Of quail, which in 1844 were very abundant, I saw not more than one or two—­probably the burning of the grass during the breeding season had effected this partial clearance.  Snakes appear to be numerous—­two out of three which I examined were poisonous—­the other was the diamond snake of New South Wales.  A very fine land shell, Helix bipartita, was found in colonies at the roots of the trees and bushes.  A large and handsome cowrie, Cypraea mauritiana, generally distributed among the islands of the Pacific, was here found for the first time in Australia.

EAGLE ISLAND.

August 1st.

I crossed over to Eagle Island with Mr. Brown, and spent a day and night there.  This place was so named by Cook, who states in explanation of the name—­“We found here the nest of some other bird, we know not what, of a most enormous size.  It was built with sticks upon the ground, and was no less than 26 feet in circumference, and two feet eight inches high."* An American professor** conjectures the above nest to have possibly been that of the Dinornis, the gigantic New Zealand bird, known only by its fossil remains.  A very slight knowledge, however, of ornithology, would be sufficient to confute the notion of any struthious bird constructing a nest of this kind, or of a wingless land bird of great size inhabiting an islet only a quarter of a mile in length.  Both Mr. Gould and myself have seen nests of the same construction, the work of the large fishing-eagle of Australia.

(Footnote.  Hawkesworth’s Voyages volume 2 page 599.)

(**Footnote.  In Silliman’s Journal for July 1844.)

This island is low and sandy, with a few casuarinas, or she-oaks, a fringe of Suriana maritima, some Tournefortiae, and thickets of Clerodendrum inerme.  Landrail and other birds were numerous.  The reef, which is very extensive, did not dry throughout at low-water, but some sandbanks along its lee margin were exposed, and upon them I found the greatest assemblage of pretty shells that I ever met with at one place.  What would not many an amateur collector have given to spend an hour here?  There were fine Terebrae in abundance, orange-spotted mitres, minutely-dotted cones, red-mouthed Strombi, glossy olives, and magnificent Naticae, all ploughing up the wet sand in every direction—­yet, with two exceptions, they are to be seen in every collection in Europe.

FIND A HUMAN SKULL.

As usual we found plentiful remains of recent turtle feasts.  One of the boat’s crew, not over-stocked with brains, during his rambles picked up a human skull with portions of the flesh adhering.  Accidentally learning this from the conversation of the men at our bivouac during supper, inquiry was made, when we found that he had foolishly thrown it into the sea, nor could it be found during a subsequent search.  I was anxious to determine whether it was aboriginal or not.  On the one hand, the natives of all parts of Australia usually evince the strongest desire to bury or conceal their own dead; on the other, there might have been some connection between the skull and the remains of a hut of European construction, portions of clothing, a pair of shoes, some tobacco, and fragments of a whaleboat seen here.  But all is mere conjecture.