TROPICK BIRD. 
the caps from our heads ; and these attacks were 
so frequent and so troublesome, that we were 
obliged to hold sticks constantly in our. hands 
for defence. We prevented them sometimes, 
when we saw before us their shadow the mo- 
ment they were about to make their aim. We 
could never understand what use our caps 
could be to them, or what they did with those 
which they had carried off." 
The Viscount de Querhoent, who kept a 
young Tropick Bird for a long time, could 
never make it swallow food, without opening 
it's bill for that purpose. He observes, that 
these birds are heavy and stupid in the cage ; 
that, from the shortness of the legs, all their 
motions are constrained; and that his bird 
slept almost the whole day. BufFon 'remarks 
- — u We may readily suppose, that a bird 
whose flight is so free, so lofty, and so vast, 
cannot be reconciled to captivity." 
He seems to think that the Tropick Birds, 
though divided into two or three kinds, are 
only varieties, nearly allied to the common 
.stock, and not specifically different. 
