Journals of Two Expeditions of Discovery in North-West and Western Australia Volume I Part 24

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:

Viewing the general distribution of Banksia, it is a singular fact in the geographical distribution of this genus that its species, which have been traced through almost every meridian of the south coast, upon the islands in Ba.s.s Strait, in Van Diemen's Land, and widely scattered throughout the whole extent of New South Wales to the north coast, at which extreme Banksia dentata has been observed as far west as longitude 136 degrees south, should be wholly wanting on the line of the north-west coast.

(*Footnote. Ibid.)

I observed a great variety of plants of the order Leguminosae.

Of the extraordinary Capparis resembling the African Adansonia I have already spoken in Chapter 6.

A species of Callitris (Pine) was common, as was the Panda.n.u.s; and the Araucaria excelsa was found on the heights, both near the sea coast and further inland.

CLIMATE. ITS HEALTHINESS.

I conceive the climate of North-western Australia to be one of the finest in the world, and my reasons for thus thinking are grounded upon the following circ.u.mstances.

PROOFS OF ITS SALUBRITY.

I was resident there from the beginning of the month of December 1837 to the middle of the month of April 1838; a period of four months and a half: and during the whole of this time the men under my command were exposed to great hards.h.i.+ps and privations. On one occasion three of us slept in the open air without any covering or warm clothes for five successive nights, during three of which we had constant showers of heavy rain, and yet did not in any way suffer from this exposure.

Other detached parties were on various occasions subjected for a shorter period to exposure of a similar nature, and no instance occurred of any individual suffering in the least from it. One or two cases of slight diarrhoea occurred, but they could be always traced to some food that had been eaten the day before, and never were sufficiently violent to delay us for a single hour.

Whilst this perfect freedom from disease existed amongst the party they had not only to bear exposure of the nature above stated, but the provisions with which I was enabled to supply them were sometimes very insufficient for their wants. During the whole month of March and part of April their daily full allowance of food was about 1 3/4 pounds of flour, first made into dough and then baked in the form of a flat cake upon a large stone.

This low diet, at the same time that they were compelled to work very hard, naturally rendered some of them extremely weak, and several were, on our return to the coast, in a very reduced state.

I should here state that we were (perhaps fortunately) unable to carry more than one pint of brandy with us, hence no spirits were issued to the men, and the non-appearance of diseases of an inflammatory nature may perhaps in some measure be attributed to this circ.u.mstance.

The opinion of Captain Wickham, R.N. commanding H.M. s.h.i.+p Beagle, is perfectly in accordance with my own. He was upon the coast at the same time that we were, and in a letter to me writes thus: "Our cruise has been altogether a fortunate one, as we have been enabled to examine the whole coast from Cape Villaret to this place (Port George the Fourth) without any accident, and the climate is so good that we have had no sick."

THERMOMETRICAL OBSERVATIONS. RAIN AND TEMPERATURE.

I have annexed a short statement of the weather and range of the thermometer during some parts of the months of December, January, and February. It will be seen from this that the heat was on some occasions great, even as high as to 136 degrees of Fahrenheit in the sun; yet, by not exposing ourselves to its influence in the heat of the day more than we could help, we suffered no inconvenience from this circ.u.mstance: indeed in other tropical countries where the heat has not been so great I have suffered much more than I did in North-western Australia.

NUMBER OF DAYS IN WHICH RAIN FELL:

December: 6 days.

January: 19 days, namely, 12, to January 19th, 4 between 19th and 28th, 3 to end of month.

February: 7 days.

March: 12 days.

To 12th April: 2 days.

In January the greatest quant.i.ty of rain fell between the 15th and 30th, accompanied by storms of thunder and lightning.

In February the greatest quant.i.ty of rain fell in the commencement of the month. For several nights in the middle of February we had thunder, lightning, and strong gusts of wind, seldom accompanied by rain.

In March the greatest quant.i.ty of rain fell from the 17th to the 23rd.

The mean temperature of the different periods of the day for the month of December 1838 at Hanover Bay, determined by observations for only six successive days from the 26th to the 31st inclusive (thermometer in the shade) are as follows: