294 



THE POOD OF THE TASMANIAN ABORIGINES. 



particular the sea birds, they were probably hunted less 

 for solid food than for their eggs (i). 



C— MOLLUSCA. 



1. Oyster. 



2. Mutton fish (Haliotis). 



3. Mussel. 



4. Turbo. 



5. Limpets. 



Besides this five kinds, of which the oyster and the 

 Haliotis are the most important, they apparently con- 

 sumed also a number of smaller kinds, which were prob- 

 ably brought up together with the larger specimens. 

 There is, however, a very strange and almost unaccount- 

 able absence of three of the most conspicuous mollusca 

 of the present fauna, viz., the three large Pectines : — 



Pecten asperrimus, 

 Pecten bifrons, 

 Pecten meridionalis, 



the last being the now highly appreciated scallop. No 

 names of these species appear in the vocabulary; neither 

 have I ever found any of their valves in the shell heap^s. 

 This is particularly conspicuous in the shell heaps along 

 the Derwent, where all these species are very common at 

 present, while the Ostrea has almost disappeared. We 

 must therefore either assume that the Pectines came to 

 the Derwent after the disappearance of the Aborigines, or 

 that the latter for some reason or other disliked this kind 

 of mollusca (2). 



D.— CRUSTACEA. 



The common Palinurus Edwardsii of the Tasmanian 

 coast, as well as Astacopsis Franklinii of the rivers, seem 



(i) There is a remarkable survival of the diet of the 

 Aborigines in the ordinary diet of the present population. 

 PufTinus tenuirostris, the sooty petrel, or as it is popularly 

 called, the " mutton bird," is a very favourite dish. To my taste 

 it is too greasy, as it contains a large percentage of fat; but it 

 is probably on this account that it was consumed by the 

 Aborigines. 



(2) The above is a question of greatest interest, but further 

 investigations will have to be made before anything definite can 

 be said. 



