The woods extensive, sometimes without interval for two or three
days' march. There was no scarcity of water, except for the first
fifteen miles, after leaving Melbourne. We enjoyed the journey
much, and shot many birds, which constituted our principal food.
Ducks abound in the creeks, [Footnote: Watercourses, running in
flood time, but partially dry in dry seasons.] and up this way
there are fine white cockatoos, which are good eating, and about
the size of a small fowl. There is also a bird very plentiful here
which they call a magpie. It is somewhat the colour of our magpie,
but larger, and without the long tail; easily shot and eatable, and
feeds, I believe, much like our wood-pigeons. [Footnote: It feeds
more on insects.] The pigeon here is a beautiful bird, of a
delicate bronze colour, tinged with pink about the neck, and the
wings marked with green and purple. They are tame, and nicer eating
than those at home. Where we are, we have abundance of food; plenty
of mutton, and we can get a duck, pigeon, or cockatoo whenever we
like, almost without going out of sight of our hut, besides a good
supply of fish in the river; Murray cod, which in the Murray are
said sometimes to weigh eighty pounds, but in our creeks generally
run from two to twelve; also a kind of mussel, and a fish like a
lobster, not quite so large, but good eating.
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