I?S NATURALIST'S CABINET 



Manners when ensnared. 



convenient distance from the villages; but they 

 find it very necessary to hide them in the long 

 grass, if they perceive any of the negroes ap- 

 proaching; for they would probably stand a 

 chance of being ill treated, if the blacks disco- 

 vered their sacred birds were thus unmercifully 

 treated, and destroyed for the purpose of indulg- 

 ing the appetites of their visitors." 



Before they became so exceedingly shy, and 

 even now in some part of Africa, they are fre- 

 quently shot by the mariners on the coasts, who 

 also not unoften are enabled to catch their young, 

 although they run exceedingly fast. Labat says, 

 that he has frequently taken them with nets, pro- 

 perly extended round the places they breed in. 

 When their long legs are entangled in the meshes, 

 they are then unqualified to make their escape: 

 but they still continue to combat with their de-< 

 stroyer, and the old ones, though seized by the 

 head, will scratch with their claws; and with 

 which, though to every appearance, inoffensive 

 weapons, they very often wound their enemies; 

 and even when they are fairly disengaged from 

 the net, they preserve a natural obstinacy and 

 ferocity; they refuse all nourishment; and peck 

 and combat with their claws at every opportunity 

 at those who come near them ; " therefore/ 7 con- 

 tinues this author, " there is an absolute necessity 

 for destroying them, when taken, as they would 

 only pine and die, if an attempt was made to 

 keep them in captivity." The flesh of the old 



