890 JAMAICA. 



bound. So foon as the little worm, or maggot, is hatched, it be- I 

 gins its depredations on the back-part of the binding, feeding upon f 

 the fubftance, and boring numerous holes. It afterwards proceeds 

 in the fame manner with the leaves, till they become a perfeft 

 fillagree. After it turns to a beetle, it retains a predile£lion in fa- 

 vour of the place of its nativity; and new broods fucceed fo long 

 as any pabulum remains. Under the article Aloss, I have propofed 

 a method for fecuring books from the erofion of this creature; and 

 it will not appear unimportant, on refleding that very coftly and 

 valuable libraries have often been entirely deftroyed by it in this 

 ifland. 



335. BIRDS, and fome other Animals. 



It is only my intention to give an account of fuch as are moft 

 remarkable for their good or ill qualities, or fingularities, that have 

 not been already enumerated, or fully diftiiiguiflied, in other pub- 

 lications relative to this ifland. 



336. Carrion-Crow. 



This bird, at a fmall diftance, refembles very much a wild tur- 

 key, and was miftaken for it by the firft navigators into the Weft- 

 Indies. It is of the vulture fpecies, and extremely ufeful in this 

 climate, where it contiibutes not a little to prevent the generation 

 of malignant difeafes, arifing from the putrefadlion of dead animal 

 bodies. On the fir^ft letting-in of the morning-breeze, it takes its 

 fland upon fbme elevated place, as a houfe, or the uppermoft bough 

 of a decayed tree ; where it holds its wings expanded for fome 

 time, and vibrating, as if to prepare for a cruize ; then fuddenly 

 iprings into the air, and, wheeling as it rifes, afcends to an amazing 

 lieight. It is endued with fo keen a fcent, that, after gaining a 

 fufiicient elevation in the atmofphere, it has been feen to fly di- 

 retlly to carrion, lying at a prodigious diftance to the windward 

 from it. Nature has given it an appetite fo voracious, and a di- 

 geftion fo quick, that it is always either crammed very full, or it 

 is extremely lank and empty. If a carcafe is in the higheft ftate 

 of putrefaftion, it perfcvercs in gormandizing till it is fcarccly able 

 fo fly, but ftands motionlcfs, with its mouth wide-open, gafping 



for 



