130 TRAVELS IN 
and I faw that without an abfolute quarrel 
I fliould never be relieved from this dii- 
agreeable companion. 
This fpot axTorded an immenfe number of 
groufe, which came by thoufands to drink at 
the fpi ing, without being alarmed at feeing us, 
and afforded us a copious fupply to our larder. 
From my tent 1 fired upon their flocks with 
niy great mufket, and brought dovv^n at lead a 
fccre at every fiiot : but this fport led me to an 
obfervation which I think important. 
Birds, as w^ell as other living beings, are not 
all poffeffed of an equal degree of phyfical fen- 
fibility. Some fmk under the leaft pain, while 
others bear vAth fortitude the moll: acute fuf- 
ferings. All fportfmen know, for inftance, 
that the flighteft wound is fuiTicient to bring 
down a woodcock, and that it is often killed by 
the fall, rather than by the fl:iot it has received. 
I have taken up feveral quite dead, though 
they had received but a flight v^^ound fi'om a 
fmall-fiiot. I he groufe of the Cape, on the 
contrary, appear to have organs little fenfible 
to pain, or a lort of courage v/hich enables 
them to fupport it till the mom.ent of death. 
Though I fired into the middle of the flock, 
and of courfe every fiiot K)ok place, it was very 
rare 
