18 
SURVEY OF THE INT ERTROPICAL 
ISIS. 
January;, 
21 - 31 . 
those chiefly of the parrot and cockatoo tribe ; 
a species of the latter was noticed of a rich black 
plumage, and very like the black cockatoo of 
New South Wales. Kangaroos from their traces 
must be numerous, but only a very few were 
noticed ; the only reptile that was found was 
a black snake, which Mr. Cunningham saw 
for a moment as it glided past him. This 
gentleman made a large collection of seeds 
and dried specimens from the vast variety of 
beautiful plants and flowers with which na- 
ture has so lavishly clothed the hills and plains 
of this interesting country. 
A small spot of ground near the tent was dug 
up and enclosed with a fence, in which Mr. 
Cunningham sowed many culinary seeds and 
peach stones ; and on the stump of a tree, which 
had been felled by our wooding party, the 
name of the vessel with the date of our visit was 
inscribed ; but when we visited Oyster Harbour 
three years and a half afterwards, no signs 
remained of the garden, and the inscription was 
scarcely perceptible, from the stump of the tree 
having been nearly destroyed by fire. 
A little without the east entrance of the har- 
bour, we saw one of those prodigious large nests 
which Captain Flinders observed near Point 
Possession ; it was built on the summit of an 
