young Ones In Them.
The water-fowls are ducks
(which had young ones now, this being the beginning of the spring in
these parts), curlews, galdens, crab-catchers, cormorants, gulls,
pelicans, and some water-fowl, such as I have not seen anywhere
besides.
The land animals that we saw here were only a sort of raccoons,
different from those of the West Indies, chiefly as to their legs,
for these have very short forelegs, but go jumping upon them as the
others do (and like them are very good meat), and a sort of guanos,
of the same shape and size with other guanos described, but
differing from them in three remarkable particulars; for these had a
larger and uglier head, and had no tail, and at the rump, instead of
the tail there, they had a stump of a tail, which appeared like
another head, but not really such, being without mouth or eyes; yet
this creature seemed by this means to have a head at each end, and,
which may be reckoned a fourth difference, the legs also seemed all
four of them to be fore-legs, being all alike in shape and length,
and seeming by the joints and bending to be made as if they were to
go indifferently either head or tail foremost. They were speckled
black and yellow like toads, and had scales or knobs on their backs
like those of crocodiles, plated on to the skin, or stuck into it,
as part of the skin. They are very slow in motion, and when a man
comes nigh them they will stand still and hiss, not endeavouring to
get away. Their livers are also spotted black and yellow; and the
body, when opened, hath a very unsavoury smell. I did never see
such ugly creatures anywhere but here. The guanos I have observed
to be very good meat, and I have often eaten of them with pleasure;
but though I have eaten of snakes, crocodiles, and alligators, and
many creatures that look frightfully enough, and there are but few I
should have been afraid to eat of if pressed by hunger, yet I think
my stomach would scarce have served to venture upon these New
Holland guanos, both the looks and the smell of them being so
offensive.
The sea-fish that we saw here (for here was no river, land or pond
of fresh water to be seen) are chiefly sharks. There are abundance
of them in this particular sound, that I therefore gave it the name
of Shark's Bay. Here are also skates, thornbacks, and other fish of
the ray kind (one sort especially like the sea-devil), and gar-fish,
bonetas, etc. Of shell-fish we got here mussels, periwinkles,
limpets, oysters, both of the pearl kind and also eating oysters, as
well the common sort as long oysters, besides cockles, etc.
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