1773.
April.
Land. Here he found a prodigious number of the water-hens before mentioned, and brought away ten couple of them, which recompensed him for the trouble of crossing the isthmus, through intricate woods, where the water was frequently up to the waist. At nine o'clock we were all assembled again, and set out on our return to the ship; but as we continued examining every creek and harbour which we found on our way, and encreasing our collection of wild-fowl, we did not return till seven o'clock in the evening. We brought seven dozen of various sorts of birds with us, among which were near thirty ducks, and immediately distributed them to the several messes of officers, petty-officers, and seamen, as far as they would go. We may take this opportunity to observe, that there is no part of New Zeeland so well stocked with birds of all kinds as Dusky Bay. We found several sorts of wild-ducks, shags, corvorants, oyster-catchers or sea-pies, water or wood-hens, albatrosses, gannets, gulls, pinguins, and others of the aquatic kind. The land-birds were hawks, parrots, pigeons, and many lesser ones of new and unknown species. The parrots were of two sorts; one small and green, and the other very large, greyish-green, with a reddish breast. As the birds of that genus are commonly confined to the warmer climates, we were much surprised to find them in the latitude of 46°, exposed to the raw rainy weather,which
