[89] The palms of Australia, according to a list kindly drawn up by Dr. Stapf, belong to the following genera: Calamus (the climbing rattan or "cane" palms of northern Australia); Kentia, a genus of six species of fan-shaped fronds, one of which was Cook's "cabbage palm" with "nuts that were good for pigs"; Clinostigma; Ptychosperma (a genus extending to Tahiti and Fiji); Areca (probably Cook's "second cabbage palm"); Arenga; Caryota; and Licuala. This last genus of low-growing palms was probably the third kind described by Cook, with fronds like a fern and nuts like chestnuts.
[90] As is well shown in Admiral Wharton's editions of Cook's Journals.
[91] The Endeavour, it might be mentioned, was sent out soon afterwards as a store-ship to the Falkland Islands, where she ended her days.
[92] They were poor creatures compared to Banks and Solander, and the elder Forster made himself so ridiculous that he became the butt of the seamen.
[93] There are at least nine species of duck-like birds in New Zealand. The four specially cited by Cook are probably classified as follows, in the order mentioned by him: Fuligula novœzelandiæ, the New Zealand scaup; Anas superciliosa, the New Zealand mallard; Hymenolæma malacorhynchus, the celebrated "Blue duck" of New Zealand (though it is not strictly speaking a duck but more related to the slender-billed merganser and smew); Nyroca australis, the Australian pochard. The remaining five species are the New Zealand ruddy sheldrake (Casarca), a tree duck (Dendrocygna), a shoveller (Spatula), and two teal (Elasmonetta and Nettion). But New Zealand once possessed black swans like those of Australia, and a huge flightless goose (Cnemiornis) like the existing Cereornis goose of Australia, and a musk duck (Bizuira). But all these became extinct long before the white man came on the scene.
[94] The Weka-rails, Ocydromus. There was also a monster Porphyrio, the Notornis mantelli, unable to fly, and consequently soon killed out by the colonists.
[95] The Wattle-bird or Huia was so-called because it had two wattles under its beak as large as those of a bantam cock. It was larger and longer in body than an English blackbird. Its bill was short and thick, and its feathers of a dark lead colour; the colour of its wattles being a dull yellow, almost orange. This description of Cook's refers to the chough-like Heterolocha, in which the male has a short, sharp, straight beak, and the female one which is long and curved like a sickle. The Poë-bird or Tui was about the size of a starling, and belonged to the family of honey eaters. The feathers were (wrote Cook) "of a fine mazarin blue", except those of its neck, which are of a most beautiful silver grey, and two or three short white ones, which are on the pinion joint of the wing. Under its throat hang two little tufts of curled, snow-white feathers, called its "poes", which, being the Tahitian word for ear-rings, was the origin of the name given by Cook's people to the bird, which is not more remarkable for the beauty of its plumage than for the sweetness of its note. "The flesh is also most delicious, and was the greatest luxury the woods afforded us." Of the "fan-tail" warblers mentioned by Cook there were different sorts, but the body of the most remarkable one was scarcely larger than that of a wren, yet it spread a tail of beautiful plumes, "fully three-quarters of a semicircle, of at least of 4 or 5 in. radius". These fan-tails were probably flycatchers of the Muscicapidæ family.
[96] Cook describes this as a small tree or shrub with five white petals shaped like those of a rose. The leaves were like a myrtle, and made an agreeably bitter beverage. If this was strongly brewed it acted like an emetic.
[97] Probably Haliœtus leucogaster, a white and grey fish-eating eagle.
[98] "The boughs of which their huts are made are either broken or split and tied together with grass in a circular form, the largest end stuck in the ground and the smaller parts meeting in a point at the top, after which they are covered with fern and bark, but so poorly done that they would hardly keep out a shower of rain. In the middle is the fireplace surrounded with heaps of mussel, scallop, and cray-fish shells, which I believe to be their chief food."—Captain Furneaux.