BIRDS AND INSECTS 



141 



fruit-pigeons, with pink tops to their heads ; wide- 

 mouthed goat-suckers and honey-eaters, without num- 

 ber, abounded in the woods. Great lizards ran along 

 the paths, and climbed the trees ; small kangaroos 

 nibbled the tender shoots in the darkest parts of the for- 

 est; and large, hand- 

 some snails crawled 

 about on the damp 

 moss, or congre- 

 gated in hundreds 

 under decayed logs. 

 Butterflies were 

 scarce, but ants were 

 particularly abun- 

 dant, and it gave 

 us much trouble to 



PITTA. 



keep our collections 



from being devoured by them. They came into our 

 rooms, and ran in countless thousands over our floors. 

 It was useless to try to kill them, for as soon as one 

 army was destroyed, another took its place. The only 

 way we could preserve our things was to place them 

 on cups standing in pans of water. 



From Maryborough we went to Rockhampton. On 

 the boat there was a handsome, stylish, colored waiter, 

 who had lately come from America. His mother 

 was once a slave on a plantation in Carolina, and 

 he told many stories of the style and elegance 



