472 Natural History in foreign Coimtries : — 



voyager on board the Westbrook, in 1821. It eats greedily 

 the rush bottoms of the chairs, and the Spanish mats. One 

 day I had my trunk on deck, in order to look over my 

 clothes, when she and her kid speedily stripped'oft' some of the 

 leather covering, and eat it. In case a birch broom was left 

 where the goats could get at it, they quickly demolished it. 

 The goat on board the Westbrook had an especial predilec- 

 tion for feathers; for, as sure as any unfortunate capon allowed 

 his fine tail to appear between the bars of the coop, the goat 

 seized upon, pulled out, and eat it, causing the poor bird to 

 cry piteously while under this rude operation : this would 

 happen particularly when the fowls were roosting with their 

 heads to the back of the coop ; and so persevering was the 

 goat in this favourite pursuit, that, after a while, we had not 

 a capon on board but had been deprived of its long tail 

 feathers. Were I to account for this seeming depravity of 

 appetite in goats, it would be in the following manner : — 

 All ruminating animals like a supply of dry hard fibrous 

 food, upon which to exercise the process of chewing the chud ; 

 and, in the absence of it, the animal may experience uneasiness, 

 from the want of the stimulus of distention, as well as a proper 

 employment of the gastric and salivary juices, and conse- 

 quently a suitable supply of food which has undergone 

 rumination. In this way may be explained the fact of goats 

 refusing to eat the maize (Indian corn) which was given to 

 them, and their eating, in preference, such strange substances 

 as wooden hoops, canvass, reeds, feathers, brooms, &c. 



Turkeys eat Caterpillars which feed on Tobacco ; and Hogs 

 eat the poisonous Root of Cassava ( Janipha Manihot). I once 

 found the larva or caterpillar of a large ^Sphin.r- (the size of 

 that of the privet sphinx) feeding on a tobacco plant in 

 Jamaica. An American gentleman, who saw it also, imme- 

 diately observed that the tobacco plantations in Virginia were 

 occasionally much infested by caterpillars ; in which case, 

 the planter turned in flocks of turkeys, which soon cleared 

 the plants of their destroyers ; and the turkeys, in place of 

 being injured by such food, actually throve upon it. This 

 brings to my recollection the fact, that hogs, in Jamaica, eat 

 with perfect impunity the root of the Janipha Manihot, or 

 bitter cassava, which is a most deadly poison to man, unless 

 the water be completely expressed before cooking. [See, in 

 Gard. Mag., vol. vii. p. 470., numerous interesting particu- 

 lars respecting it] I once knew a fine youth die in a few 

 hours, from eating of the cassava from which the water had 

 been imperfectly squeezed. [The common large snail of the 

 gardens (iFfelix aspersa Miiller, H, hortensis oi Pennant, not 



