1>ARADISE GRAKLE. 457 



ted the loss of the Paradise Grakles. Monsr. de 

 Morave, consulting the inclinations of the settlers, 

 procured three or four of these birds eight years 

 after their proscription. They were received with 

 transports of joy. Their preserv ation and breed- 

 ing were made a state affair: the laws held out 

 protection to them, and the physicians on their 

 part declared their flesh to be unwholesome. After 

 so many powerful expedients for their welfare, the 

 desired effect was produced: the Grakles multi- 

 plied, and the locusts were destroyed. But, an 

 opposite inconvenience has since arisen. The 

 birds, supported no longer by insects, have had 

 recourse to fruits, and have fed on the mulberries, 

 grapes, and dates: they have even scratched up 

 the grains of wheat, rice, maize, and beans: they 

 have rifled the pigeon-houses, and preyed on the 

 young; and thus, after freeing the settlers from 

 the locusts, they have themselves become a more 

 formidable scourge. This however is perhaps an 

 exaggeration; since Mr. Latham in his second 

 supplement observes, on the subject of this bird, 

 that Monsr. Duplessin, who had resided many 

 years in the isle of Bourbon, had given his opinion 

 that the Paradise Grakle might be advantageously 

 introduced into that part of Spain nearest the 

 coasts of Africa for a similar purpose, and added, 

 that, so far from its having become a nuisance in 

 the isle of Bourbon, the laws for its preservation 

 were still in force. 



This bird, according to Buffon, is of the same 

 lively and imitative disposition with the Indian 



V, VII. p. II. .5Q 



