the Celebes traders, are a
bastard species. On what they feed, I am not aware, never having seen
them in the wheat or maize fields. During the winter months, neither
white nor black cockatoos are to be seen; nor have I ever heard to what
place they migrate. The bird-fancier might here make as beautiful a
collection as I have ever seen. The different varieties of the parrot
tribe are countless, and extremely pretty: the king-parrot, the lowrie,
and the mountain parrot, are, perhaps, the most beautiful. Then, there
is the pretty little diamond sparrow, so called from its size, its
habits, resembling those of the common sparrow, and its plumage, which
exhibits a diamond pattern of black, white, and blue. Of the hawk tribe,
the varieties are numerous: the largest is the eagle-hawk, which now and
then carries off a lamb from the flocks of careless shepherds. Were I an
ornithologist, I might write a goodly volume on the birds of this
country; but I must content myself with these few notices; not
forgetting, however, to mention the stately black swan, a bird becoming
every year more rare.

We used frequently to be visited by tribes of the aboriginal inhabitants
of this vast continent. They are, without exception, the most complete
savages I have ever come across. They have no homes, no occupation
beyond procuring food for the day, and think nothing of to-morrow, which
they literally leave to take care of itself. They resist almost every
attempt to induce them to labour, and, if clothed to-day by some good
Samaritan, will, in all probability, appear naked at his door to-morrow,
having given away their clothes to some convict, in exchange for a pound
of flour or an ounce of tobacco. In their habits, they are literally
wanderers on the face of the earth, shifting their camp from place to
place as game grows scarce. In rainy weather, the only precaution I ever
saw them take, with a view to protect themselves from wet, was the
building a small hut, not much larger than a bee-hive, constructed of
the boughs of trees, with a small aperture on one side, into which the
"black-fellow"[17] thrusts his head and shoulders, and sleeps as sound
as a top, his legs and the lower half of his body being exposed to wind
and rain. In winter, they may be seen encamped round a fire after their
day's hunting, all naked, and stretched on the ground, with their feet
towards the fire; the men smoking, if they have any thing to smoke, and
the wretched-lo