PETREL. 



of some others of the genus ; and in other genera we 

 have "farinsa and superba, applied to the very plainest 

 species of the whole. Though the present species is 

 styled black, it is subject to great varieties of colour, 

 ((insisting chiefly of various shades of brown and fawn 

 colour, or a clouded mixture of the two ; and some 

 specimens are entirely white. The length of the 

 body is about eighteen inches, and the tail about 

 twruty ; the muzzle is triangular and very pointed ; 

 the oars are large and erected ; the tail is round and 

 very thickly covered with fur ; the fur on the body 

 of the animal is long and close, and remarkably soft, 

 so that it is held in considerable estimation by the 

 furriers ; and we belive that in Sydney it is used in 

 the manufacture of hats. Like the others, it is found 

 in the forests of eucalyptus, in the hollows of which 

 it takes up its abode. 



Large-tailed Petaurus (P. macrounis]. This species 

 is about the size of a brown rat. The fur on the 

 upper part is brownish-grey, with a dark brown band 

 down the middle of the forehead ; the ears are large, 

 rounded, and of a whitish colour. Like the other, 

 it is subject to very considerable varieties of colour. 



Several more species of these animals have been 

 mentioned ; but as this has often been done by rival 

 naturalists, each of whom was more anxious to dis- 

 cover and name a species, than to find out the habits 

 of the species already known, those specific dis- 

 tinctions are really of very little value. In the case 

 of this, and indeed of all the native mammalia of New 

 Holland, the lovers of nature have much to regret. 

 Of ail animals they are the most singular; but the 

 greater part of them are the most obscure in their 

 habits, and, therefore, the most difficult to study. 

 The description of characters that have been sent 

 from Britain to New Holland, to labour in the forests 

 as a sort of penalty for crimes committed in the 

 mother country, are exactly such as we might expect 

 to destroy every living creature that comes in their 

 way, without paying the least attention to its man- 

 ners. In consequence of this, the native mammalia 

 have been exterminated from all the cleared lands of 

 the colonies, and as it does not appear that any of 

 them, with the exception perhaps of the great kan- 

 guroo, have the slightest tendency to be social, 

 there is little chance of their again returning, even 

 when ornamental plantings shall have in part co- 

 vered and sheltered those grounds which have been 

 so indiscriminately denuded by the desolating zeal of 

 the axe. 



This is the master vice or folly of British colonists 

 in every wooded country of which they take pos- 

 session, and they thereby spoil both the natural his- 

 tory and the land. It will readily be understood, 

 that if a country is thickly covered with a primeval 

 forest, every native creature that lives in it must be 

 adapted to that forest, and form part of the system 

 alone. Consequently, if the forest is suddenly cut 

 down, there is no resting-place or shelter left for the 

 tenants of the forest, and they must either flit before 

 the axe, be killed by the woodsmen, or perish on the 

 clear grounds. This is true, not only of the irrational 

 animals, but of the human natives. Let any one con- 

 sider how many nations of American Indians have 

 even now their memorial in an historic name, and how 

 speedily the remainder is wasting away before the 

 progress of colonisation by Europeans and their de- 

 scendants, and he will once admit that, in as far as 

 the system of nature is concerned, this plan of colo- 



nisation is not altogether an unmixed good. It so 

 happens too, that the lands, tender from being so 

 long shaded by the forest, are over-worked in a few 

 years, and thus cultivation cuts down stately trees in 

 order that their place may be occupied by weeds. 



PETREL. A family of long-winged web-footed 

 bird*, the characteristic family of those which are 

 habitually on the wing on the waters, and may be said 

 to inhabit the wide oceans in the full extent of their 

 breadth. The name petrel has been given to them 

 rather superstitiously. It is a corruption of Pctrellus, 

 or little Peter, and was given to them because they 

 appear to walk naturally upon the waters, as the 

 Apostle Peter tried to do without very notable sue- 

 There are other superstitions connected with 

 them, or at least with some of their species, to which 

 we shall afterwards have occasion to allude, and alto- 

 gether they are among the most singular and the 

 most interesting productions of nature, not for their 

 commercial value certainly, for that is but small, 

 though there are some of the northern countries in 

 which they are used both as fuel and as candles ; but 

 to one who wishes to understand the system of nature, 

 and see how all parts work together, they have an 

 interest far higher than any mere commercial one. 

 Nor must it be supposed that those enlarged views of 

 Nature's operations on the great scale are contrary to 

 the genuine spirit of commerce, industry, and the 

 multiplication of the comforts of life ; for not only are 

 they the very reverse of this, but they are the very 

 subjectsin which commerce originates, and to which all 

 its improvements are owing. Look at the productions 

 of America, North and South, and think what Europe, 

 and Britain especially, would be without them, and 

 then turn round and think by yourself how we came 

 by the original knowledge of these things? The an- 

 swer to the inquiry is down upon the record, and 

 never can be obliterated. Columbus crossed the At- 

 lantic. Another might have done this it will be said, 

 to which the answer is, another did not do it. We 

 all know the story of Columbus breaking the egg, 

 when he himself was told that others might have done 

 the same as he did. " Any one can do what I have 

 done, after I have shown them the way," was the 

 implied declaration of the philosophic and enter- 

 prising navigator. What led Columbus to propose 

 this enterprise and he proposed it to several coun- 

 tries, and to England among the rest, before any one 

 would enter into his views to the extent of that hum- 

 ble equipment which he required ? Columbus had 

 studied with the utmost attention the descriptive and 

 the physical geography of the globe as far as it was 

 then known, and he reasoned that if India and China, 

 which were then the most desirable spots, could not 

 be reached by a western voyage, more direct than the 

 eastern one, and having the advantage of the trade 

 wind in its favour, the obstacle must be land, and that 

 land an addition to the then known world. This was 

 the general view ; and when the opportunity came, the 

 execution was shaped accordingly, But even Co- 

 lumbus was under no small obligations to the petrels. 

 When hope had gone down to all his crew, who were 

 not supported by the same general views as himself, 

 when they were in a state of mutiny, and Columbus 

 himself would have despaired, if despair had formed 

 any part of his nature, petrels from the gulf weed 

 alighted on the rigging, and produced a similar 

 effect on the crew of the vessel, to that which the 

 dove with the olive-branch is said to have produced 



