that I never saw but one.  The reason may be, that, as they cannot fly, they inhabit the skirts of the woods, and feed on the sea-beach, and are so very tame or foolish, as to stand and stare at us till we knocked them down with a stick.  The natives may have, in a manner, wholly destroyed them.  They are a sort of rail, about the size and a good deal like a common dunghill hen; most of them are of a dirty black or dark-brown colour, and eat very well in a pye or fricassee.  Among the small birds I must not omit to particularize the wattle-bird, poy-bird, and fan-tail, on account of their singularity, especially as I find they are not mentioned in the narrative of my former voyage.

The wattle-bird, so called, because it has two wattles under its beak as large as those of a small dunghill-cock, is larger, particularly in length, than an English black-bird.  Its bill is short and thick, and its feathers of a dark lead colour; the colour of its wattles is a dull yellow, almost an orange colour.

The poy-bird is less than the wattle-bird.  The feathers of a fine mazarine 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 leathers, called its poies, which being the Otaheitean word for earrings, occasioned our giving that name 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 there are different sorts; but the body of the most remarkable one is scarcely larger than a good filbert, yet it spreads a tail of most beautiful plumage, full three quarters of a semi-circle, of at least four or five inches radius.

For three or four days after we arrived in Pickersgill harbour, and as we were clearing the woods to set up our tents, &c. a four-footed animal was seen by three or four of our people; but as no two gave the same description of it, I cannot say of what kind it is.  All, however, agreed, that it was about the size of a cat, with short legs, and of a mouse colour.  One of the seamen, and he who had the best view of it, said it had a bushy tail, and was the most like a jackall of any animal he knew.  The most probable conjecture is, that it is of a new species.  Be this as it may, we are now certain that this country is not so destitute of quadrupeds as was once thought.

The most mischievous animals here are the small black sand flies, which are very numerous, and so troublesome, that they exceed every thing of the kind I ever met with.  Wherever they bite they cause a swelling, and such an intolerable itching, that it is not possible to refrain from scratching, which at last brings on ulcers like the small-pox.