There are likewise great numbers of birds, which live upon insects. The fly, which reigns, in swarms, on the plains from May to September, is attended by a multitude o I feathered enemies, sonic of which devour them for food ; others seem to persecute them in re venge for the injuries which they commit against man kind, and the brute creation ; scattering myriads of them on tne ground, without heeding them more. Bees, too, which abound in all parts of Abyssinia, are an unfailing supply to these birds.
Nor is the granivorous tribe less numerous, or less plentifully pros ided with food. All the trees and shrubs in Abyssinia bear flowers, seeds, and fruit, in every sea son of the year ; and, as the country is divided by a ridge of mountains, which likewise divide the seasons, those birds which subsist on one particular kind of food, are transported, by a short migration, to the same seasons, and the same food, on one side of the mountains, of which a change of weather had deprived them on the other.
This country has few cui/N, but those arc remarkable for their size and beauty. The crC;i• are black-and-white almost in equal proportions. The is of a large size, has black feathers intermixed w nth brow n. his beak tipt with white, and a of white feathers on his head, in the figure of a cup o~ chalice. Mr Bruce saw neither sparrows, magpies, nor bats, during his residence in Abyssinia. Water fowls, too, were rare, particularly of the web-footed kind : but, during the rainy season, the plains are covered with stcrk5 of var ious descriptions. The large birds which reside on the mountains of Samen and Tarama, are fortified against the weather by tubular feathers, the hollow part of which is full of a fine dust or powder, wit h. on grasping them, issues out in such abundance as to • am the hand.
are no geese here, v ild or tame, excepting what is cal led the golden goose, goose of the Nile, or goose of the Cape, which is common in every part or Africa. .S'n0cs are found in all the deep and grassy bogs, but there arc no woodcocks. There are, in Abyssinia, various kinds of swallows unknown in Europe ; those w hich arc com mon in Europe appear on passage, at the very season when they take their flight from that continent. Pigeons are very numerous, and all of them migrate but one kind, which lives in the eaves of houses, or holes in the wall, and which the Abyssinians account unclean, be cause it has claws like a falcon, of w hich they suppose it a mixture.
There is a species of eagle, to which Mr Bruce has given the name of the golden eagle, which well deserves a particular description. His Ethiopic name is ; and, from a tuft of hair below his beak, he is called by the vulgar ,lbou Duch'n, or Father Longbeard. He is one of the largest birds that fly. One which 'Mr Bruce shot measured 8 feet 4 inches from wing to wing, and from the tip of his tail to the point of his beak, upwards of 4 feet and a half. His legs appeared short but strong, and his thighs were extremely muscular. His middle claw was about two inches and a half long, rather strong than sharp. His bill, from the root to the point, mea
sured three inches and a quarter, and at the mot was an inch and three quarters broad. From the cavity of his lower jaw proceeded a forked bunch of strong hair ; his eye was remarkably small ; the crown of his head was bald, as was also the front, at the junction of the bill with the skull. His feathers, on being grasped, emitted a great quantity of yellow powder ; and those on his back produced a brown dust of their own colour. The fea thers of his belly and breast were of a golden colour, and seemed to have nothing extraordinary in their formation ; but the large feathers in his shoulder and wings were fine tubes, from which, upon pressure, the powder was emitted.
Besides swarms of locusts, and a species of ants, which are extremely troublesome and pernicious, Abys sinia is likewise infested by a fly, called Tsaltsalva, an insect more formidable than the strongest or most savage wild beasts. He is very little larger than a bee, but of a thicker proportion ; his wings, which are placed se parate like those of a fly, are of pure gauze, without colour or spot ; his head is large, his upper jaw sharp, armed at the end With a strong pointed hair, about a quarter of an inch long ; his lower jaw has two of these pointed hairs ; and the three on both jaws, when joined together, make a resistance to the finger, nearly equal to that of a strong hug's bristle. His legs are serrated in the inside, and covered brown hair, or clown. He has no sting ; his motion is rapid and sudden, resembling that of the gad fly. The sound which he utters is a jar ring noise, together with a humming, and seems partly to proceed from a vibration of the three hairs at his snout. As soon as the buzzing of this insect is heard, the utmost alarm and trepidation prevails. The cattle forsake their fond, and run wildly about the plain, till at length they fall down worn out with terror, hunger, and fatigue. Fortunately this dreadful enemy is confined to the black loamy soil, and the sands of Atbara afford a safe retreat from his pursuit. Even the thick skin of the camel gives no security against his attacks. His body, head, and legs, penetrated by the proboscis of this fly, swell into large bosses, which break and putrefy, to his cei lain destruction. The elephant and rhinoceros, too, whose enormous bulk, and habits of life, prevent thew from removing to dry and desert places, are obliged to roll themselves in the mire, which, when dry, cases them as it were in armour, and enables them to withstand this winged assassin. Small and inconsIderable as he appear , the Tsaltsalya seems to have given law to the first settlement in the country. He absolutely debarred the inhabitants of the rich black soil from enjoying the assistance orally beasts of labour, and deprived them of the flesh and milk of cattle for food. Another nation w as thus introduced, who led a wandering life, and pre SCFN ed their herds and flocks by driving them to the sands of Atbara, till the di,appearance of this insect enabled them to bring them back.