48 lUSTOKY OF 



ther class of animals form.d, whicli could find a sufficient ■sus- 

 tenance by feeding upon such of the vegetable feeders as hap- 

 peiied to fall by the course of nature. By this contrivance, a 

 greater number will be sustained upon the whole ; for the num- 



which has been railed SoUtare (the soUtary,) b.^caiisc they are rarely seen in 

 flocks, although there is abundance of them. The nuiles have generally a 

 jrreyish or brovvn plumage, the feet of the turkey-cock, as also the beak, 

 but a little more hooked. Thoy have hardly any tail, and their posterior, 

 covered %vith feathers, is rounded Uke the croup of a horse. They st;uid 

 higher than the turkey-cock, and have a straight neck, a little longer in pro- 

 portion than it is in that bird when it raises its head, nie eye is black and 

 lively, and the head without any crest or tuft. They do not fly, their wings 

 being too short to support the weight of their bodies ; they only use them 

 in beating their sides, and in whirling round ; when they wish to call one 

 another, they make, ^-ith rapidity, twenty or thirty rounds in the same di- 

 rection, during the space of four or five minutes ; the movement of their 

 wings then makes a noise which approaches exceedingly that of a kestrel 

 (Crecerelle,) and which is heard at more than 200 paces distant. The bone 

 of the false pinion is enlarged at its extremity, and forms, under the feath. 

 ers, a little round mass like a musket-bullet : this and their beak form the 

 principal defence of this bird. It is extremely diiliciat to catch them in the 

 woods ; but as a man runs swifter than they, in the more open spots it is 

 not very difficult to take them ; sometimes they may even be approached 

 very easily. From the month of March until September, they are extremely 

 fat, and of most excellent flavour, especially when young. The males may 

 be foimd up to the weight of 45 lb. ; Herbert even says 50 lb. The femnle 

 is of admirable beauty. S-jmc are of a blond, others of a bro«-n, colour ; I 

 mean by blond the colour of flaxen hair. They have a kind of band, Uke the 

 bandeau of widows, above the beak, wliich is of a tan colour. One feather 

 does not pass another over all their body, because they take great care to 

 admst and poUsh them with their beak. The feathers which accompany 

 the thighs are rounded into a shell-like form, and, as they are very dense at 

 this place, produce a very agreeable effect. They have two elevations over 

 the crop, of a somewhat whiter plumage than the rest, and wliich resemble 

 wonderfuUy the fine breast of a woman. They walk with so much stateli. 

 ness and grace combined, that it is impossible not to admire and love them ; 

 8o much so, that their appearance has often saved their life. Although these 

 birds approach, at times, very fainiUarly when they are not chased, they 

 are incapable of being tamed; as soon as caught, they drop tears, 

 without crying, and refuse obstinately all kind of nourishment, until at la-st 

 they die There is always found in their gizzard (as Avell as in that of the 

 males) a brown stone, the size of a hen's egg ; it is slightly tuberculated 

 (raboteuse,) flat on one side, and rounded on the other, very heavy and very 

 hard. We imagined that tliis stone was born with them, because, however 

 young they might be, they always had it, and never more than one ; and be. 

 sides this circumstance, the canal which passes from the crop to the gizzard, 

 is by one half too small to give passage to such a mass. We used them, in 

 preference to any other stone, to sharpen our knives. When these birds set 

 •about building their nests, they choose a clear spot, and raise it a foot and a 

 half off the ground, upon a heap of leaves of the palm tree, which they col. 



