12 

 ON THE AGENDA OF N. N. 



IN answer to N. N., I beg leave to offer you one or two remarks, 

 though I am perfectly of opinion that it will be impossible to satisfy 

 him on some of the points suggested in his communication. It is well 

 that all are not of his opinion ; that " little information is acquired by 

 being told how a cock robin or a cock sparrow builds its nest, whether 

 with leaves, or moss, or feathers, or flue, or by any information of that 

 kind ;" in other words, that no knowledge is useful but that which tends 

 to some pecuniary profit ; such as rearing game or poultry, or " adding 

 to the riches of our farm-yards, parks, woods, or fields." 



For my own part, I think no study can be more instructive, more 

 useful, or more amusing, than the study of NATURE, whether with 

 regard to " new kinds of game," or only relating to a " cock robin," or a 

 ( ' cock sparrow." 



Notwithstanding the delicious food thus afforded, it is with regret 

 that I see the quantities of game brought to the London markets, and 

 1 should fear that time alone is wanting to exterminate from this 

 country the game we already possess. 



The bustard, the largest British bird, is now rarely to be found, and 

 it is a melancholy prospect to the naturalist to see so fine a species 

 gradually exterminated by the encroaching hand of cultivation. If 

 taken young, the bustard will live in confinement, and might, with 

 care, be possibly made to breed. I am informed by an eye-witness, that 

 one, kept by a gentleman in Norfolk, became so tame that it was quite 

 troublesome, and would not only help itself to whatever came in its 

 way, but would run after its visitors, pecking them, and without 

 showing the slightest degree of fear. This bird was fed upon bread 

 and other fragments, and was also fond of cabbage-leaves and other 

 vegetables. The Argus pheasant has, I believe, never been kept in 

 confinement ; but the different varieties of the curassow are equally 

 hardy with the turkey, peacock, &c. In South America, we are 

 informed, they have long been reclaimed ; and a friend of mine from 

 Honduras, tells me that there they are kept as common poultry, that 

 is to say, the common crested sort (Crax alector, LINN.) ; and as we 

 know they will live in the English climate, there can be no reason for 

 their not becoming as common and useful in this country as the 

 common fowl, turkey, &c. &c. Gold and silver pheasants have been 



