y to take notice of.
Although it did not appear, during our longer stay, that above a fourth
part of the trees, and other plants, were in flower; a circumstance
absolutely necessary to enable one to distinguish the various kinds.

[Footnote 170: See his _Characteres Generum Plantarum_. Lond. 1776.]

"The only quadrupeds, besides hogs, are a few rats, and some dogs,
which are not natives of the place, but produced from some left by us in
1773, and by others got from Feejee. Fowls, which are of a large breed,
are domesticated here.

"Amongst the birds, are parrots, somewhat smaller than the common grey
ones, of an indifferent green on the back and wings, the tail bluish,
and the rest of a sooty or chocolate brown; parroquets, not larger than
a sparrow, of a fine yellowish green, with bright azure on the crown of
the head, and the throat and belly red; besides another sort as large as
a dove, with a blue crown and thighs, the throat and under part of the
head crimson, as also part of the belly, and the rest a beautiful green.

"There are owls about the size of our common sort, but of a finer
plumage; the cuckoos mentioned at Palmerston's Island; king-fishers,
about the size of a thrush, of a greenish blue, with a white ring about
the neck; and a bird of the thrush kind, almost as big, of a dull green
colour, with two yellow wattles at the base of the bill, which is the
only singing one we observed here; but it compensates a good deal for
the want of others by the strength and melody of its notes, which fill
the woods at dawn, in the evening, and at the breaking up of bad
weather.

The other land-birds are rails, as large as a pigeon, of a variegated
grey colour, with a rusty neck; a black sort with red eyes, not larger
than a lark; large violet-coloured coots, with red bald crowns; two
sorts of fly-catchers; a very small swallow; and three sorts of pigeons,
one of which is _le ramier cuivre_ of Mons. Sonnerat;[171] another, half
the size of the common sort, of a light green on the back and wings,
with a red forehead; and a third, somewhat less, of a purple brown, but
whitish underneath.

[Footnote 171: _Voyage a la Nouvelle Guinee_, Tab. CII.]

"Of water-fowl, and such as frequent the sea, are the ducks seen at
Annamooka, though scarce here; blue and white herons; tropic birds;
common noddies; white terns; a new species of a leaden colour, with a
black crest; a small bluish curlew; and a large plover, spotted with