Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 1 (Stockdale).djvu/227

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May.]
OF LA PEROUSE.
207

of the merops, which White has denominated the wattled bee-eater, and of which he has given a very good engraving. It is remarkable for its two large excreſcences on each ſide of its head.

I was obliged to make great haſte in preparing the ſkins of the birds which I wiſhed to preſerve; for the fleſh, when expoſed to the air, very ſoon became full of ſmall living larvæ, depoſited in it by a fly of a reddiſh brown colour, which is viviparous like that of our country, known by the name of muſca carnaria. Theſe larvæ accelerate the putrefaction of fleſh in a ſurpriſing manner.

As we intended to weigh anchor on the following day, I wiſhed to make the beſt uſe of the laſt moments of our ſtay in this place, and went on ſhore at the eaſterly coaſt neareſt to our veſſels.

I viſited, in company with the gardener, the ſpot where he had ſown different kinds of European grains. It was a plot of ground of twenty-ſeven feet by twenty-one, divided into four beds. The ſoil was rather too full of clay to inſure the ſucceſs of the ſeed.

When we had entered the woods, a quadruped of the ſize of a large dog ſprang from a buſh quite near to one of our company. This animal, which was of a white colour ſpotted with black, had the appearance of a beaſt of prey. There can be little doubt that theſe countries will at ſome

future