The birds of these islands are as beautiful as any we have seen during the voyage, and are numerous, though not various. There are four, which seem to belong to the _trochili_, or honey-suckers of Linnæus; one of which is something larger than a bullfinch; its colour is a fine glossy black, the rump, vent, and thighs, a deep yellow. It is called by the natives _hoohoo_. Another is of an exceedingly bright scarlet colour; the wings black, and edged with white, and the tail black; its native name is _eeeeve_. A third, which seems to be either a young bird, or a variety of the foregoing, is variegated with red, brown, and yellow. The fourth is entirely green, with a tinge of yellow, and is called _akaiearooa_. There is a species of thrush, with a grey breast, and a small bird of the flycatcher kind; a rail, with very short wings and no tail, which, on that account, we named _rallus ecaudatus_. Ravens are found here, but they are very scarce; their colour is dark-brown, inclining to black, and their note is different from the European. Here are two small birds, both of one _genus_, that are very common; one is red, and generally seen about the cocoa-nut trees, particularly when they are in flower, from whence it seems to derive great part of its subsistence, the other is green; the tongues of both are long and ciliated, or fringed at the tip. A bird with a yellow head, which, from the structure of its beak, we called a parroquet, is likewise very common. It however by no means belongs to that tribe, but greatly resembles the _lexia flavicans_, or yellowish cross-bill of Linnæus.
Here are also owls, plovers of two sorts, one very like the whistling plover of Europe; a large white pigeon; a bird with a long tail, whose colour is black, the vent and feathers under the wing (which is much longer than is usually seen in the generality of birds, except the birds of paradise) are yellow; and the common water or darker hen.
Their vegetable productions are nearly the same with the rest of the South Sea islands. I have before mentioned. that the _tarrow_ root is much superior to any we had before tasted, and that we attributed this excellence to the dry method of cultivating it. The bread-fruit trees thrive here, not in such abundance, but produce double the quantity of fruit they do on the rich plains of Otaheite. The trees are nearly of the same height, but the branches begin to strike out from the trunk much lower, and with greater luxuriance. Their sugar-canes are also of a very unusual size. One of them was brought to us at Atooi, measuring eleven inches and a quarter in circumference, and having fourteen feet eatable.