Birds. 2263 



as a musket ball. That and its beak are the chief defence of this bird. Tis very hard 

 to catch it in the woods, but easie in open places, because we run faster than they, and 

 sometimes we approach them without much trouble. From March to September they 

 are extremely fat, and tast admirably well, especially while they are young ; some of 

 the males weigh forty-five pounds. 



" The femals are wonderfully beautiful, some fair, some brown ; I call them fair, 

 because they are of the colour of fair hair. They have a sort of peak, like a widow's 

 upon their breasts [lege beaks], which is of a dun colour. No one feather is straggling 

 from the other all over their bodies, they being very careful to adjust themselves, and 

 make them all even with their beaks. The feathers on their thighs are round like 

 shells at the end, and being there very thick, have an agreeable effect. They have two 

 risings on their craws, and the feathers are whiter there than the rest, which livelily 

 represents the fine neck of a beautiful woman. They walk with so much stateliness 

 and good grace, that one cannot help admiring and loving them ; by which means 

 their fine mien often saves their lives. 



" Tho' these birds will sometimes very familiarly come up near enough to one, 

 when we do not run after them, yet they will never grow tame. As soon as they are 

 caught they shed tears without crying, and refuse all manner of sustenance till they 

 die. 



" We find in the gizzards of both male and female, a brown stone of the bigness 

 of a hen's egg ; 'tis somewhat rough, flat on one side and round on the other, heavy 

 and hard. We believe this stone was there when they were hatched, for let them be 

 never so young you meet with it always. They have never but one of 'em, and be- 

 sides, the passage from the craw to the gizard is so narrow that a like mass of half 

 the bigness cou'd not pass. It serv'd to whet our knifes better than any other stone 

 whatsoever. When these birds build their nests they choose a clean place, gather to- 

 gether some palm leaves for that purpose, and heap up them a foot and a half high from 

 the ground, on which they sit. They never lay but one egg, which is much bigger than 

 that of a goose. The male and female both cover it in their turns, and the egg is not 

 hatch'd till at seven weeks end. All the while they are sitting upon it, or are bringing 

 up their young one, which is not able to provide for itself in several months, they will 

 not suffer any other bird of their species to come within two hundred yards round of 

 the place; but what is very singular, is, the males will never drive away the females, 

 only when he perceives one he makes a noise with his wings to call the female, and 

 she drives the unwelcome stranger away, not leaving it 'till 'tis without her bounds. 

 The females do's the same as to the males, whom she leaves to the male, and he 

 drives them away. We have observ'd this several times, and I affirm it to be true. 



" The combats between them on this occasion last sometimes pretty long, because 

 the stranger only turns about and do's not fly directly from the nest. However the 

 others do not forsake it till they have driven it quite out of their limits. After these 

 birds have rais'd their young one and left it to itself, they are always together, which the 

 other birds are not, and tho' they happen to mingle with other birds of the same spe- 

 cies, these two companions never disunite. We have often remark'd that some days 

 after the young one leaves the nest, a company of thirty or forty brings another young 

 one to it, and the new fledg'd bird, with its father and mother joyning with the band, 

 march to some bye place. We frequently follow'd them, and found that afterwards 

 the old ones went each their way alone, or in couples, and left the two young ones to- 

 gether, which we call a marriage." — p. 47. 



