[Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia by Phillip Parker King]@TWC D-Link book
Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia

CHAPTER 10
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The food of this animal appeared to be principally the seeds and leaves of an acacia which they reach easily from the rocks.
Mr.Cunningham, who was as usual most indefatigable in adding to his collection, observed one of the large nests that have been so frequently before described.

It was six feet in diameter, formed principally of sticks, among which was found a piece of bamboo about five feet long, that had evidently been cut at its extremities by a sharp-edged tool, probably by the Malays.

Whatever the inhabitant of this nest might have been it was doubtless a bird of considerable size and power to have transported a stick of such a length.
September 8.
The next morning after Mr.Roe had sounded the strait that separates Kater's Island from the main we got underweigh and passed through it; and then rounding a high island named after Dr.W.H.Wollaston, we steered to the westward through a group of islets which were too numerous to be correctly placed in a running survey.

To the westward of Wollaston Island is a deep bay which, from the broken appearance of the coast at the back, there is some reason to think may prove the embouchure of a small rivulet; but as it was not of sufficient importance to cause delay it was passed with the appellation of Mudge Bay.

In the evening we anchored off an island named on account of the peculiar shape of a rock near the beach Capstan Island; and as it wanted yet an hour to sunset we landed and ascended the summit which, from its very rugged ascent, was no easy task.
A view however from this elevated station, and an amplitude of the setting sun, repaid me for my trouble; and Mr.Cunningham increased his collection by the addition of some interesting plants and a few papers of seeds.
The distance that the French expedition kept from this part of the coast, of which M.De Freycinet so often and so justly complains, prevented it from ascertaining the detail of its shores: in fact very few parts of it were seen at all.


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