206 cook's first voyage august, 



the southern part of the country resembling a cherry, 

 except that the stone was soft ; and another, not 

 unlike a pine-apple in appearance, but of a very dis- 

 agreeable taste, which is well known in the East In- 

 dies, and is called by the Dutch Pyn Ajppel Boomen. 



Of the quadrupeds, I have already mentioned the 

 dog, and particularly described the kanguroo, and 

 the animal of the opossum kind, resembling the pha- 

 langer of Buffon ; to which I can add only one more, 

 resembling a polecat, which the natives caMQuoll; 

 the back is brown, spotted with white, and the belly 

 white unmixed. Several of our people said they had 

 seen wolves ; but, perhaps, if we had not seen tracks 

 that favoured the account, we might have thought 

 them little more worthy of credit than he who report- 

 ed that he had seen the devil. 



Of bats, which hold a middle place between the 

 beasts and the birds, we saw many kinds, particularly 

 one which, as I have observed already, was larger 

 than a partridge ; we were not fortunate enough to 

 take one either alive or dead, but it was supposed to 

 be the same as Buffon has described by the name of 

 Rouset or Rouget. 



The sea and other water-fowl of this country, are 

 gulls, shaggs, soland geese, or gannets, of two sorts ; 

 boobies, noddies, curlieus, ducks, pelicans of an enor- 

 mous size, and many others. The land-birds are, 

 crows, parrots, paroquets, cockatoos, and other birds 

 of the same kind, of exquisite beauty ; pigeons, 

 doves, quails, bustards, herons, cranes, hawks, and 

 eagles. The pigeons flew in numerous flocks, so 

 that, notwithstanding their extreme shyness, our peo- 

 ple frequently killed ten or twelve of them in a day : 

 these birds are very beautiful, and crested very dif- 

 ferently from any we had seen before. 



Among other reptiles, here are serpents of various 

 kinds, some noxious, and some harmless ; scorpions, 

 centipedes, and lizards. The insects are but few. 

 The principal are the musquito, and the ant. Of the 



