208 NATURAL HISTORY OF MELBOURNE. 



the dense vegetation on the high Yarra ranges, above the lunatic asylum, we 

 found very abundantly the Nicotiana suaveolens, with white flowers ; and trailing 

 along the banks, Muchlenbeckia complexa, (N. 0. Polygonese,) which also 

 climbed most gracefully amid the Acacias. Here, too, a beautiful Billardiera, 

 with long, pendulous yellow flowers. Several varieties of the Helichrysum, 

 (Everlasting,) ornamented the dry stony banks with their rich orange-coloured 

 flowers; and as we rested by the river side to lunch, we observed foot-marks 

 of the Opossum, Kangaroo, Rat, and native Cat. The Kingfisher uttered 

 his shrill scream as he skimmed hastily up the stream; the Laughing 

 Jackass startled us with his extraordinary cry; and the Bronze-wing Pigeon, 

 ever and anon started up with a loud clap, clap, from clusters of Rhagodia 

 nutans, on the fruit of which he had been feeding. 



January 28th., 1854. Wind, north; thermometer, 93', in shade at 8 A. 

 M. By the sea-shore at St. Kilda, observed several specimens of the Spine- 

 tailed Swallow, (Hirundo caudacuta,) an individual of which (a young bird) 

 Mr. Christy shot at Richmond, from a flock of some hundreds, on December 

 30th., 1853. The following is a pretty accurate description, but we refer 

 our readers to a plate of this bird in Morris's ''British Birds," vol. ii., p. 86, 

 taken from a specimen shot in England, on July 8th., 1846, in the parish 

 of Great Horkesley, near Colchester, in Essex. Length, from tip to tip, 

 seven inches and a half; expanse of wing, nineteen inches; upper side of wings, 

 steel black. The back between the wings, dusky brown, approaching to buff; 

 two last minor feathers of each wing, next to body, half white; back of head, 

 and head, dusky black, with metallic hue. Rump, darkening until it reaches 

 the tail, which is quite black; throat, dirty white, extending one inch and a 

 half; tail feathers, ten in number, "the shaft of each feather projecting beyond 

 the web, forming a row of spines about an eighth of an inch long from the 

 middle feathers, and gradually shortening on the side ones." It is indeed an 

 unaccountable circumstance, as remarked by the talented author of the 

 "British Birds," why and wherefore this bird should have thus winged its 

 way from so remote a part of the earth, our very Antipodes, to our Island; 

 yet the length of the wings, and the rapidity of its flight, easily account 

 for the "how," particularly when we recollect that our common English 

 Swallow can with ease perform a journey of three thousand miles in three 

 days,^ and that this bird is able ''to sustain itself in the air during the 

 entire day without cessation." 



On the sands noticed a Eay fish, which as far as I can remember is 

 precisely similar to the Sting Ray of our British Seas. Yellowish olive above, 

 with slate-coloured spots; under part white, with the exception of wings and 

 tail, which are dirty yellow. The natives call it "Stingaree" and believe, 

 I need not say how erroneously, in its venomous powers. 



Mr. Christy took, near Brighton, very handsome specimens of a large 

 Wasp; — abdomen, barred with orange and black. And we noticed a spinous 

 * "Stanley's History of Birds, p. 91." 



