The birds have a very healthy appearance, and feed well upon paddy; and on some maize being given to them some time afterwards, they refused it, preferring the former grain. After this accident occurring to their cage, to prevent a recurrence, they were removed into an empty and spacious turkey-coop, which, from its construction, shelter them very well from the weather. On the 15th of January, I had the misfortune to lose one of the birds: they had all the semblance of being in excellent health on the evening previously; but when the decks were washing, one was seen to run about the cage two or three times, and then fell dead. This bird, I had observed when it first came on board, had a film over one of the eyes, (which diseased eye has been preserved in spirits,) but it did not appear at all to affect its general health.[80] From the very sudden death of the bird, I felt some degree of interest, in examining the body, to ascertain the cause of so sudden a mortality; fearing that the other birds might be affected in a similar manner, and thus all my hopes of taking them to England in a living state would be frustrated. On taking the dead bird from the cage, a quantity of gruelly liquid was discharged gradually from the bill: there were no external appearances to account for the death of the creature: the plumage was rubbed in some places; the wing and tail feathers were broken, but not more than may be expected from birds in a state of confinement, although they had an abundance of space in their coop to roam about. On examining the interior of the bird, the appearances of disease that presented themselves were sufficiently clear to account for its death: the skin, considering the size of the body, was very thin; but this I believe to be invariably the case in the pigeon tribe: the bird was very muscular; but the pectoral more particularly, as well as also the other muscles, were extremely pallid, and could be readily torn asunder, having a closer resemblance to the muscles of a fish than to those of the feathered tribe. On examining the crop, I observed that it was, both in its external as well as its internal appearance, very vascular: it was nearly empty of food, having only a few grains of paddy mingled with some quantity of mucus; some scattered grains of paddy were also seen in the mouth and gullet, so it appears the bird had died whilst in the act of feeding. There was much yellowish fat about the crop, as well as other portions of the body. Between the skull and the integuments, there was much secretion of a serous fluid; but I could observe no muscular apparatus for raising or depressing the crest. But underneath the crest, between the skull and the integuments, was much fat; a thickening, as if of cellular membrane; and glands secreting the elegant and delicate feathers forming the crest.