Down Goes His Bill,
Presently, With A Sudden Start, And Again His Head Is Thrown
Back; But This Time It Is The Work Of A Moment, As It Is Only An
Iguana, Which Not Being Above Eighteen Inches Long, Is Easy
Swallowing.
A great number of the crane species are destroyers of snakes,
which in a country so infested with vermin as Ceylon renders them
especially valuable.
Peacocks likewise wage perpetual war with
all kinds of reptiles, and Nature has wisely arranged that where
these nuisances most abound there is a corresponding provision
for their destruction.
Snipes, of course, abound in their season around the margin of
the lakes; but the most delicious birds for the table are the
teal and ducks, of which there are four varieties. The largest
duck is nearly the size of a wild goose, and has a red, fatty
protuberance about the beak very similar to a muscovy. The teal
are the fattest and most delicious birds that I have ever tasted.
Cooked in Soyer's magic stove, with a little butter, cayenne
pepper, a squeeze of lime juice, a pinch of salt, and a spoonful
of Lea and Perrins' Worcester sauce (which, by the by, is the
best in the world for a hot climate), and there is no bird like a
Ceylon teal. They are very numerous, and I have seen them in
flocks of some thousands on the salt-water lakes on the eastern
coast, where they are seldom or ever disturbed. Nevertheless,
they are tolerably wary, which, of course, increases the sport of
shooting them.
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