NOTE-BOOK OF A NATURALIST. 97 



After this butchery, for the poor animals sufFered themselves to 

 be shot in the eyes \yith small shot, and in some cases to be 

 knocked on the head with sticks, I scrambled with difficulty through 

 the brushwood and over fallen trees, to reach the higher land with 

 the surveying instruments ; but the thickness and height of the 

 wood prevented anything else from being distinguished. There 

 was little doubt, however, that this extensive piece of land was 

 separated from the continent ; for the extraordinary tameness of 

 the kanguroos, and the presence of seals upon the shore, concurred 

 with the absence of all traces of men to show that it was not 

 inhabited. 



But the slieep now walks where the kanguroo formerly 

 bounded, and the wedge-tailed destroyer makes terrible 

 havoc with the lambs. Not that it will refuse carrion ; 

 for Mr. Gould, during one of his journeys into the inte- 

 rior to the northward of Liverpool Plains, saw no less than 

 thirty or forty assembled together round the carcase of a 

 dead bullock ; some, gorged to the full, perched upon 

 the neighbouring trees, the rest still in the enjoyment of 

 the feast. And he adds, that for the sake of the refuse 

 thrown away by the kanguroo hunters it will often follow 

 them for many miles, and even for days together. 



The nests observed by the same scientific traveller were 

 placed in the most inaccessible trees, were very large, 

 nearly flat, and built of sticks and boughs. The eggs he 

 never could procure. 



The latest news from Egypt reports the young hippopo- 

 tamus to be thriving and waxing strong, but more good- 

 natured and amiable than ever. His teeth are advancino- • 

 he takes his rice and meal with such a hearty good- will that 

 his allowance of milk — to the great comfort, no doubt, of 

 the good people of Cairo, who must have had some fears of 

 a famine of that nutritious beverage — is reduced to fifty 

 pints a-day; and this Brobdignag baby has contrived to 

 win good Mr. Murray's heart so effectually, that it is 

 hoped he may embark for England, with his huge pet, 

 somewhere about the 10th of May next, by which time 



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