418 



CHAPTER OF VARIETIES. 



1827, makes mention of a perfectly white monkey that had been 

 caught there. The hair on the animal's body was white, curly, and soft 

 as silk, and excited great wonder and admiration among the natives. 

 They represented that such a creature had never but once, to their 

 knowledge, been seen in those parts, and that the king of Ava sent 

 down a golden cage, with a host of people, to escort the animal to his 

 presence, and expended, besides, 20,000 rupees in sacrifices and public 

 rejoicings, auguring from the arrival of the extraordinary stranger, the 

 most happy presages of good fortune. The monkey brought to our 

 correspondent was one of the same description, but unfortunately it was 

 of too young and tender an age when caught. A Burmese woman who 

 was nursing an infant of her own, requested permission to suckle it, and 

 fairly divided her maternal attention between the two. Pug lived in 

 apparent good health and spirits for six days, but whether it was that 

 its nursing disagreed with it, or that it was naturally very delicate, it , 

 died on the seventh day. — E. G. Ballard. 

 Islington. 



The Cuckoo. — I take the liberty of sending you a drawing of a 

 young cuckoo, which I trust is faithfully though roughly executed *. 



Wh en we consider the difference of plumage between the young and 

 adult birds, it is by no means surprising that it should have been con- 

 sidered as a different species ; but there is, I think, no doubt but that 

 the red cuckoo, described by some authors, is the young of the common 

 cuckoo, and so totally different is the plumage of the immature bird, 

 that I think more than one year must elapse before the bird acquires its 

 perfect plumage. 



The bird which I possess feeds entirely upon raw meat, of which it 

 eats considerable quantities, but is extremely dainty, and prefers being 

 fed by hand to taking food itself- It is very tame, and has no objection 

 to sit on my hand; in fact, when once seated it is difficult to shake it 

 off. When at rest or going to sleep, it sits in the position in which I 

 have endeavoured to draw it, and one would think it was unwell, but 

 it seems perfectly healthy, and chirps when hungry, seeming very 

 eager for its food, which it takes about every hour. 



This bird I purchased in London on the 10th of this month (July), 

 and I remarked that it was with another cuckoo, to all appearances 



* An excellent figure, which we would have had engraved, had we not already a 

 good cut of the bird from Le Vaillant, in " Architecture of Birds," p. 88 — Ed. 



