164 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS. 



Arctic Zoology, says, Sir William Johnstone told him, 

 that at one shot, he brought down with a blunderbuss 

 above a hundred and twenty pigeons. Wagon-loads of 

 them are poured into the towns, and sold as cheap as a 

 half-penny up to two-pence the dozen. The flesh, which 

 is dark, tastes like that of the common wUd blue pigeon, 

 but is, if anything, better flavoured. 



The wonga-wonga pigeon of Australia {Leucosarcia 

 picata, Lath.) is not only of considerable size, but a 

 first-rate bird for the table, possessing a whiteness and 

 delicacy of texture in its pectoral muscles, which are 

 uaapproached by any other species of this widely spread 

 aud useful family, the one at all approximating to it 

 being the Geophaps scripta. 



The common bronze-winged pigeon of Australia 

 (Phaps chalcoptera. Lath.) is a plump heavy bird, weigh- 

 ing when in good condition fully a pound ; and is con- 

 stantly eaten by every class of persons resident in 

 Australia. The New Zealand wood pigeon {Ca/rpophago 

 Novce-Zealamdice, Gm.,) becomes exceedingly fat in the 

 autumn. It is esteemed most by amateurs when feed- 

 ing on the masts of the Miro, which imparts a peculiar 

 flavour to the flesh. They are speared and snared in 

 great numbers by the Maoris, an expert hand some- 

 times taking as many as sixty in a single day. These 

 pigeons and the tui or parson birds, {Prosthemadera Novce 

 Zealandice, Gm.,) are potted for keeping by the Maoris, 

 after their own elaborate and peculiar fashion. The 

 birds, which are large, are denuded of their feathers and 

 thoroughly cleaned ; they are then carefully baked, in 

 order to extract the oil, and closely packed in a species 

 of basket woven for the purpose, the fat being poured 

 over them. . Secured in this manner from atmospheric 

 influences, they are said to keep for years, and form a 

 highly esteemed article of food amongst the Maoris. 

 The appearance of these closely-woven calabashes, each 

 containing upwards of 150 of these delicacies in the 

 poultry department, is fanciful in the extreme, and the 

 manner in which they are each mounted on what might 



