The things we do!

Sometimes they put snares on the top of high trees that the birds
of paradise prefer to frequent. Sometimes they catch them with a
viscous birdlime that paralyses their movements. They even go so far
as to poison the fountains that the birds generally drink from.
But we were obliged to fire at them during flight, which gave us few
chances to bring them down; and, indeed, we vainly exhausted one
half our ammunition.
About eleven o'clock in the morning, the first range of mountains that form
the centre of the island was traversed, and we had killed nothing.
Hunger drove us on. The hunters had relied on the products of the chase,
and they were wrong. Happily Conseil, to his great surprise,
made a double shot and secured breakfast. He brought down a white pigeon
and a wood-pigeon, which, cleverly plucked and suspended from a skewer,
was roasted before a red fire of dead wood. While these interesting
birds were cooking, Ned prepared the fruit of the bread-tree. Then
the wood-pigeons were devoured to the bones, and declared excellent.


Pages:
190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214