NEW SOUTH WALES. 145 
paiTes by the marks which are really charaderiftic. Go- <^ ^ ^ p. 
venior Phillip, in one of his letters, remarking the pro- /--^ 
digious variety of vegetable produ6lions then before his • • ; ' 
eyes, laments, that among all the people with him there ■ , 
happens not to be one who has any tolerable knowledge 
of botany. This circiimftance is perhaps lefs to be re- 
gretted than a deficiency in any other branch of natural 
knov>^led2;e. The refearches of fome o-entlemen amoni>" 
the firfi: voyagers were particularly dire6ted to botanical ■ -. 
difcoveries, and a v.'ork which is now preparing, in a ' ':. 
ftyle of uncommon accuracy and elegance by one of the 
mOil illuftrious of them, v/ill probably difcover that 
there was little left undone, even in their iliort iiay, 
towards completing that branch of enquiry. Of qua- 
drupeds the whole fcock contained in the country ap- 
pears to be confined to a very fev/ fpecies : Wolves have 
not been feen, though the tracks of them were fo fre- 
quently thought to be detedted on this coaft by Captain ■ . ' : 
Cook's party. Birds are numerous, but they belong in 
general to claiTes already know^n to naturaliiis ; a fev/ 
drawings however, and fpecimens of both, have been 
fent over. Thefe, to gratify, as frr as poiiible, the cu- 
riofity of thofe readers whofe attention is particularly di- 
redled to natural hifcory, have been engraved, and a ■ 
fliort account of them is thrown toy;ether in this chapter. - -X 
Of reptiles few have been feen that are at all curious. 
A large Lizard, of the fcincus kind, v/ith the remarkable ■ _ 
U peculiarity 
