Charles Griffith

“ They are excellent birds to eat, in flavour something like the grouse. The outside part of the breast is dark brown meat, while the part next the bone, as well as the legs, are white. The bronze-winged pigeon is one of the easiest birds to shoot; it is by no means shy, and is very good eating. They are birds of passage, and abound in summer. If you wait near a water-hole about sunset on a warm evening, you may shoot a great number. There is a great variety of wild ducks, and teal. Snipe are plentiful in the western country at the latter end of winter and beginning of spring. ”

“ Most of the varieties of mimosa produce a gum which is highly adhesive, transparent, and tasteless, having, in fact, much of the qualities of the gum-arabic. When to these are added the bright green cherry tree, or Australian cypress, the melancholy sheoak, and the deformed honeysuckle, there is left but little in addition to the minor shrubs to fill up the forests of this part of Australia, which, however, are deficient neither in beauty nor variety. It is known to most people, that all the trees of this country are evergreen ”

“ Whole herds are to be met with in the Dandenong district, within twenty miles of Melbourne, which is almost entirely a cattle country. There are two species, the forester and the brush kangaroo The male of the former species, when full grown, reaches the height of six or seven feet when sitting on his gams, and is, when brought to bay, or (in the language of the Australian Nimrods) set up, a formidable antagonist, tearing the dogs with his hind claws, and sometimes even attacking men. He is called an old man. ”

“ The hawks are also a very numerous tribe, and consist of a great number of varieties. The eagle hawk is a large and handsome bird, but is, I believe, an impostor, being neither an eagle nor a hawk, but only a vulture. ”

“ Of these the kangaroo grass is the most succulent, and makes splendid food for horses, cattle, and sheep. I do not think a horse will do more work on any kind of feeding than when fed on this grass, after it has begun to be turned by the sun. ”

“ On the edges of swampy rivers, and in swamps generally, grows the tea tree, which is so called from its leaves being occasionally used as a substitute for tea. It is a sure indication of a spring when there is no surfacewater. ”

“ November and March are the months in which they are most seen; they never appear after April or before October, The natives are sometimes killed by them; but I do not recollect hearing of a white man being so. ”

“ The stone most common near Melbourne is a whinstone of a grey and sometimes of a brown colour, which is known to the settlers as iron stone. Sandstone is also found, some of which is an excellent building stone. Granite occurs of a very fine quality in the hills about twelve miles to the northwest of Melbourne, and also at Station Peak, about thirty miles to the south-west. ”

“ The leaves of all these trees are highly aromatic when bruised. Next in importance to the Eucalyptus family come the Mimosas. Of these there are nine varieties with which I am acquainted in the Port Phillip district, and I know that there are several more; of these the principal is the lightwood or blackwood of the settlers. It is a beautiful tree, something like the ilex or holm oak of England, but of a brighter green. In rich lands (of which, indeed, it is a common indication) it grows to a considerable size, and the timber is sometimes used for making furniture. ”

“ There is also another singular-looking spider, with black body and red legs, whose style of colouring gives it something the effect of a mail coach. Locusts and grasshoppers sometimes appear in great numbers, and do considerable damage in gardens, but do not at all approach the descriptions which one reads of the African locusts. ”

“ They differ from the European swallow in having more of a bluish tint in the dark parts on their backs, and a kind of brick-dust colour about the throat. They also warble very sweetly. There is a crow in Australia exactly similar to a rook, with this exception, that they have white eyes, and their caw has a most ludicrously dismal sound. The shrike crow, the magpie of the settlers, is very numerous, and has a deep melodious whistle, which always announces the dawn of day. Cranes are numerous ”

“ There is an insect called the mason-bee, which builds up a kind of cell in the chinks of a wall, or other convenient spot, in which he stores up great numbers of spiders of the most beautiful colours—some green, some yellow, with enamelled looking backs of different colours and patterns. ”

“ In addition to the grasses, there are numerous herbs, of which stock of all kind are very fond; and there is scarcely any shrub which they will not eat with avidity during part of the year when the leaves are tender. ”

“ It is a singular fact, that the white gum sheds its bark every year. When this process is completed, the trees of this species have the appearance of having been stripped of their bark* their smooth, white stems forming the strongest contrast with the black trunks of the stringy bark, with which they are sometimes, though not often, mixed ”

“ Mosquitoes are seldom troublesome; they are dreadful at Sydney. There is a great variety of spiders, the largest of which is called the tarantula, and by the old hands the triantelope; its bite is said to be poisonous ”

“ In this catalogue I have limited myself principally to those animals which force themselves on the attention of mankind by the possession, or reputed possession of some useful or noxious quality, or by some other means, and which therefore may prove interesting to any person thinking of emigrating. ”

“ A friend of mine, not much used to the bush, was rather shocked by one of our shepherds telling him, on his making some inquiries about the sporting in that part of the country, that he had only on the day before "missed fire at an old man." ”

“ This is not the fact; and I believe it was originally said to finish an antithesis, that as the flowers had no scent, the birds had no song. There are many undistinguished little birds that warble very sweetly. There are perhaps no professionals, like the lark, the nightingale, and thrush, of the British Isles; but there is very good amateur music amongst them. ”

“ They are generally very wary, and it requires a good deal of management to get within shot. The best plan is to have a horse that will stand Are, and you then have a good chance of getting close, as they do not much mind a man on horseback. ”