The Natives Can Tell By The Condition
Of These Mounds Whether They Contain Eggs Or Not; And They Rob
Them Whenever They Can, As The Brick-Red Eggs (As Large As Those
Of A Swan) Are Considered A Great Delicacy.
A number of birds are
said to join in making these mounds and lay their eggs together,
so that sometimes forty or fifty may be found.
The mounds are to
be met with here and there in dense thickets, and are great
puzzles to strangers, who cannot understand who can possibly have
heaped together cartloads of rubbish in such out-of-the-way
places; and when they inquire of the natives they are but little
wiser, for it almost always appears to them the wildest romance
to be told that it is all done by birds. The species found in
Lombock is about the size of a small hen, and entirely of dark
olive and brown tints. It is a miscellaneous feeder, devouring
fallen fruits, earthworms, snails, and centipedes, but the flesh
is white and well-flavoured when properly cooked.
The large green pigeons were still better eating, and were much
more plentiful. These fine birds, exceeding our largest tame
pigeons in size, abounded on the palm-trees, which now bore huge
bunches of fruits - mere hard globular nuts, about an inch in
diameter, and covered with a dry green skin and a very small
portion of pulp. Looking at the pigeon's bill and head, it would
seem impossible that it could swallow such large masses, or that
it could obtain any nourishment from them; yet I often shot these
birds with several palm-fruits in the crop, which generally burst
when they fell to the ground.
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