i l
NAZARENE D
D e s c r i p t io n .
P lace and
M anners.
of the palm, a foot and a half in thicknefs j and lays one egg,
bigger than that of a Goofe. The male fits in his turn; and does
not fuffer any bird to approach within two hundred yards of the
fpot while the hen is fitting, which is feven weeks. The young
is fome months before it can Ihift for itfelf; the old ones, in the
mean time, are affe&ionate to it, and faithful to each other afterwards,
though they occafionally may mix with others of their
kind. It is faid that a ftone is'always found in the gizzard-,
which perhaps, if the cafe be known, may turn out no more than
may be found in all granivorous birds, ferving merely to prove it
to be of that race.. The young birds, though timid, are ftupid
enough to fuffer the approach of any onej but when grown up,
axe more £by, and will not be tamed. Two of them were
Ihipped from Bourbon, but foon died, as they refufed all fufte-
nance. They are chafed in the winter-feafon, viz. from March
to September, being then fat, and the young birds are much
efteemed for the table..
L’Oifeau de Nazareth, Buf Oif. i. p. 485.— Caucbe Madag. p. 130;
• Oifeau de Naufee, Id. ibid,
t J 'H I S is a large bird, bigger than a' Swan, The bill is a little-
bent downwards, and large: inftead of feathers the whole
body is covered over with a black down; but the wings are feathered,
and it has fome frizzled ones upon the rump, which-
ferve inftead of a ta il: the legs are long and fcaly, and there are
three toes on each foot.
This was met with in the IJle of France, and defcribed as above
by Fr. Caucbe-, who adds, that the female only lays one egg>
which
which is white, and as big as a penny loaf, and that there is
always found with it a white ftone of the fize of a Hen’s egg—
that it makes the neft of leaves and dry herbs, in the forefts, on
the ground j and that there is likewife found a grey ftone in the
gizzard of the young bird.
The three laft-defcribed birds feem to have much affinity to
each other; if, on further obfervation, they do not prove the
fame fpecies, differing only in age or fex.
G enu