3384 Exclusion to Botany Bay. 



from among the long grass and rushes. No lacustrine shells occur, I 

 believe, although often diligently searched for. The sand hills are 

 overgrown with species of Leptospermum and Epacris, and small 

 Banksiae and Eucalypti. The birds there are chiefly the well-known 

 Meliphagidae or honey-suckers, Meliphaga Novae-Hollandiae, Glyci- 

 phila fulvifrons, G. albifrons, and Acanthorhynchus tenuirostris, with 

 two beautiful Maluri, M. cyaneus and M. Lamberti. 



The carcase of a horse by the road-side furnished several carrion 

 beetles — Emus erythrocephalus, Ptomaphila lachrymosa, a brilliant 

 Hister, and a blue Necrobia; and on the Leptospermum we found the 

 beautiful Cyria imperialis, Stigmodera macularia, and Chrysolophus 

 spectabilis, the last in considerable abundance. The wooden fences 



everywhere harbour a great cockroach [Kakerlac ?) ; and from 



the small gum-trees, feeding upon the leaves, I shook down Anoplo- 

 gnathus viridi-aeneus, A. analis, A. Olivieri, &c, in great numbers, and 

 some of these trees in flower furnished Temognatha variabilis, and one 

 or two specimens of T. grandis, besides many Cetoniadae, — Diaphonia 

 dorsalis, D. frontalis, Eupoecila Australasias, Eu. punctulata, &c. 



The upper part of Botany Bay contains extensive mud-flats, par- 

 tially dry at low water, covered with meadows of Zostera marina, and 

 fringed in places with mangroves. These flats are covered with Ceri- 

 thium ebeninum and Area trapezia, two shells which supply most of 

 the lime used in the colony ; they also constitute the feeding-grounds 

 of numerous herons (Ardea Novce-Hollandice), curlews (Numenius 

 Australasia), and other waders. 



Having reached the south headland of the bay, let me ask the 

 reader to allow me to put aside Zoology for a while, and take a retro- 

 spective glance at the important events of which this has been the 

 scene : for we are now upon classic ground, such, at least, as a colony 

 like this can exhibit. It is now eighty-one years since our illustrious 

 navigator Cook dropped anchor in the bay ; and by the aid of the tele- 

 scope you may see a brass plate fixed to a rock on the opposite shore, 

 commemorating this event. There the first white men landed, and 

 there the party of forty from the Endeavour were opposed by a single 

 native, who manfully withstood for a time the supposed hostile invad- 

 ers of his country. A few years pass by, and the quiet waters of the 

 bay are enlivened by the presence of eleven sail of vessels, with up- 

 wards of 800 convicts on board. But no place was here found suita- 

 ble for the reception of so large a party ; and fortunate was it that in 

 the neighbouring Port Jackson, a few miles to the northward, a noble 

 harbour was discovered, on the shores of which the first British set- 



