PACIFIC AND BEERING’S STRAIT. 
499 
horses, asses, goats, pigs, and cats ; all of very diminutive size : a bul- CHAP. 
lock which was brought to us weighed only 1 lOlbs. without the offal, 3^^ 
and the horses were so low that a tall person had difficulty in keeping May, 
• T 1 827 
his feet off the ground ; yet these animals must be esteemed m J apan, 
as they are said to have formed part of the tribute to that place. The 
poultry are also small : we heard dogs, but never saw any. Klaproth, 
p. 187, asserts there are bears, wolves, and jackals. A venomous snake 
is also said to exist in the interior. But the only other animals we saw 
were mice, lizards, and frogs ; the latter somewhat different to those of 
our own country. 
The insects are grasshoppers, dragon-flies, butterflies, honey-bees, 
wasps, moskitos of a large size, spiders, and a mantis, probably peculiar 
to the island. 
There appeared to be very few birds, and of these we could pro- 
cure no specimens, in consequence of the great objection on the part of 
the natives to our firing at them, arising probably from their belief in 
transubstantiation. Those which we observed at a distance resembled 
larks, martins, wood-pigeons, beach-plovers, tringas, herons, and tern. 
An-yah said there were no partridges in the island. 
Fish are more abundant though not large, excepting sharks and 
dolphins, which are taken at sea, and guard-fish, which are often seen in 
the harbour. Those frequenting the reefs belong principally to the genera 
chmtodon and labrus. A chromis, a beautiful small fish, was noticed in 
the water which inundated the rice fields. 
Upon the reefs there are several aUeria. d'hese animals are fur- 
nished with long spiny tentaculm, and are in the habit of concealing 
their bodies in the hollow parts of the coral, and leaving their tentaculae 
to be washed about and partake of the waving motion of the sea; and 
to a person unacquainted with the zoophytes which form the coral, 
they might be supposed to be the animals connected with its structure. 
Lieutenant Belcher remarks of these reefs that a great change must have 
taken place in them since they were visited by the Alceste and Lyra, 
as he never observed any coral reefs apparently so destitute of anima- 
tion as those which surround Loo Choo. The.sea anemone and other 
zoophytes were very scarce. 
3 s 2 
