skimming over the surface of the
waters without the couple ever separating from each other; if one flies
away, the other immediately follows; and that which dies first does not
leave its companion long in widowhood, for it is soon consumed by sorrow
and lonesomeness. Youen is the name of the male, Yang that of the
female: Youen-Yang their common denomination.

We remarked in Tartary another species of migratory bird, which offers
various peculiarities singular in themselves, and perhaps unknown to
naturalists. It is about the size of a quail; its eyes, of a brilliant
black, are encircled by a magnificent ring of azure; its body is of ash
colour, speckled with black; its legs, instead of feathers, are covered
with a sort of long, rough hair, like that of the musk-deer; its feet are
totally different from those of any other bird; they exactly resemble the
paws of the green lizard, and are covered with scales so hard as to
resist the edge of the sharpest knife. This singular creature,
therefore, partakes at once of the bird, of the quadruped, and of the
reptile. The Chinese call it Loung-Kio (Dragon's Foot). These birds
make their periodical appearance in vast numbers from the north,
especially after a great fall of snow. They fly with astonishing
swiftness, and the movement of their wings makes a loud, rattling noise,
like that of heavy hail.

While we had the charge, in Northern Mongolia, of the little christendom
of the Valley of Black Waters, one of our Christians, a skilful huntsman,
brought us two of these birds which he had caught alive. They were
excessively ferocious; no sooner was your hand extended to touch them,
than the hair on their legs bristled; and if you had the temerity to
stroke them, you instantly were assailed with vehement strokes of the
bill. The nature of these Dragon's Feet was evidently so wild as to
preclude the possibility of preserving them alive: they would touch
nothing we offered them. Perceiving, therefore, that they must soon die
of starvation, we determined to kill and eat them; their flesh was of
agreeable, pheasant-like savour, but terribly tough.

The Tartars might easily take any number of these migratory birds,
especially of the wild geese and ducks, the crowds of which are perfectly
prodigious; and take them, moreover, without the expenditure of a single
ounce of powder, by merely laying traps for them on the banks of the
pools, or by surprising them in the night, among