



: OF ‘BIR DSS. ae | 
nat Dutky Bay, in New Zealand, Gallinules 
“were fo tame that they ftood ftill, and looked at 
te 
ironed 
w 
the failors, and fuffered them to come near enough 
‘to kill them with flicks. New Zealand is a 
newly-difcovered country, and the poor birds there 
do not yet know how ve wanton and cruel men 
- frequently are. 
The purple Gall linule’s ee is bare nh red; 
it has many circles or garters ; its feet are divided ; 
- the body is greenith, beneath of a violet colour. 
The purple Gallinule can live both upon and 
-_and in water ; he -eats fruit, and meat, and fifth, 
and is eafily tamed; his carriage is noble, his 
form beautiful, his plumage brilliant, that is, 
| fhining; the colours are purple gloffed with blue, 
and green elofled with the colour of the emerald. 
Like the ‘cock he fcratches the ground, yet he 
__ufes one of his feet like a hand, to carry his food: 
to his mouth, He has learned: this habit becaufe 
At iS convenient to him, for his neck is fhort and 
“his legs are, long: this muft make it painful to 
him to pick up any thing from the poe with 
Piigbéak, © - 4 
The Romans were fo sash pleafed ith the: | 
beauty of this bird, that they never fed upon it, 
but brought it from Lybia, a part of Africa, now 
called Barca, and part of Barbary, to keep it in. 
BO o | _ their 

