Dirk
Hartog's Island until he reached the northern extremity of the island.
There, upon an acclivity, a tin plate was found on the ground. Certain
words scratched upon the metal indicated that the ship _Eendragt_, of
Amsterdam, of which Dirk Hartog was master, had anchored off the island
on the 25th of October, 1616, and had departed for Bantam on the 27th
day of the same month. The pilot brought the metal plate--a flattened
tin dish--with him, and also two turtles which had been caught on the
island. The squadron anchored in Dirk Hartog's Reede on the 4th of
February, and remained there until the 12th day of that month.

The anonymous author of the _Journaal_ relates that on the 6th of
February many turtles were seen, and also a very large nest at the
corner of a rock; the nest resembled that of a stork, but was probably
that of an osprey, which places its nest on a rock--often on a rock
surrounded by water.

De Vlaming quitted the Australian coast at 21 deg. S. lat., and proceeded to
Batavia, where he arrived on the 20th of March, 1697.

[7] Heeres, _The Part borne by the Dutch in the Discovery of
Australia_, p. 84.
[8] No Cassowary is known to inhabit western Australia.
[9] Wedge-tailed Eagles and also Ospreys build nests of sticks.

NEW ZEALAND BIRDS IN 1772.

Nicholas Thomas Marion Dufresne was an officer in the French navy, and
was born at St. Malo in 1729. In 1771 he was commissioned at his own
desire to restore to the island of his birth a Tahitian who had
accompanied Bougainville to France. He was also charged to ascertain if
a continent or islands existed in the Southern Ocean whence useful
products might be exported to Mauritius or Reunion.

The middle of the eighteenth century is approximately the period in
which the collection and classification of exotic plants and animals
became one of the chief objects of exploratory voyages. This was also
one of the aims of the expedition under the command of Marion and
Commerson, a botanist who had accompanied De Bougainville, was to have
accompanied Marion also. But he was unable to go, so that no botanist
and also no zoologist made the voyage. Crozet, however, who was second
in command of the _Mascarin_, has left not a few observations relating
to the birds which he saw at sea during the voyage, or in the countries
which he visited. They are embodied in his book _Nouveau Voyage a la Mer
du Sud_.

The native of Tahiti fell sick shortly a