334 APPENDIX. 



of black velvet. Their feathers are neither feathers nor fur ; they 

 are of a light grey colour, with a little black on their backs. 

 Strutting proudly about, either alone or in pairs, they preen their 

 plumage or fur with their beak, and keep themselves very clean. 

 They have their toes furnished with very hard scales, and run 

 with quickness, mostly among the rocks, where a man, however 

 agile, can hardly catch them. They have a very short beak, of 

 about an inch in length, which is sharp. They, nevertheless, do 

 not attempt to hurt anyone, except when they find some one 

 before them, and, when hardly pressed, try to bite him. They 

 have a small stump [^sicot, chicot .?] of a wing, which has a sort of 

 bullet at its extremity, and serves as a defence. They do not fly 

 at all, having no feathers to their wings, but they flap them, and 

 make a great noise with their wings when angry, and the noise is 

 something like thunder in the distance. They only lay, as I am 

 led to suppose, but once in the year, and only one egg. Not that 

 I have seen their eggs, for I have not been able to discover where 

 they lay. But I have never seen but one little one alone with 

 them, and, if any one tried to approach it, they would bite him 

 very severely. These birds live on seeds and leaves of trees, 

 which they pick up on the ground. They have a gizzard larger 

 than the fist, and what is surprising is that there is found in it a 

 stone of the size of a hen's egg, of oval shape, a little flattened, 

 although this animal cannot swallow anything larger than a small 

 cherry-stone. I have eaten them ; they are tolerably well 

 tasted. 



[Professor Newton remarks that between the time of Leguat 

 and that of the writer the ill-fated bird seems to have learnt to 

 resent injurious treatment by biting, and that the black velvet- 

 like frontal band is a feature not mentioned by the older author.] 



[Compare above with Cauche's account.] 



GELINOTTE. 



There is a sort of bird, of the size of a young hen, which has 

 the feet and the beak red. Its beak is a little like that of the 

 curlew, excepting that it is slightly thicker and not quite so long. 

 Its plumage is spotted with white and grey. They generally feed 



