1 695-] DELICIOUS EGGS. 177 



will forsake theirs too. If you keep these young Birds alive, 

 and expose them to the sight of the old ones, they will fly 

 about them ^tis true, but never bring them anything ; and 

 altho' they hear them cry never so much for Hunger, they 

 will give them nothing to eat.' The first time we went to 

 that Island, we brought away three or four Dozen of these 

 young Birds, with some old ones. As the former were very 

 fat and look'd well, we roasted them, and found them to have 

 somewhat of the tast of a Snipe, as they resembled that 

 Bird in Colour ; but they did us a great deal of harm, and 

 we were never tempted to eat of them afterwards. The old 

 ones have yet a more disagreeable Tast, and no doubt are more 

 unwholsom. The next time we return'd to that Island, after 

 we had taken away these young Birds I have lieen speaking 

 of, we found all the rest of the young ones abandon'd by the 

 old ones, and whereof great numbers were dead, and many 

 dying for Hunger. If the Flesh of this Bird is so crude and 

 pernicious, their Eggs make you sufficient amends, nothing 

 being; more wholsom and delicious. I counted that during 

 our stay under this Confinement, we eat above twelve 

 Thousand, and we were never incommoded in the least by 

 them. These Eggs are spotted with Grey, and larger than those 

 of Pigeons. It happens exactly, that the three months when 

 these Birds lay their Eggs, the Deer are in their Eutting- 

 time, so that tho' the Flesh of that Beast be unwholsom, and 

 stinks abominably at that Season, which nevertheless was our 

 ordinary Food,^ we made our selves ample amends by these 



1 In orig. : " ils les laissent neanmoius pcfir .sans aiicun secours," 

 omitted by translator. 



2 Venison as ordinary food in Mauritius. "Our venison," says Baron 

 Grant in 1741, " which is fat, is very good, and serves us instead of 

 beef; but it must be got from the forests, where the deer are very 

 numerous : on account of the heat and their fat they are easily taken. 

 It is, however, a circumstance to be lamented that, from the tempera- 

 ture of the air, fresh meat cannot be kept longer than two days."' {Op. 

 cit., p. 196.) 



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