1809.] Fravds committed by Stable-keepers, Coachmen, Ke. 257 
Wild turkeys (20), picaries (21), and ven’= 
son (22) abound, 
To form your repasts on the banks of Be- 
lize. 
The songs of mosquitoes (23) will lull you 
tosleep, 
Songs sweet as the pastoral hum of the 
bees (24) 5 
While doctors (25) and sand-flies (26) their 
vigils still keep, 
To suck your rich blood on the banks of 
Belize, 
bonne bouche by the Negroés, who, at the same 
time, will not-eat baboons, believing them of 
their own race, but too cunning to speak, 
lest the duckaras should make them work.— 
Having thus mentioned the opinion of the 
Blacks, respecting the taciturnity of baboons, 
it will not be going far from the subject, to 
add their idea of the loquacity of parrots, 
which, when ina domesticstate, they think, 
are kept by their masters, as.spies on their 
conduct, to tell when they don’t work, or 
are guilty of any misdemeanor. A /efter is 
also another dangerous companion, that wiil 
inform of any improper act of its bearer.— 
8‘ Paper speak,”’ is the common remark. 
(16) There are here various sorts of wild 
ducks, particularly teal, which are to be got 
in great quantities on some of the Keys. 
(17) The Curasso (so called from its being 
a native of thatisland) is a handsome bird, 
with black plumage, and a yellowcomb, ap- 
parently of the pheasant kind, but nearly as 
large and as palatable as a common turkey. 
A species, called the King Curasso, i is emi-- 
nently beautiful. 
(18) On some of the Keys, particularly 
one called Pigeon-key, pigeons are to be 
found in incredible multitudes, but they are 
no great delicacy. 
(19) The Hiccatee is a species of fresh 
water turtle, very small]; the flesh much 
like that of the guana. 
(20) Wild Turkeys are not often to be met 
with; they are very large and good; their 
plumage is admirable. 
(21) The Picary is nearly similar to the 
Waree in appearance and habits, and is proba- 
bly only a variety. 
: (22) The venison of Honduras, it must be 
confessed, is far inferior to that on which the 
Aldermen feed at home, 
(25) The mosquitoes are in myriads, and 
terribly torment the inhabitants. 
(24) ‘* My banks they are furnish’d with 
bees, 
Whose murmur invites one to eledee " 
SHENSTONE. 
€25) The Dakar is a large beautiful fly, the 
wound of whose proboscis is almost as painful 
as the sting ef abet. A little’ poetical li- 
tence has been here used, as these medical 
gentlemen never keep vigils, but perform 
their operations in the height of noon-day. 
‘scorpions, 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
HAVE very often been highly grati~ 
fed with the perusal, im your inter= 
esting Magazine, of the humane remarks 
of one of your correspondents on the 
subject of “ Cruelty to Animals ;” ‘but 
there is an act of cruelty in daily prac- 
tice among coachmen, grooms, and 
stable- -keepers, towards that noble ani- 
mal the horse, which equals, in my opi- 
nion, any thing that has hitherto been 
stated by that amiable writer. I allude to 
the well-known connivance of these 
wretches, te cheat him of his corn, 
Sir, it is not one gentleman in an hun- 
dred, who knows, or notices, when his 
horses are in Rat or when they are 
not; they are called upon in cold and 
rain, early and late, to do the most la- 
borious work, and by the coat and ap- 
pearance discover how unequal the feed 
is to the Jabour they undergo. It isa 
ey true saying, that the coachman often 
drinks, what the horse ought to eat; and 
ae practice has become so general, that 
unless the stable-keeper is known among 
servants, to ailow something handsome 
to the coachman, or groom, the latter 
will persuade his master not to use the 
stables. It is very customary at water- 
ing places, to stand what is called pri- 
vate; that is, to hire the stable (and 
none are to be hired exceptof livery-stable 
keepers) and find your own corn, We, » 
but in this case, you must consent to buy 
the hay and corn of the stable-keeper, or 
he will not let you the stable, The 
prices charged tis year at this place are 
as follows:—I mean the one where L 
stood, and I find, on inquiry, others 
charge the same. 
Hay 7]. 10s. per ton, or 3s. 9d. per 
truss. Corn 21. 16s. per quarter.—Straw 
Their attacks are happily §* single-handed,”® 
and the Baymen have aclever knack of catche 
ing them on their way to the assault. 
(26) Of all the torments in this infernat 
country,’ the sandflies are the most into- 
lerable. Althongh these insects be so 
minute as to appear like a grain of sand, and 
their shape be imperceptible without a 
microscope, or at least a magnifier, yet as 
they come in perfect clouds, and their bite 
js pungent, it-is almost'impossible to live for 
them when the weather is calm. 
‘There remain unsupg various other teazing 
flies, as well as venomous insects, such as 
centipedes, spiders like small 
crabs, and several species of snakes, of which, 
however, thats Soe gen called the whip- 
cord, is, I believe, the only ene brat i is dane 
gerous, ¢ 
SL. 3s, 
