tao 
A VOYAGE TO 
/ 
1779. bird with a long tail, whofe colour is black, the vent and 
\ f feathers under the wing (which is much longer than 
is ufually feen in the generality of birds, except the birds 
of paradife) are yellow; and the common water or dark¬ 
er hen. 
Their vegetable productions are nearly the fame with the 
reft of the South-fea illands. I have before mentioned, that 
the tar row root is much fuperior to' any we had before 
tailed, and that we attributed this excellence to the dry me¬ 
thod of cultivating it. The bread-fruit trees thrive here, 
not in fuch abundance, but produce double the quantity of 
fruit they do on the rich plains of Otaheite. The trees a^e 
nearly of the fame height, but the branches begin to ftrike 
out from the trunk much lower, and with greater luxu¬ 
riance. Their fugar-canes are alfo of a very unufual lize. 
One of them was brought to us at Atooi, rneafuring eleven 
inches and a quarter in circumference; and having fourteen 
feet eatable. 
At Oneeheow they brought us feveral large roots of a 
brown colour, draped like a yam, and from fix to ten pounds 
in weight. The juice, which it yields in great abundance, 
is very fweet, and of a pleafant tafte, and was found to 
be an excellent fubftitute for fugar. The natives are very 
fond of it, and ufe it as an article of their common diet; 
and our people alfo found it very palatable and whole- 
fome. We could not learn to what fpecies of plant it be¬ 
longed, having never been able to procure the leaves ; but 
it was fuppofed, by our botanifts, to be the root of fome 
kind of fern. 
Agreeably to the practice of Captain Cook, I firal] fub- 
join an abftraCt of the aftronomical obfervations which 
were made at the obfervatory in Karakakooa Bay, for de¬ 
termining 
