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Aboriginal Quadrupeds (18)

Les Voyages Faits par Du Bois aux isles Madagascar & Bourbon in 1669. 70. 71. & 72.

All these extracts refer to Bourbon.

p. 46. Game &c plentiful at Bourbon that no use of a Gun.

p. 166. "les oyseaux d'une quantité d' especes y sont en grand nombre & si familiers que l'on. les prend a la main, ainsi on n' a point besoin de fuzil, poudre. ni plomb pour aller chasser . On se sert quelquefois d'une petite gaulle avec laquelle on fait tel abatir, que l'on souhaite"

p 170 describes "solitaires" white birds, as big as geese, with black at extremity of tails & wings with feathers like ostrich in tail, like a snipe in form. These birds fly but little & take to running

p. do "Oyseaux bleu" size like solitaire — whole

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Ask Dr. Allan about these birds whether tame now about these running birds Oyseaux solitaires & bleu.

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plumage blue, beak & feet red — they cannot fly & run so fast dogs can hardly catch them.

There are many pidgeons & parrakeets & other birds at Bourbon: a Bat, — no reptiles except Tortoises

When Dubois was at Bourbon only 100 inhabitant including women & children it was from 1671 to 1672 — nearly two years.

p. 199. Nothing but sticks in wanting to go hunting, & kill as many birds as wanted. except the Flamingoes & Geese which it is necessary to kill with a gun.— how like the Falkland.—!!

p. 197 There are no mice or rats & I infer confidently as every other tribe of animals is mentioned no other quadruped whatever. Yet pigs & goats have run wild abundantly.