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NEWSPAPERS, 



The Sydney police office daily produces a 

 strange compound of characters ; ludicrous scenes 

 and incidents furnish abundance of aliment for 

 the newspapers, who decorate many of the cases 

 brought before the magistrate in so facetious a 

 manner as to amuse their readers and sell the 

 papers. The number of newspapers published 

 in Sydney is very great, considering the small 

 town, and many of them are well and ably con- 

 ducted. " The " Sydney Herald" is published 

 twice a week ; the " Sydney Gazette" three 

 times ; the "Sydney Monitor" twice ; and there 

 are other smaller papers published weekly. 



At Paramatta I saw two tame specimens of the 

 lesser Otis, or Bustard, the " Curlew" of the 

 colony, which is abundant in this country ; 

 they were familiar with the man who was in the 

 habit of feeding them, but averse to approach 

 strangers. It is principally during the stillness 

 of night that the peculiar melancholy cry and 

 whistle of these birds are heard, seeming like 

 the harbinger of death. While sitting one night 

 by the bed-side of a young man, expiring from 

 a decline, I heard the note of the bird, unbroken 

 by any other sound ; it came over my senses 

 like a knell summoning the departing spirit to 

 its last long home.* 



* There is also at Batavia a bird which emits a melancholy 



