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somersets, they remain motionless, and allow themselves to be quietly taken.

J. What droll little things! I wonder, uncle, that you did not bring some of them home with you.

U. O. You would have been disappointed in them if I had; for they are generally stupid and sleepy by day, although very active at night. Besides, their disposition to gnaw everything renders it difficult to keep them in a state of confinement, I should be afraid to have them in a ship, lest they should eat a hole through its side, They can only be kept in cages, or in boxes well lined with tin and strongly secured.

So much, then, for the Quadrupeds of Persia, We have yet the birds, the insects, the reptiles, and the plants to attend to; but it is time to leave off for the present. So, Henry, please to put away the drawings in the portfolio; you, Frank, put away the books in their places; and you, Jane, roll up the map.

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249

CHAPTER XIV.

BIRDS.

Uncle Oliver. Now, then, we come to the Birds of Persia; but as they are in general the same as those which frequent other countries in the same latitudes, I shall only have to mention a few particulars which are not so usual in other countries, or which are otherwise remarkable. The Persians have all our domestic fowl, except turkeys.

Jane. But is not Turkey next to Persia?
U. O. Certainly.

J. Then I wonder there are no turkeys there.
U. O. I see no wonder in it.

Frank. Sir, she means

J. Thank you, Frank; but I can say what I mean for myself. I mean that because turkeys come from Turkey, and because there must be plenty of them there, I wonder there are none in the next country.

U. O. But turkeys do not come from Turkey; and though there are some in that country, they are not very common. Turkeys come from

America; how they came to be called "turkeys" I cannot tell; but I suppose that when they were first seen in this country, it was not exactly known from whence they came, and that the present name was given to them because in those times it was usual to conclude that everything rare and curious came from Turkey, unless it were clearly known from whence it did come. Now that you bring it to my mind, I will tell you a pleasant little story, which I have read in the book called "Sketches of Persia," and which will show you how entirely ignorant the Persians are that there is such a bird as a turkey in existence.

When two English gentlemen, who were on their way to the city of Shiraz, arrived at the town of Kazeroon, they heard such a strange account of two remarkable creatures that were to be seen at a village fifteen miles distant, that they determined to go and see them. In answer to their questions about these creatures, one man said, "They are very like birds, for they have feathers and two legs; but then their head is bare and has a fleshy look, and one of them has a long black beard on its breast." But the chief point on which they dwelt was the strangeness of their voice, which was altogether

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