AUSTRALIAN CUCKOO. 291 



from the windings, and the tide being against us, 

 our progress was slow ; and at the end of eleven 

 miles were obliofed to wait its chanmnof. Here we 

 landed in the mouth of a small creek at the end of 

 a clear bank on the eastern side ; the opposite one 

 also began to wear the same character, and our 

 eyes therefore were permitted to wander over an 

 immense extent of very level open grassy country, 

 dotted with clumps of trees. 



The tides changing only twice in twenty-four hours 

 presented a great impediment to our exploration, 

 and it was evening before we could again move 

 onwards. 



Whilst waiting the tide, the note of a bird re- 

 sembling the cuckoo broke the deep stillness that 

 prevailed. Tt was evening ; all around was calm : — 

 the wide extended plain dimly stretching away on 

 every side, the waters as they imperceptibly swelled 

 between the curving banks, the heavens in which 

 the last rays of the sun still lingered, gilding the 

 few clouds that hovered near the horizon. A pleas 

 ing sadness stole over the heart as these familiar 

 sounds— the note of this Australian cuckoo, if I 

 may venture to name a bird from its voice — floated 

 through the tranquil air. Recollections of the do- 

 mestic hearth, and the latticed window shaded 

 with vines and honeysuckles, and the distant mea- 

 dows, and glades, and woodlands, covered with the 

 bursting buds of spring; and — pervading all and 

 giving a charm to all — the monotonous but ever 



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