120 Mr King's Observations on the Climate 



the wind ; on the other they kindle a fire. Mimosa gum, 

 fern-roots, fish, snakes, opossums, bandecoots, and kangaroos, 

 some of which they spear only with difficulty, form their 

 common food. The very limited means of subsistence which 

 the country naturally affords, necessitates them to travel over 

 a great extent of surface in quest of food, which almost pre- 

 cludes the possibility of a permanent abode. There are, I be- 

 lieve, few countries in the world where there is such luxuriant 

 vegetation, and so little and so few of its products suited for 

 the food of animals, than in this ; although with culture and the 

 importation of useful plants, no part will excel it in the course of 

 years in the fertility of the soil and the variety and usefulness of 

 its productions. Insects are numerous, various, and troublesome, 

 as is the case in all warm climates. Domestic dogs are a great 

 pest in the town. Every house keeps from two to six, which 

 bask in the hot sun during the day, and prowl and yell about 

 the streets at night. I mention this only to remark, that I have 

 never.heard of a case of hydrophobia. Snakes, I am inform- 

 ed, are all poisonous, of which there are a variety of kinds, va- 

 rying also in the intensity of their venom ; the largest being not 

 above fourteen feet long. Some of the smaller kinds are the most 

 deadly. Quadrupeds are not numerous. The kangaroo (of 

 which there are two or three kinds,) opossums, and bandecoots, 

 are the most remarkable. There are native dogs, but few in 

 number. They often destroy sheep, and resemble, in appear- 

 ance and disposition, something between a fox and wolf. Birds 

 are much more abundant, and vary in size from the emu (an 

 animal about six feet high, being a sort of ostrich) to small 

 chirping creatures little larger than the humming-birds in the 

 West Indies, — black swans, cranes of various colours, white 

 hawks, black and white cockatoos, and thousands of parrots of 

 the most splendid plumage which fancy could suggest. Ducks 

 and quails are also very common. Besides, birds that resem- 

 ble our pigeon, pheasant, and turkey, are also got in num- 

 bers. There are also a number of birds peculiar to the coun- 

 try — one called laughing bird ; another the coachman, from 

 its whistle ending in a smack like a whip ; another the bell- 

 bird, from its voice being like the sound of a bell, and so on. 

 Most of the small birds appear to me to live on insects. We 



