296 llOSE-HILL PARUOTS. 



and the children, as among all savage, and per- 

 haps even civilized, races, when able to pro- 

 vide for themselves, are careless of parental 

 regard or protection. 



It is surprising with what facility the natives 

 ascend, in pursuit of game, trees of large circum- 

 ference, without a branch to aid them except 

 near the summit, merely by making small notches 

 with their tomahawks upon the trunk, in which 

 the feet are placed. I even saw a female ascend 

 a lofty tree for the purpose of taking a nest of 

 the " Juliong," or Rose Hill parrot, from the hol- 

 low branch or " spout" of the tree : she brought 

 down in safety five full-fledged young ones. The 

 natives eat them, as they do all living things. 

 The eggs of this species of parrot are of a light 

 bluish colour, with small, pale, brown spots. 

 The young of all the parrot tribe were now abun- 

 dant. One evening a sound met my ears, re- 

 semblino- the harmonious voices of swine at a 



o 



tliat " the impressions of the feet of the aboriginal natives 

 may be readily distinguished from those of Europeans, by the 

 narrowness of the heel, the comparative broadness of the 

 fore part of the foot, the shortness of the toe, and a peculiar 

 bend of the internal edge of the foot inwards, (a form very 

 probably incident to the method employed by these i)eop]e 

 in climbing trees,) and the smallness of the entire impression, 

 compared with that of an European." 



