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. [Footnote: Crawfish;
the river lobster.]

Everyone who comes out does a very foolish thing in bringing such a
quantity of clothes that he never wants. All you require, even in
Melbourne, is a blue shirt, a pair of duck trousers, a straw hat or
wide-awake, and what they call a jumper here. It is a kind of
outside shirt, made of plaid, or anything you please, reaching just
below the hips, and fastened round the waist with a belt. It would
be a very nice dress for Charley. [Footnote: His youngest brother,
at home.] I should wear it myself if I were in England. It ought to
be made with a good-sized collar, and open at the breast, like a
waistcoat, only to button at the neck, if required. We brought out
the wrong sort of straw hat, as they are only fit for summer, but
we sold all but two. One I made six shillings of, but the
cabbage-tree hat is worth a pound. No one should bring out more