BIRDS.
Leaving now our passing survey of the food supplies derived from animals, we come next to birds, and, in the first order, we do not find that any are eaten, at least, as far as my knowledge extends; indeed, these carnivorous birds, from their habits and their food, would not be very tempting. This, however, as we have seen in the case of predatory animals, is no safe criterion to judge from. Probably, the man who would feast on the flesh of a lion, or a polecat, would have a stomach strong enough to digest slices of a John Crow carrion vulture, an eagle, or a hawk.
In the order ofInsessores, or perching birds, I may mention first—
The becafico, or fig-eater (Sylvia hortensis), a bird about the size of a linnet, which is highly prized by the Italians for the delicacy of its flesh, particularly in autumn, when it is in excellent condition for the table.
There is a curious food product obtained, (not exactly, however, from the bird,) which is in high repute in China; and that is the edible nest of a species of swallow extensively obtained in some of the islands of the Eastern Archipelago.
These nests are attached to the sides of rocks like those of our martin and swallow to walls, and look like so many watch-pockets. The eggs are white, with a slight pinkish tinge, and are generally two in number. The nests are either white, red, or black, and the natives maintain that these are built by three distinct species, with a white, red, and black breast, but this is erroneous. The Malays assert frequently, moreover, that the nests areformed from the bodies of certain sea snakes, but the food is, without doubt, insects. The subjoined accounts furnish the most detailed information known respecting the collection and trade in these birdsnests.
The following description of the birdsnests’ rocks, in the district of Karang Bollong, on the southerly sea-coast of Java, is given in the first volume of theJournal of the Indian Archipelago, published at Singapore.
‘The gathering of these nests takes place three times a year—in the end of April, the middle of August, and in December. The yearly produce is commonly between 50 and 60 piculs of 133⅓ lbs. The business of collection is opened with great ceremony by the natives. By the assistance of ladders and stages made of rattan, the collectors descend the rocks and cliffs, provided with the requisite bags to contain the nests, which are taken from the wall by the hand, and those which are on the roof by an iron hook made fast to a long bamboo. The birds feed upon different kinds of bloodless insects, hovering above the stagnant waters, for which their wide open beak is very useful. They form their nests by vomiting the strongest and best fragments of the food which they have eaten. The nests are weighed and packed in hampers (of 25 catties each), and labelled with the net weight, mark of the overseer, &c., and then further preserved and secured with strips of bark, leaves, and matting.
‘The edible birdsnests, which owe their celebrity only to the whimsical luxury of the Chinese, are brought principally from Java and Sumatra, though they are found on most of the rocky islets of the Indian Archipelago. The nest is the habitation of a small swallow,named (from the circumstance of having an edible house)Hirundo esculenta. They are composed of a mucilaginous substance, but as yet they have never been analyzed with sufficient accuracy to show the constituents. Externally, they resemble ill-concocted, fibrous isinglass, and are of a white colour, inclining to red. Their thickness is little more than that of a silver spoon, and the weight from a quarter to half an ounce. When dry they are brittle and wrinkled; the size is nearly that of a goose’s egg. Those that are dry, white, and clean, are the most valuable. They are packed in bundles, with split rattans run through them to preserve the shape. Those procured after the young are fledged, are not saleable in China. The quality of the nest varies according to the situation and extent of the caves, and the time at which they are taken. If procured before the young are fledged, the nests are of the best kind; if they contain eggs only, they are still valuable; but if the young are in the nests, or have left them, the whole are then nearly worthless, being dark-coloured, streaked with blood, and intermixed with feathers and dirt. These nests are procurable twice every year; the best are found in deep, damp caves, which, if not injured, will continue to produce indefinitely. It was once thought that the caves near the sea-coast were the most productive; but some of the most profitable yet found are situated 50 miles in the interior. This fact seems to be against the opinion that the nests are composed of the spawn of fish, or ofbêche-de-mer. The method of procuring these nests is not unattended with danger. Some of the caves are so precipitous, that no one but those accustomed to the employment from their youth can obtain the nests, beingonly approachable by a perpendicular descent of many hundred feet, by ladders of bamboo and rattan, over a sea rolling violently against the rocks. When the mouth of the cave is attained, the perilous task of taking the nests must often be performed by torchlight, by penetrating into recesses of the rock; where the slightest slip would be instantly fatal to the adventurers, who see nothing below them but the turbulent surf, making its way into the chasms of the rock—such is the price paid to gratify luxury. After the nests are obtained, they are separated from feathers and dirt, are carefully dried and packed, and are then fit for the market. The Chinese, who are the only people that purchase them for their own use, bring them in junks to this market, where they command extravagant prices; the best, orwhitekind, often being worth four thousand dollars per picul (a Chinese weight, equal to 133⅓ lbs. avoirdupois), which is nearly twice their weight in silver. The middling kind is worth from twelve to eighteen hundred, and the worst, or those procured after fledging, one hundred and fifty to two hundred dollars per picul. The majority of the best kind are sent to Pekin, for the use of the court. It appears, therefore, that this curious dish is only an article of expensive luxury amongst the Chinese; the Japanese do not use it at all, and how the former people acquired the habit of indulging in it, is only less singular than their persevering in it. They consider the edible birdsnest as a great stimulant, tonic, and aphrodisiac, but its best quality, perhaps, is its being perfectly harmless. The labour bestowed to render it fit for the table is enormous; every feather, stick, or impurity of any kind is carefully removed; and then, after undergoing many washings and preparations,it is made into a soft, delicious jelly. The sale of birdsnests is a monopoly with all the governments in whose dominions they are found. About two hundred and fifty thousand piculs, of the value of one million four hundred thousand dollars, are annually brought to Canton. These come from the islands of Java, Sumatra, Macassar, and those of the Sooloo group. Java alone sends about thirty thousand pounds, mostly of the first quality, estimated at seventy thousand dollars.’[12]
Mr. J. H. Moor, in his notices of theIndian Archipelago, published at Singapore some years ago, states, that ‘one of the principal and most valuable articles of exportation is the edible birdsnests, white and black. These are found in much greater abundance in and about the Coti, more than any other part of Borneo, or from what we at present know on the subject, all parts put together. On the western coast they are scarcely known to exist; about Banjermassin and Bagottan there are none; at Bataliching and Passier they are found in considerable quantities. At Browe there is abundance of the black kind of a very superior quality, but little of the white. At Seboo, and all the parts to the north of Borneo, we know there is none, as I have seen many letters from different Rajahs of those countries averring the fact, and begging the Sultan of Coti to exchange his edible nests for their most valuable commodities, and at his own price. Nor ought this to create surprise, when we consider, not only the large consumption of this article by the Cambojans, who almost exclusively inhabit some of the largest Sooloo Islands,and the northern parts of Borneo, but the amazing demand on the whole coast of Cambodia, particularly of Cochin China, the principal inhabitants of which countries are as partial to this luxury as their more northern neighbours—the Chinese. There are in Coti and adjacent Dyak countries perhaps eighty known places, or what the natives term holes, which produce the white nests. I have seen the names of forty-three. There can, however, be no doubt there are many more likewise known to the Dyaks, who keep the knowledge to themselves, lest the Bugis should dispossess them, which they know from experience is invariably the case.
‘According to the accounts of the Sultan, rendered by Saib Abdulla, the bandarree in 1834 yielded 134 piculs. The usual price in money to the Coti traders is 23 reals per catty from the Dyaks, and 25 in barter. The black nests may be procured in great abundance. The best kinds come from Cinculeram and Baley Papang. The latter mountain alone yields 230 piculs (of 113⅓ lbs.). Cinculeram gives nearly as much. There are several other parts of Coti which produce them, besides the quantity brought down by the Dyaks. Last year, 130 piculs paid duty to the Sultan; these left the large Coti river. Those from Cinculeram and Bongan were taken to Browe and Seboo. The bandarree’s book averages the annual weight of those collected in the lower part of Coti at 820 piculs (about 1,025 cwts.)
‘The Pangeran Sierpa and the Sultan say they could collect 2,700 piculs of black nests, if the bandarree and capella-campong would behave honestly. The Sultan, however, seldom gets any account of what is sent toBrowe, Seboo, and the Sooloo Islands, the quality of which is far superior to any sent to European ports.’
The exports of birdsnests from Java, between 1823 and 1832, averaged about 250 piculs a year; in 1832, 322 piculs; but of late years the exports have not averaged half that amount; and in 1853 and 1854 there were only about 35 or 40 piculs shipped.
In the third order,Scansores, there are very few edible birds.
In the mountain of Tumeriquiri, in the government of Cumana, is the immense cavern of Guacharo, famous among the Indians. It serves as a habitation for millions of nocturnal birds (Steatornis caripensis, a new species of theCaprimulgis, of Linnæus), whose fat yields the oil of Guacharo.
Once a year, near midsummer, this cavern is entered by the Indians. Armed with poles, they ransack the greater part of the nests, while the old birds hover over the heads of the robbers as if to defend their brood, uttering horrible cries. The young which fall down are opened on the spot. The peritoneum is found loaded with fat, and a layer of the same substance reaches from the abdomen to the vent, forming a kind of cushion between the hind legs. Humboldt remarks that this quantity of fat in frugivorous animals, not exposed to the light, and exerting but little muscular motion, brings to mind what has been long observed in the fattening of geese and oxen. ‘It is well known,’ he adds, ‘how favourable darkness and repose are to this process.’
At the period above mentioned, which is generally known at Carissa by the designation of ‘the oil harvest,’ huts are built by the Indians, with palm leaves, nearthe entrance and even in the very porch of the cavern. There the fat of the young birds just killed is melted in clay pots, over a brushwood fire, and this fat is named butter or oil of the Guacharo. It is half liquid, transparent, inodorous, and so pure that it will keep above a year without turning rancid.[13]
There is a curious bird met with in caves in the West India Islands—as at Dominica, and the gulf of Paria, the diablotin or goat-sucker, which, if eaten when taken from the nest, is pronounced by epicures unrivalled; and the flesh is also considered a delicacy when salted.
It has received its popular cognomen from its ugliness, but I have not been able to trace its scientific name.
The bird is nearly the size of a duck, and web-footed, with a big round head and crooked bill like a hawk, and large full eyes like an owl; the head, part of the neck, and chief feathers of the wing and tail, are black, while the other parts of its body are covered with a fine milk-white down; the whole appearance being very singular. The diablotin only leaves its haunts at night time, flying with hideous screams like the owl, which it resembles in its dislike to day-light. The nests are made in holes in the mountains. When the palms are in fruit, the bird becomes one lump of fat. The hideous appearance of the bird and the strong scent once got over, it is said to be a delicious morsel.
We have our delicate tit-bits in spitted larks, and as many as four thousand dozen have been known to be taken in the neighbourhood of Dunstable between September and February. What the number sold in our metropolitan markets is annually, it is impossible tosay. But larks are taken in much larger numbers in Germany, where there is an excise upon them, which has yielded as much as £1,000 a year in Leipsic—the larks of which place are famous all over Germany as being of a most delicate flavour.
In the Italian markets, besides carrion crows, strings of thrushes, larks, and even robin redbreasts are sold.
Young rooks, when skinned and made into pies are much esteemed by some persons, but they are very coarse eating.
One of the most delicious birds is the rice-bunting of South Carolina (Dolichonyx oryzivorus).
The rice-bunting migrates over the continent of America, from Labrador to Mexico, and over the great Antilles, appearing in the southern extremity of the United States about the end of March. Towards the middle and close of August, they enter New York, and Pennsylvania on their way to the south. There, along the shores of the large rivers lined with floating fields of wild rice, they find abundant subsistence, grow fat, and their flesh becomes little inferior in flavour to that of the European ortolan, on which account the reed, or rice birds, as they are then called, are shot in great numbers. When the cool nights in October commence, they move still farther south, till they reach the islands of Jamaica and Cuba in prodigious numbers to feed on the seeds of the guinea grass. Epicures compare the plump and juicy flesh of this delicacy to the ortolan.
On the shores of the Mediterranean there are feathered delicacies in the shape of the quail and the ortolan. Thousands of ortolans used to be shipped from the island of Cyprus, packed in casks of 300 or 400, prepared with spice and vinegar. When specially fattenedfor the table, they are regarded as most delicious; but, being merely lumps of fat, are so rich as soon to satiate the appetite of even a professed gourmand. In the West India Islands and the Southern States of America, the rice-bunting, as we have seen, takes its place, and is, occasionally, found in prodigious numbers, and greatly esteemed.
The bluish flesh of the toucan, notwithstanding its enormous and unsightly beak, is a wholesome and delicate meat; and there are no birds that give the Trinidad epicure a more delicious morsel. It is one of the most omnivorous of birds, and its powers of digestion and impunity to poisons are remarkable.
Parrot pie is said to be pretty good; at least, it may be so when other animal food is scarce.
Among theGALLINACEOUSfowls, large numbers contribute to the food delicacies of man. Some, like the turkey, peacock, &c., of considerable size; others, as the pigeon tribe, form smaller tit-bits.
The game birds, the pheasant, partridge, grouse, &c., and the quail, guinea fowl, and jungle fowl, are bagged whenever they can be obtained by the sportsman.
The peacock enkakyll ‘was one of the famous dishes at the costly royal banquets of old, and the receipt for dressing it is thus given:—
‘Take and flay off the skin with the feathers, tail, and the neck and head thereon; then take the skin and all the feathers and lay it on the table abroad, and strew thereon ground cumin; then take the peacock and roast him, and baste him with raw yolks of eggs; and when he is roasted, take him off and let him cool awhile, then take him and sew him in his skin, and gild his comb, and so serve him forth with the last course.’
As far as my own experience goes, with all the basting and sauces, the peacock is, at best, a dry and tough eating bird.
The domestic fowls and the tame turkey require no notice here, there being nothing curious about them, however delicate eating they may be when properly fattened and brought to table; but there is a species of wild turkey found in New Granada, weighing from 12 to 16 lbs., and called the iowanen, which is described by Mr. W. Purdie of Trinidad as the most delicate article of food he ever tasted.
Dear as fowls, ducks, and eggs comparatively are, they meet, as every one knows, with a ready sale. When we find our imports of eggs, chiefly from France, amount to about 130,000,000 a year, besides our nominal ‘new laid,’ or home produce,—when we learn that the foreign poultry we receive (mixed up with not a few Ostend rabbits) is valued at 39,000l., and that Ireland supplies us with about 150,000,000 of eggs, we begin to perceive that fowls, ducks, geese, and turkeys must be a profitable investment to some persons, and the capital of about 4,000,000l.we lay out on these various products serves to gladden the heart of many a poultry breeder.
There are sent to market about nine or ten million head of poultry in a year to supply the whole population of the United Kingdom, shipping and all, which is not more than one-third of a fowl to each person annually. Now, were every one to have a fowl as part food once a month, it would require 330,000,000 more fowls or other poultry than are at present sold.
I copy the following from what I believe to be thefirst fixed tariff of provisions, in the City of London, about the second year of Edward I. (1272.) The people had at that time great cause to complain of the exorbitant prices demanded of them for provisions, by hucksters and dealers, and a fixed price was found necessary by the Mayor:—
In the time of Edward II., 1313, eggs were 20 a penny, and pigeons sold at three for a penny.
It is curious, even to notice the London prices ofpoultry, two or three centuries ago, although regard must of course be had to the difference in the value of money now and then.
Sir James Hawes, during his mayoralty, in the year 1575, fixed the following prices within the City of London:—
At a feast given at Ely House, by the serjeants-at-law, November, 1531, (23rd of Henry VIII.) on the occasion of making eleven new serjeants, open house was kept for five successive days. On the fourth day, King Henry, his Queen, the Foreign Ambassadors, the Judges, and Lord Mayor and Aldermen, were feasted, as also numerous guests, knights, and gentlemen. Stow particularizes the following articles and prices, in order to furnishdatafor computing the relative value of money at different periods:—
The consumption of liquids, pastry, andtrifles, can easily be guessed at.
Here is an ancient receipt for making a Christmas game pie, found in the books of the Salter’s Company, which is presumed to have often furnished an annual treat to the members in the olden times; and when made after this receipt, by the Company’s cook in modern days, has been found to be excellent.
‘For to make a mooste choyce paaste of Gamys to be etin at ye Feste of Chrystemasse.‘(17th Richard II., A.D. 1394.)‘Take Fesaunt, Haare, and Chykenne, or Capounne, of eche oone; wᵗ. ij. Partruchis, ij. Pygeounes, and ij. Conynggys; and smyte hem on peces and pyke clene awaye p’fro (therefrom) alle pᵉ (the) boonys pᵗ (that) ye maye, and p’wt (therewith) do hem ynto a Foyle (a shield or case) of gode paste, made craftily ynne pᵉ lykenes of a byrde’s bodye, wᵗ pᵉ lyuours and hertys, ij. kydneis of shepe and farcys (seasonings or forced meats) and eyren (eggs) made ynto balles. Caste p’to (thereto) poudre of pepyr, salte, spyce, eysell,[14]and funges (mushrooms) pykled; and panne (then) take pᵉ boonys and let hem seethe ynne a pot to make a gode brothe p’ for (for it) and do yᵗ ynto pᵉ foyle of paste and close hit uppe faste, and bake yᵗ wel, and so s’ue (serve) yᵗ forthe: wt pᵉ hede of oone of pᵉ byrdes, stucke at pᵉ oone ende of pᵉ foyle, and a grete tayle at pᵉ op’ and dyvers of hys longe fedyrs sette ynne connynglye alle aboute hym.’
‘For to make a mooste choyce paaste of Gamys to be etin at ye Feste of Chrystemasse.
‘(17th Richard II., A.D. 1394.)
‘Take Fesaunt, Haare, and Chykenne, or Capounne, of eche oone; wᵗ. ij. Partruchis, ij. Pygeounes, and ij. Conynggys; and smyte hem on peces and pyke clene awaye p’fro (therefrom) alle pᵉ (the) boonys pᵗ (that) ye maye, and p’wt (therewith) do hem ynto a Foyle (a shield or case) of gode paste, made craftily ynne pᵉ lykenes of a byrde’s bodye, wᵗ pᵉ lyuours and hertys, ij. kydneis of shepe and farcys (seasonings or forced meats) and eyren (eggs) made ynto balles. Caste p’to (thereto) poudre of pepyr, salte, spyce, eysell,[14]and funges (mushrooms) pykled; and panne (then) take pᵉ boonys and let hem seethe ynne a pot to make a gode brothe p’ for (for it) and do yᵗ ynto pᵉ foyle of paste and close hit uppe faste, and bake yᵗ wel, and so s’ue (serve) yᵗ forthe: wt pᵉ hede of oone of pᵉ byrdes, stucke at pᵉ oone ende of pᵉ foyle, and a grete tayle at pᵉ op’ and dyvers of hys longe fedyrs sette ynne connynglye alle aboute hym.’
Marrow bones seem to have been in favour at an earlydate. 2,000 marrow bones were among the requisites for the Goldsmiths’ Company’s feast, on St. Dunstan’s day, 1449.
In the reign of Edward VI., 1548, a time of plague and scarcity, the king thought it prudent to fix the price of cattle, &c., sold in the several seasons of the year:—
We are not quite such prodigious devourers of eggs as our French neighbours, having a greater amountof meat or solid animal food to fall back upon, and fewer fast days. Another reason is, that we cannot, like the French, get them so fresh and cheap; but as an alimentary substance, eggs are always in demand at a ratio proportionate to the prices at which they can be obtained. In Paris the consumption of eggs is at least 175 per annum to every head of the population; in the departments it is more than double that amount; eggs entering into almost every article of food, and butchers’ meat being scarce and dear. If we only use, in London, half the number of eggs the Parisians do, there must be a sale of about 173 millions a year; and the consumption throughout the kingdom would be fully 2,000 millions. Although smaller in size, and not equal to a new-laid egg, the French eggs arrive in pretty good condition, and, if sold off quickly, are well adapted for ordinary culinary purposes. Few are wasted, for even when not very fresh, they are sold for frying fish, and to the lower class of confectioners for pastry. Fried eggs, boiled eggs chopped up with salad, egg sauce for fish, &c., eggs for puddings, for omelets, and pancakes, all contribute to the sale. Omelets, sweet or flavoured with herbs, are much less patronized in this country than they are in France.
The sixty wholesale egg merchants and salesmen in the metropolis, whose itinerant carts are kept constantly occupied in distributing their brittle ware, might probably enlighten us as to the extent and increasing character of the trade, and the remunerative nature of the profits. Railways and steamers bring up large crates, and carefully packed boxes of eggs, for the ravenous maws of young and old, who fatten on this dainty and easily digested food. The various citymarkets dispose of two millions of fowls, one million of game birds, half a million of ducks, and about one hundred and fifty thousand turkeys, every year. But even if we doubled this supply, what would it be among the three million souls of the great metropolis requiring daily food.
Ireland and the continent contribute largely to our supply of poultry and eggs. Immense pens of poultry, purchased in the Irish market, are shipped by the steamers to Glasgow and Liverpool. Commerce owes much to the influence of steam, but agriculture is no less indebted to the same power. Taking everything into account, and examining all the advantages derived by cheap and rapid transit, the manufacturer of food is quite as much indebted to the steam-ship and the locomotive as the manufacturer of clothing.
There is no difficulty whatever in testing eggs; they are mostly examined by a candle. Another way to tell good eggs is to put them in a pail of water, and if they are good they willlie on their sides, always; if bad, they will stand on their small ends, the large ends always uppermost, unless they have been shaken considerably, when they will stand either end up. Therefore, a bad egg can be told by the way it rests in water—always end up, never on its side. Any egg that lies flat is good to eat, and can be depended upon.
An ordinary mode is to take them into a room moderately dark and hold them between the eye and a candle or lamp. If the egg be good—that is, if the albumen is still unaffected—the light will shine through with a reddish glow; while, if affected, it will be opaque, or dark.
In Fulton and Washington market, New York, a manmay be seen testing eggs at almost any time of the year. He has a tallow candle placed under a counter or desk, and taking up the eggs, three in each hand, passes them rapidly before the candle, and deposits them in another box. His practised eye quickly perceives the least want of clearness in the eggs, and suspicious ones are re-examined and thrown away, or passed into a ‘doubtful’ box. The process is so rapid that eggs are inspected perfectly at the rate of 100 to 200 per minute, or as fast as they can be shifted from one box to another, six at a time.
The preservation of eggs for use on ship board has always occupied a large share of attention. They have been usually smeared with oil or grease, and packed in bran or sawdust. A plan recommended by M. Appert for preserving eggs is to put them in a jar with bran, to prevent their breaking; cork and hermetically seal the jar; and put it into a vessel of water, heated to 200 degrees Fahrenheit, or 12 degrees below boiling. The vessel with water being taken from the fire, the water must cool till the finger may be borne in it; then remove the jar. The eggs may then be taken out, and will keep for six months.
Salted ducks’ eggs are an article in great demand in some parts of the East, for transport by the trading junks. The Malays salt them as they do their meat; but the Chinese mix a red unctuous earth with the brine, which no doubt stops the pores of the shell, and preserves them better. They are put into this mixture at night, and taken out during the day to be dried in the sun, which is, in fact, a half roasting process in a tropical climate.
Pickled eggs, while they constitute a somewhat novelfeature in the catalogue of condiments, are at the same time particularly relishing. When eggs are plentiful, farmers’ wives, in some localities, take four to six dozen of such as are newly laid, and boil them hard; then, divesting them of the shells, they place them in large-mouthed earthen jars, and pour upon them scalded vinegar, well seasoned with whole pepper, allspice, ginger, and a few cloves of garlic. When this pickle is cold, the jars are closed, and the eggs are fit for use in a month afterwards. Eggs thus treated are held in high esteem by all the farm-house epicures.
Fowls’ eggs, variously coloured, and having flowers and other matters upon them, formed by the colouring matter being picked off so as to expose the white shell of the egg, are a part of all the Malay entertainments in Borneo. The eggs eaten by the Dyaks are frequently nearly hatched when taken from the nest, as they enjoy them just as well as when fresh.
An article called ‘condensed egg’ is now sold in the shops. It consists of the whole substance of the fresh uncooked egg, very delicately and finely granulated by patent processes, after the watery particles, which the egg naturally contains, have been completely exhausted and withdrawn, without further alteration of its constituents. It contains all the nutritious properties of the egg in its natural state, and must be valuable to shipmasters, emigrants, and others. One ounce of it is said to be equal to three eggs.
The ancient Romans, though not great beef-eaters, were particular as to poultry. Dr. Daubeny, in hisLectures on Roman Husbandry, says—‘The ancient Romans had large preserves, not only of poultry and pigeons, but even of thrushes and quails enclosed inpens which were called ‘ornithones,’ from which they could draw their supply for the table at pleasure. We are told, indeed, of two sorts of ornithones, the one merely aviaries stocked with birds for the amusement of the proprietor; the other kind, constructed with a view to profit, which were often of vast extent, to supply the demands of the Roman market for such articles of luxury. In the Sabine country particularly, we read of extensive pens, filled with birds for the latter purpose. For thrushes alone there were large rooms provided, each capable of holding several thousand birds. As they were put in to be fattened, the place had only just light enough to enable the birds to see their food, but there was a good supply of fresh water accessible. And I may remark that, whilst nothing is said by the Roman writers about the fattening of oxen and sheep, particular directions are given for fattening poultry and other birds—a strong additional argument of the little importance they attached to the larger animals as articles of food.’
The following may be enumerated as the sportsman’s game in Jamaica:—
1. The pintado, or wild guinea fowl (Numida Meleagris), a bird now domesticated in our poultry-yards. In its wild state the flesh is considered by many persons to equal that of the pheasant.
2. The quail (Perdix coturnix).
3. Wild pigeons, namely, ring-tail, bald-pate, pea-dove, white-breast, white-wing, mountain-witch, ground dove, and red-legged partridge.
4. Snipe (Scolopax gallinago).
5. Wild duck, or mallard (Anas boschas).
6. Gray, or Gadwall duck (Anas strepera).
7. The common teal (Anas crecca), the flesh of which was so much prized by the Roman epicures, and is still in request for the table.
8. Widgeon (Anas Penelope).
9. Gray and ring plover (Charadrius minor, andhiaticula).
If we are out shooting in Canada we may easily add to our mess the ruffled grouse (Tetrao umbellus), although these, like many other birds, are partridges with the settlers—this variety being termed the birch partridge. Another species, the spruce partridge of the colonists (T. Canadensis), is less palatable, for, unfortunately, it has a habit of feeding upon laurel leaves. But here is something to make amends—a fine Esquimaux curlew, as large as an English partridge, and a mud-sucker,id estsnipe.
Let me note a Canadian receipt for cooking a partridge, which may be useful to sportsmen and travellers:—
‘Expedition is the maxim of all sylvan cookery, and as plucking the feathers of a partridge would be too great a tax on the time and patience of the voyageur, the method most in vogue is to run your hunting knife round his throat and ancles and down his breast, when, taking a leg in each hand, and pressing your thumb into his back, you pop him out of his skin, as you would a pea from its pod. Then make a spread-eagle of him on a forked twig, the other extremity of which is thrust into the ground, and after wrapping a rasher of bacon around his neck and under his wings, as ladies wear a scarf, you incline him to the fire, turning the spit in the ground, and you will have a result such as Soyer might be proud of. When your other avocations will not afford time even for the skinning process, analternative mode is to make a paste of ashes and water, and roll up your bird therein, with the feathers, and all the appurtenances thereof, and thrust the performance in the fire. In due time, on breaking the cemented shell (which is like a sugared almond), the feathers, skin, &c., adhere to it, and then you have the pure kernel of poultry within.’
The red-legged partridge is common in the Greek islands, on the continent of Asia, and in the southern countries of Europe. In some of the Cyclades, where the inhabitants are too poor to expend money on powder, they chase the birds on foot, till they are so wearied, as to be easily taken with the hand.
Of all the European birds, the quail (Coturnix vulgaris) is the most remarkable, on account of the vast numbers which congregate on the shores of the Mediterranean in the spring, coming from Asia Minor and Northern Africa, to avoid the excessive heat. For a few weeks in the month of April, when they first begin to arrive in Sicily, everybody is a sportsman. Arriving always in the night, although not a quail could be seen the evening before, the report of guns the next morning, in all directions, attests their number and the havoc that has begun upon them. Such prodigious numbers have appeared on the western coasts of the kingdom of Naples, that a hundred thousand have been taken in a day, within the space of four or five miles.
The flesh of the turtle dove is considered much superior to that of the wild pigeon.
The passenger pigeon (Columba migratoria) of America, is a very large and well flavoured variety, being 16 inches long, and 24 inches in the spread of its wings; its hue chiefly slate-colour. They migrate at certain seasons in millions, and feed on acorns and fresh mast.They travel in the morning and evening, and repose about mid-day in the forests. Their passage, whether in spring or autumn, lasts from 15 to 20 days, after which they are met with in the centre of the United States. The Indians often watch the roosting places of these birds, and knocking them on the head in the night, bring them away by thousands. They preserve the oil or fat, which they use instead of butter. There was formerly scarcely any little Indian village in the interior, where a hundred gallons of this oil might not at any time be purchased.
These pigeons spread over the whole of North America, abounding round Hudson’s Bay, where they remain till December. They arrive in the fur countries in the latter end of May, and depart in October. They are met with as far south as the Gulf of Mexico, but do not extend their range westward of the Rocky Mountains. Stray passenger pigeons have been taken both in Norway and in Russia; and this bird has found a place in the British fauna, from a solitary bird having been shot in Westhall, Fifeshire, on the 31st December, 1825. Like other pigeons, this genus makes a slender platform nest of sticks and straws, but, unlike other pigeons, prolific as it is, it lays but one egg. The female builds the nest, the male bird fetches the materials. The time of incubation is 16 days, and the male relieves the female in sitting during that period. The immense number of these birds baffles all computation. Those eminent ornithologists, Wilson and Audubon, describe flocks seen by them to contain respectively from thousands of millions to upwards of a billion in each, the daily food required to sustain which would be at least 60,000 bushels; and the New YorkEvening Postinforms us that, onone day, seven tons of these pigeons were brought into the New York market by the Erie railroad.
In their breeding places, herds of hogs are fed on the young pigeons or ‘squabs,’ which are also melted down by the settlers, as a substitute for butter or lard. The felling a single tree often produces 200 squabs, nearly as large as the old ones, and almost one mass of fat. When the flocks of full grown pigeons enter a district, clap-nets and guns are in great requisition. Pennant, in hisArctic Zoology, says, Sir William Johnstone told him, that at one shot, he brought down with a blunderbuss above a hundred and twenty pigeons. Wagon loads of them are poured into the towns, and sold as cheap as a half-penny up to two-pence the dozen. The flesh tastes like the common wild blue pigeon, but is, if anything, better flavoured. Why (it has been asked) could not this large pigeon, whose migratory habits are principally caused by search for food, be introduced into this country as a tame variety, or by crossing with our native breeds enlarge the size; or, in the same way as fresh mutton was sent from Australia, be sent in casks potted in their own fat, to supply us with cheap pigeon pies? And the same with a cross with the large Texan rabbit, or the wild American turkey, the latter being far superior in size and appearance to its degenerate descendant, the tame turkey, sometimes as much as four feet in length, and five feet from wing to wing? The canvas-back ducks of America are there boasted of exceedingly as a delicacy, yet, although a great variety of useless water-fowl has been introduced merely as an ornament to the ponds and streams of our gentry, no attempt has been made to bring this kind to our farm-yards and tables; and even if it was foundimpossible to tame the pure breed, a cross with our own might be effected. In the capercailzie, orcock of the wood, a bird of the grouse species, but nearly as large as a turkey, once indigenous to Scotland, but now only found in the north of Europe, and in thebustard, the largest European land-bird, the cock weighing from 25 to 27 lbs., we have examples of two fowls well worth the trial of domesticating by the amateur or intelligent agriculturist, a trial which, if successful, would probably repay quite as well as competition about the colour of a feather, or the shortness of a tail, and in time would be the means of affording a constant, certain, and moderately-priced supply, which is never the case while animals remain in a wild or half-wild state.
Although the forests of New Zealand are not thickly inhabited by the feathered tribes, there are many birds to be met with. Among others are the following, which are excellent eating.—The wild pigeon, which is very large and common; the parrot or ka-ka; and thetuior mocking bird, which is about the size of the English black-bird, and of the same colour, but with two bunches of white feathers under the neck—his notes are few, but very melodious, resembling the tinkling of small bells, which harmonize together as they are delivered. The bronze-winged pigeon of Australia is most delicate eating. It abounds in summer, when the acacia seeds are ripe.