Rudolf Erich Raspe: Gulliver revived, London 1786 (R5)

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After thirty-eight days journey we arrived on the opposite side to that on which we landed; here we found some blue mould, as cheese-eaters call it, from whence sprung all kinds of rich fruit; instead of breeding mites, it produced peaches, nectarines, apricots, and a thousand delicious fruits which we are not acquainted with. In these trees, which are of an amazing size, were plenty of birds nests; amongst others was a king-fisherʼs of prodigious magnitude; it was at least five times the circumference of the dome of St. Paulʼs Church in London; upon inspection, this nest was made of huge trees, curiously joined together; there were at least, let me see, (for I make it a rule always to speak within compass,) there were at least five hundred eggs in the nest, and each of them was as large as a common hogsheads or two barrels, and we could not only see, but hear the young ones chirping within. Having, with great fatigue, cut open one of these eggs, we let out a young one unfathered, considerably larger than twenty full-grown vultures. Just as we had given this youngster his liberty, the old king-fisher lighted, and seizing our Captain in one of her claws, flew with him above a mile high, beating him violently with her wings, and then let him drop into the sea.

R5, S. 192-194.

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