418 "MONKEY BIRDS." 



expanse of the continent, this was the first time it was 

 discovered in Northern Australia. 



In the reaches where the bamboo grew, flights 

 of large vampires (resembling the Ptei^opus rubri- 

 collis of Geoff.) were met with : they kept con- 

 tinually flying to and fro close over the boats as 

 they passed up, making a screeching disagreeable 

 noise, which, however, was far less unpleasant than 

 the mildewy odour with which they filled the air, 

 calling to mind the exclamation placed by our 

 immortal bard in the mouth of Trinculo. The 

 heavy flap of the leathern wings of these monkey 

 birds, as the men called them, was singular, while 

 sometimes a flio-ht would darken the verdure of a 

 bamboo, which, yielding to their weight, bent low, 

 as if before a passing gust of wind. To fix them- 

 selves appeared always a difiicult, and was certainly 

 a noisy operation, each apparently striving to alight 

 upon the same spot. They first cling to the bam- 

 boo by means of the long claw, or hook attached to 

 the outer edge of the wing, and then gradually 

 settle themselves. 



The river swarmed with alligators. Fish also 

 abounded ; and in the salt water, a kind commonly 

 known in the river Plate by the name of Cat-fish, 

 is plentiful. One that we caught was of the enor- 

 mous weight of twenty pounds. A large kind of 

 dark bream of excellent flavour was taken in fresh 

 water. Many of the reaches also swarmed with 

 wild fowl, consisting almost wholly of ducks, which, 



