Jethou; or, Crusoe Life in the Channel Isles — John Shaqi
Jethou; or, Crusoe Life in the Channel IslesSuffling, Ernest R. (Ernest Richard)
General
Jethou; or, Crusoe Life in the Channel Isles
Suffling, Ernest R. (Ernest Richard)
Channel Islands; Jethou
"Begum" and "Flap" were fast friends, and the dog would allow the bird
to take many liberties with him, such as taking quietly some pretty
sharp pecks if he attempted to eat a bit of "Flap's" food; but on the
other hand, "Flap" would take "Begum's" food from under his very nose
without a protest of any kind from the dog, except a look out of the
corner of his eye, as if he thought "What impudence!"
I found sea fowl of all kinds to be very tenacious of life, especially
the common large gull. One case of this occurs to me as I write. I fired
at a gull and brought it down on the rocks; but it was only winged, and
picking it up, I wrung its neck, and flung it down, thinking it was
dead, but in a couple of minutes it gave such signs of returning
animation that I put the butt of my gun on its neck, which was upon the
hard pathway, and pressed with all my might. But the thing would _not_
die, so I got cross with both it and myself, with the bird for not dying
and myself for causing it so much unnecessary pain. Thinking to kill the
bird instantaneously, I took out my penknife, and ran it (or supposed I
was in the right spot) quite through the brain, so that the blade
projected half an inch on the other side. Just then some more gulls came
within shot, and I threw the bird on the ground, and made an onslaught
on the others. I dropped one, and scrambled down the cliffs for it, and
at length having secured it, climbed laboriously up the steep rocks
again. Judge of my surprise when, purring and blowing from my exertions,
just as my head rose above the ledge of the pathway where I had left the
transfixed bird, I saw it rise to its feet, give a loud Quah! and before
I could prevent it, away it went, half flying and flopping, half running
and scrambling, with my knife still in its skull, and was quickly out of
sight.
The different kinds of gulls visiting Jethou are very numerous, and some
of them very pretty. One of the finest being the swift sea swallow, with
its lovely grey feathers, forked tail, and long graceful wings. Another
is the sea-pie, a very shapely black and white gull, which makes a noise
quite peculiar to itself when hunting among the rocky inlets for its
food, thus betraying its presence.
Whenever I killed a bird of which I did not know the name, I would
fasten it up to some sticks in as life-like manner as possible, and make
a water colour drawing of it, taking great care to shew every detail, so
that in time I had over thirty drawings, each of which took me half a
day to execute. These are now in the writer's possession, and form a
pretty memento of his Crusoe days.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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