BRITISH BIRDS. 
385 
lefs in an ereO: pofture, and are propped up by the 
ftifF feathers of the tail ; and in places where they 
have not experienced the fatal elFedts of the gun, 
they have been known, however wary at other times, 
to fit and receive repeated fhots, without offering to 
remove out of the danger. * At other times and 
places, while they fit in a dozing and ftupified ftate, 
from the effefts of one of their cuftomary furfeits, 
they may eafily be taken, by throwing nets over 
them, or by putting a noofe around their necks, 
which they avoid no further than by flipping the 
head from fide to fide as long as they can. 
Notwithftanding the natural wildnefs of their dif- 
pOfition, it feems, according to fome accounts, that 
certain fpecies of thefe birds have formerly been 
tamed and rendered fubfervient to the purpofes of 
man, both in this and in other countries. Among 
the Chinefe, it is faid they have frequently been 
* Dr Heyfham relates that, about the year 1759, one of 
thefe birds perched upon the caftle at Carlide, and foon af- 
terwards removed to the cathedral, where it was fhot at upwards 
of twenty times without effedl ; at length a perfon got upon the 
cathedral, fired at, and killed it.” In another inftance, a 
flock of fifteen or twenty perched, at the duflc of evening, in a 
tree on the banks of the river Efic, near Netherby, the feat of 
Sir James Graham. A perfon who faw them fettle, fired at 
random at them in the dark fix or feven times, without either 
killing any or frightening them away ; furprifed at this, he came 
again, at day light, and killed one, whereupon the reft took 
flight.” 
VoL. II. t 3 C 
