Description of the Birds and Reptiles. 139 
particularly defcribed the kanguroo, and the animal of the 
opoffum kind, refembling the phalanger of BufFon ; to which 
I can add only one more, refembling a polecat, which the 
natives call Quoll ; the back is brown, fpotted with white, and 
the belly white unmixed. Several of our people faid they 
had fcen wolves ; but perhaps, if we had not feen tracks that 
favoured the account, we might have thought them little more 
worthy of credit than he who reported that he had feen the 
devil. 
Of batts, which hold a middle place between the beads and 
the birds, we faw many kinds, particularly one which, as I have 
oblerved already, was larger than a partridge ; we were not 
fortunate enough to take one either alive or dead, but it was 
fuppofed to be the fame as BuiTon has defcribed by the name of 
Roijet or Rouget, 
The fea and other water-fowl of this country, are gulls, 
fhaggs, foland geefe, or gannets, of two forts ; boobies, nod- 
dies, curlieus, ducks, pelicans of an enormous nze, and ma- 
ny others. The land birds are crows, parrots, paroquets, 
cockatoos, and other birds of the fame kind, of exquifite beau- 
ty ; pigeons, doves, quails, buflards, herons, cranes, hawks, 
and eagles. The pigeons flew in numerous flocks, fo that, 
notwithilanding their ex reme fhynefs, our people frequently 
killed ten or twelve of them in a day : thefe birds are very 
beautiful, and creiled very differently from any we had feen 
before. 
Among other reptiles, here are ferpents of various kinds, 
fome noxious, and fome harmlefs ; fcorpions, centipieds, and 
lizards. The infedls are but few. The principal are the 
mufquito, and the ant. Of the ant there are feveral forts ; 
fome are as green as a leaf, and live upon trees, where they 
build their nefls of various iizes, between that of a man’s 
head and his fill. Thefe nefls are of a very curious flrudlure : 
they are formed by bending down feveral of the leaves, each 
of which is as broad as a man’s hand, and gluing the points 
of them together, fo as to form a purfe ; the vifcus ufed for 
this purpofe, is an animal juice, which nature has enabled 
them to elaborate. Their method of firft bending down the 
leaves, we had notan opportunity to obferve ;"but we faw thou- 
fands uniting all their ilrength to hold them in this pofition, 
while other bufy multitudes were employed within, in apply- 
ing the gluten that was to prevent their returning back. To 
fatisfy ourfelves that the leaves were bent, and held down 
by the effort of thefe diminutive artificers, we dillurbed them 
in their work, and as foon as they were driven from their 
flation, the leaves on which they were employed fprung up 
with a force much greater than we could have thought them 
able to conquer by any combination of their Ilrength. But 
though 
