334 
A TERRIBLE BISAPPOIXTMENT. 
b}’ two side-tufts as in the engraving. It is web-footed, 
has red legs, and in brilliancy of plumage is not excelled 
by the well-known Mandarin-duck of China, or the 
beautiful wood-duck of our own country. It was a 
fine sight to see them falling around us at every shot; 
and, as we took them up and felt their great weight 
and plumpness, we looked ahead a few hours, and our 
mouths watered as we saw them at the head of an im- 
aginary dinner- table, with the savory steam rising from 
their well-browned breasts, and the ready knife hovering 
over the upright fork. 
But alas for all human anticipations ! "When we came 
to taste them, they were so tough, so fishy, and so musty, 
that it was impossible for the greatest lover of game 
among us to approach them: even the philosophical 
eaters of the less pretending “shags” shrunk aghast 
before this terrible disappointment, and loaded their 
plates with the black-looking fragments of the latter in 
preference. 
When I say that our northwest parrot had the head 
and bill of the ordinary tropical bird of the same name, 
I must except the hole under the lower jaw, and the 
thick, black tongue of the latter; but in all other respects 
the resemblance was very close. 
When we returned on board with a load of them after 
our impromptu shooting-excursion, we found that the 
exploring-parties had got back ahead of us, and that they 
had discovered a very accessible stratum of coal on the 
inner face of the promontory; also a small river, empty- 
ing into the bottom of the hook, whose mouth was not 
blocked up by salmon, as we had been led to suppose by 
