Though all the deep and grassy bogs have snipes in them, I never once saw a woodcock: swallows there are of many kinds, unknown in Europe; those that are common in Europe appear in passage at the very season when they take their flight from thence. We saw the greatest part of them in the island of Masuah where they lighted and tarried two days, and then proceeded with moon-light nights to the south-west. But I once saw in the country of the Baharnagash, in the province of Tigré, the blue forked-tailed swallow, which builds in the windows in England, making his nest out of season, when he should have been upon his migration; this I have already taken notice of in my journey from Masuah to Gondar.
There are few owls in Abyssinia; but those are of an immense size and beauty. The crow is marked white and black nearly in equal portions. There is one kind of raven; he, too, of a large size, his feathers black intermixed with brown; his beak tipt with white, and a figure like a cup or chalice of white feathers on his occiput, or hinder part of his head. I never saw either sparrow, magpie, or bat in Abyssinia. Pigeons are there in great numbers, and of many varieties; some of them very excellent for eating. I shall hereafter describe one of them whose name is Waalia. All the pigeons but one sort are birds of passage, that one lives in the eaves of houses or holes in the walls, and this is not eaten, but accounted unclean for a very whimsical reason; they say it has claws like a falcon, and is a mixture from that bird. The same sort of imagination is that of the Turks, who say, that the Turkey, from the tuft of black hair that is upon his breast, partakes of the nature of the hog. This pigeon’s feet are indeed large, but very different in formation from that of the falcon.
There are no geese in Abyssinia, wild or tame, excepting what is called the Golden Goose, Goose of the Nile, or Goose of the Cape, common in all the South of Africa: these build their nests upon trees, and when not in water, generally sit upon them.
I have already spoken of fishes, and have entered very sparingly into their history. These, and other marine productions of the Arabian Gulf, or even the small share that I have painted and collected, would occupy many large volumes to exhibit and describe, and would cost, in the engraving, a much larger sum than I have any prospect of ever being able to afford.
Nisser Werk.
London Publish’d Dec.r 1.st 1789. by G. Robinson & Co.
NISSER, or GOLDEN EAGLE.
I have ventured from his colour to call this bird the Golden Eagle, by way of distinction, as its Ethiopic name, Nisser, is only a generic one, and imports no more than the English name, Eagle. He is called by the vulgar Abou Duch’n, or Father Long Beard, which we may imagine was given him from the tuft of hair he has below his beak.