336 



APPENDIX. 



food. In a long voyage a bird that dies in a coop is often found by 

 " Billyducks " * half eaten up ; and it is questionable whether a 

 sickly companion be not occasionally sacrificed by his stronger 

 associates to appease their natural craving for flesh. In the West 

 Indies the accidental upsetting of an old sugar-cask in a farm-yard, 

 and its scattering forth a swarm of cock-roaches, sets all the 

 feathered tribe in a ferment. The birds that had been listlessly 

 sauntering about, or standing half-asleep in the friendly shade, sud- 

 denly seem animated with the fury of little imps, and, influenced 

 by a taste in every way repugnant to our feelings, with outstretched 

 necks and fluttering wings race against each other for possession of 



FOUL' FEEDING. 



the offensive, destructive insects, evincing in the pursuit an agility 

 and a rapidity of movement of which few would imagine them to be 

 capable. 



The keeper just spoken of used to rear his pheasants within 

 doors, or rather in an outhouse, the floor of which was in part 



covered with sods of turf, but I think J s T n, another of 



the craft whom I know well, pursues a better and far less trouble- 



* The common sobriquet of the boy in charge. 



