l as hardly to
deserve the name, and are unfurnished with those beautiful ornaments
which adorn the wings of the ostrich: all the feathers are extremely
coarse, but the construction of them deserves notice--they grow in pairs
from a single shaft, a singularity which the author I have quoted has
omitted to remark. It may be presumed, that these birds are not very
scarce, as several have been seen, some of them immensely large, but
they are so wild, as to make shooting them a matter of great difficulty.
Though incapable of flying, they run with such swiftness, that our
fleetest greyhounds are left far behind in every attempt to catch them.
The flesh was eaten, and tasted like beef.

Besides the emu, many birds of prodigious size have been seen, which
promise to increase the number of those described by naturalists,
whenever we shall be fortunate enough to obtain them; but among these
the bat of the Endeavour River is not to be found. In the woods are
various little songsters, whose notes are equally sweet and plaintive.

Of quadrupeds, except the kangaroo, I have little to say. The few met
with are almost invariably of the opossum tribe, but even these do not
abound. To beasts of prey we are utter strangers, nor have we yet any
cause to believe that they exist in the country. And happy it is for us
that they do not, as their presence would deprive us of the only fresh
meals the settlement affords, the flesh of the kangaroo. This singular
animal is already known in Europe by the drawing and description of Mr.
Cook. To the drawing nothing can be objected but the position of the
claws of the hinder leg, which are mixed together like those of a
dog, whereas no such indistinctness is to be found in the animal I am
describing. It was the Chevalier De Perrouse who pointed out this to me,
while we were comparing a kangaroo with the plate, which, as he justly
observed, is correct enough to give the world in general a good idea of
the animal, but not sufficiently accurate for the man of science.

Of the natural history of the kangaroo we are still very ignorant.
We may, however, venture to pronounce this animal, a new species of
opossum, the female being furnished with a bag, in which the young is
contained; and in which the teats are found. These last are only two in
number, a strong presumptive proof, had we no other evidence, that
the kangaroo brings forth rarely more than one at a birth. But this
is settled beyond a doubt, fr