cheeses"—Horses and foals—Colonial gates—Aptness of horses to stray—Horse hunting—Obliged to hobble our horse—Horse gets rid of side-saddle—"Gum-suckers"—Headlong riders—Eating a dolghite—Description of one—Evergreen trees—Clearness of atmosphere—"Choosing frocks out of the sky"—Southern Cross—Thunder-storms—Chimney struck—Twisted trees do not attract lightning—Suitability of climate to consumptive patients—Peculiarities of climate—Bishop Salvado's opinion of it. … Page 149
Natural history often considered a dry study—People of this opinion had better skip Chapters IX. and X.—Garrison of cats—How it is disposed of—Cats as playthings—Cat brings in yellow lizard and green snake—Bob-tailed Guana—Scarcity of scorpions and abundance of lizards—Ubiquity of bronze lizard—"Mountain Devil"—Similarity to granite lichens—Timothy missing—Brought back by smiling boy—Dies, and obliged to be buried for want of arsenical soap—Untameable Noombat—Supposed pig in cabbages—Impossible to identify, satisfactorily, creature called Bunny-ar—Tradition of alligator—Black snake—Binnahan's escape—"Bunch of black-puddings"—Palmer-worms—Trapdoor spiders—Walking-stick insects—Present of kangaroo—Kangaroo's mode of self-defence—Dangerous guest at meal-times—Jacky drinks sugar-beer—Little old native brings dog—The chase—New propensity—Jacky succumbs to privation from beer—Kangaroo hops away with baby—Modes of dressing flesh of kangaroo—Fur counterpanes—Kangaroo rats and "boodies"—Dog fails to make distinctions—A domestic tyrant—Emu's feathers—Opossum—Bishop Salvado's opinion to be taken with reservation—Opossum's noiseless mode of walking—Supernumerary claw—Various hiding-places tried by Possie; finally selects carpet-bag—Fondness for flowers—I am obliged to admit that Possie eats birds—Possie plays truant—Returns to supper—Opossum's mode of eating apricots—Possie and her daughter—Domestic duties—Fondness for society—Possie supposed to have rejoined her relations—Tender retrospections. … 178
WHEREIN NATURAL HISTORY MERGES INTO AN ACCOUNT OF SCARCITY OF WATER.
Parroquets—Twenty-eights—Rosella parroquets in pomegranate-tree—Native brings Rosella nestling—Love of pancakes—Wild Rosellas decoy away my tame one—Supposed single specimen of parrot—Crows—Silver Tongue—Wagtails and swallows—Bell-bird—
