sea, having their
stomachs filled with a gelatinous substance gathered from the waves; and
this they eject into the throats of their offspring, or retain for their
own nourishment, according to circumstances. A little after sunset, the
air at Preservation Island used to be darkened with their numbers; and it
was generally an hour before their squabblings ceased, and every one had
found its own retreat. The people of the Sydney Cove had a strong example
of perseverance in these birds. The tents were pitched close to a piece
of ground full of their burrows, many of which were necessarily filled up
from walking constantly over them; yet, notwithstanding this
interruption, and the thousands of birds destroyed, for they constituted
a great part of their food during more than six months, the returning
flights continued to be as numerous as before; and there was scarcely a
burrow less, except in the spaces actually covered by the tents. These
birds are about the size of a pigeon, and when skinned and dried in smoke
we thought them passable food. Any quantity could be procured, by sending
people on shore in the evening. The sole process was to thrust in the arm
up to the shoulder, and seize them briskly; but there was some danger of
grasping a snake at the bottom of the burrow, instead of a petrel.

The penguin of these islands is of the kind denominated _little_; the
back and upper parts are of a lead-coloured blue; the fore and under
parts, white. They were generally found sitting on the rocks, in the day
time, or in caverns near the water side. They burrow in the same manner
as the sooty petrel; but, except in the time of rearing their young, do
not seem, like it, to return to their holes every night. The places
preferred for breeding are those at the back of the shore, where the sand
is overspread with salt plants; and they were never found intermixed with
the petrels, nor far from the salt water. Their flesh is so strong and
fishy, that had not the skins served to make caps, rather handsome, and
impenetrable to rain, the penguins would have escaped molestation.

No other quadrupeds than the kangaroo, womat, and duck-billed aculeated
ant-eater were found upon the islands. The kangaroo, is of a reddish
brown, and resembles the smaller species which frequents the brush woods
at Port Jackson: when full grown, it weighs from forty to fifty pounds.
There were no traces of it upon the Passage Isles; but, upon Cape-Barren
and Cla