The Wild-Fowl Are Geese, Ducks, Sea-Pies,
Shags, And That Kind Of Gull So Often Mentioned In This Journal Under The
Name Of Port Egmont Hen.
Here is a kind of duck, called by our people race-
horses, on account of the great swiftness with which they run on the water;
for they cannot fly, the wings being too short to support the body in the
air.
This bird is at the Falkland Islands, as appears by Pernety's Journal.
The geese too are there, and seem to be very well described under the name
of bustards. They are much smaller than our English tame geese, but eat as
well as any I ever tasted. They have short black bills and yellow feet. The
gander is all white; the female is spotted black and white, or grey, with a
large white spot on each wing. Besides the bird above-mentioned, here are
several other aquatic, and some land ones; but of the latter not many.
From the knowledge which the inhabitants seem to have of Europeans, we may
suppose that they do not live here continually, but retire to the north
during the winter. I have often wondered that these people do not clothe
themselves better, since Nature has certainly provided materials. They
might line their seal-skin cloaks with the skins and feathers of aquatic
birds; they might make their cloaks larger, and employ the same skins for
other parts of clothing, for I cannot suppose they are scarce with them.
They were ready enough to part with those they had to our people, which
they hardly would have done, had they not known where to have got more.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 881 of 885
Words from 238074 to 238353
of 239428
