BIRDS.
Two brown bustards rose out of the grass; they were of the same size and colour as those seen in the Gulf of Carpentaria, and quite as wary, which was very singular. A couple of specimens of land birds were shot; one of them resembled a Meliphagus, although its stomach was filled with small beetles, finely broken up;* its head was covered with yellow pollen, out of a flower resembling the mallow, which is frequently resorted to by small beetles during the heat of the day, when the petal closing over them they are extracted, with some difficulty, by the bird. The other specimen was a brown grain-feeding kind; it invariably rested on the ground, where in its habits, head erect, tail down, and short, sudden run, it greatly resembled a tit-lark.
(*Footnote. Usually observed in the specimens of this species procured by Dr. Bynoe.)
At daylight on the 14th we continued our exploration from the spot where we visited the shore, marked on the chart as Red Hill; and found that the coast trended West by South to the part fronting the Amphinome Shoals, and that instead of the continued sandy beach were occasional low rocky projections. Eleven miles from Red Hill, a detached rocky ledge extended two miles from the shore, and at the end of twenty, commenced a line of low red sandstone cliffs five miles in extent. Here we, for the first time, saw native fires; and the country was evidently higher.
SOLITARY ISLAND.
October 15.
In the evening the ship was anchored five miles from a small island, bearing South-South-East, which we found to be in latitude 19 degrees 55 minutes South, longitude 120 degrees 55 minutes East; and which, from its lonely situation, was named Solitary Island. Six and nine miles North by East from it we had crossed several lines of ripplings and shoal patches of 4 and 5 fathoms. On visiting it next morning (16th) it was found to be of red sandstone formation, thirty feet high, and devoid of vegetation. Although lying a mile from the shore it is connected at low-water by a flat of sand. From its summit the view of the interior presented a slight change. At the distance of six miles there was a bank or rise in the country having rather a fertile aspect, above a hundred feet high, trending South-West with dense woodland intervening.
On the same afternoon the ship was moved fourteen miles further on. The many patches of ripplings we now saw in every direction westward, assured us that the Amphinome Shoals were close at hand; on patches one and two miles west and south of the ship there was only six and nine feet.
VISIT THE SHORE.
October 17.