It hath four Toes two standing forwards two backwards after the manner or Parrots It cries with a loud voice in one tone yiiiiy in the middle more elevated They are frequent in all Woods but not good to eat THE SECOND PART OF THE FIRST BOOK Of Birds with streighter or less hooked Bills THE FIRST SECTION OF GREATER BIRDS CHAP. I. Birds with thick streight and large Bills THese either feed indifferently upon Insects and Fruit some of them also are carnivorous and rapacious being very greedy of dead Carkasses and Carrion or upon Insects only The first may be divided into such whose body is for the most part of one colour and that black which we call the Crow-kind Or such whose body is particoloured and who chatter much viz. the Pie-kind Of those which feed upon Insects only there is but one family to wit Wood-peckers Yet the Reader is to take notice that when we affirm Woodpeckers to feed only upon Insects we understand Woodpeckers properly and strictly so called For there are some birds which we have referred to this Genus of Woodpeckers largely taken which feed also upon fruit as for example the Nuthatch Wall-creeper c. CHAP. II. Birds of the Crow-kind §. I. The Raven called in Latine Corvus in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 THe Bird we described weighed two pounds and two ounces Its length from the tip of the Bill to the end of the Tail was two feet and one inch The distance between the extremities of the Wings extended was four feet and half an inch The Bill long thick sharp and very black The upper Chap something hooked but not so as in Hawks the lower streight The Tongue broad cleft at the tip rough and black underneath The Iris of the Eye or ring encircling the Pupil consists as it were of a double circle the exteriour being of a light cinereous or ash-colour the interiour of a dark cinereous Black hairs or bristles bending from the Head downwards cover the Nosthrils The Plumage is black all over the body having a blue splendour or gloss which is seen especially in the Tail and Wings The Belly is something paler inclining to brown On the middle of the Back grow only downy feathers For the Back is covered with those long feathers that spring from the shoulders as in many other birds The number of prime feathers in each Wing is twenty of which the first is shorter than the second the second than the third and that than the fourth which is the longest of all In all from the sixth to the eighteenth the shaft extends further than the Vanes and ends in a sharp point The Tail is about nine inches long made up of twelve feathers the exteriour being gradually somewhat shorter than the interiour It hath large crooked Claws especially those of the back-toes The outmost fore-toe is joyned to the middlemost from the divarication to the first joynt The Liver is divided into two Lobes It hath a large Gall sticking to the Guts The length of the Guts is forty three inches of the blind-guts one inch The Gullet below the Bill is dilated into a kind of bag wherein she brings meat to feed her Young The stomach within is wrinkled The Raven feeds not only upon Fruits and Insects but also upon the Carkasses of beasts birds and fishes moreover it sets upon kills and devours living birds after the manner of Hawks We have seen one or two milk-white Ravens Aldrovandus mentions divers and saith that they are often found in England But without doubt he was mistaken or misinformed for they are seldom seen among us insomuch that they are carried up and down to be shewn for money I rather think that they are found in those Mountainous or Northern Countries which are for the greatest part of the year covered with snow Where also many other Animals change their native colours and become white as Bears Foxes Hares Blackbirds c. whether it proceeds from the force of the imagination heightned by the constant intuition of Snow or from the cold of the Climate occasioning such a languishing of colour as we see in old Age when the natural heat decays the hair grows grey and at last white They say that a Raven may be reclaimed and trained up for fowling after the manner of a Hawk Ravens are found not only in one part or Region of the World but abound in all Countries Do easily bear all changes of weather fearing neither heat nor cold enduring well to abide and live where-ever there is plenty of meat for them And though they are said to love solitude yet do they very often live and build in the midst of the most populous Cities as Aldrovandus delivers and experience confirms They build in high Trees or old Towers in the beginning of March with us in England and sometimes sooner They lay four or five and sometimes six Eggs before they begin to sit Their Eggs are of a pale greenish blue full of black spots and lines What is reported by Hesiod and others of the Ancients of the long lives of Ravens is without doubt fabulous But that all Birds in general compared with Quadrupeds are long-lived we have already proved by divers examples in several kinds And that Ravens are in the number of the longest lived we will not deny §. II. The common or carrion Crow Cornix THe Cock which we described weighed twenty two ounces another but twenty It s length from the tip of the Bill to the end of the Feet was eighteen inches and an half to the end of the Tail about an inch more Its breadth between the extremities of the Wings spread two feet and two inches The Bill strong thick streight from the tip to the Angles of the Mouth two inches and almost an half long the lower Mandible being somewhat the shorter The Tongue cleft and as it were jagged or torn The Eyes great having Irides of a Hazel colour The Nosthrils round covered with black bristles reflected toward the end of the Bill The Plumage of the whole body is black only the ground or bottom of the feathers of a Lead or dark ash-colour The beam-feathers are in number twenty in each Wing whereof the first is shorter than the second the second than the third that than the fourth which is the longest of all being by measure ten inches three quarters The inner of these feathers end in sharp points The Tail was seven inches and an half long composed of twelve feathers of equal length The Legs and Feet black The Claws black and strong The outmost fore-toe is joyned to the middle one from the bottom as far as the first joynt The Liver divided into two Lobes of which the right is the greater It hath a large Gall which empties it self by a double channel into the Guts The Muscles of the stomach are
set or as it were granulated with very many papillary glandules out of which a mucilaginous juice is easily pressed This juice being by these glandules excerned into the stomach and there mingled with the meat serves for a Menstruum to macerate dissolve and change it into Chyle Most Birds have two blind guts or Appendices as they call them the Heron-kind have but one and the Woodpecker-kind none Among such as have two all carnivorous fowl and all that we call small birds have very small and short ones cloven-footed Water-fowl of a mean length whole-footed Water-fowl long ones and Poultry-kind the longest of all The Appendices in Birds have a contrary site to the blind guts in Quadrupeds For in Quadrupeds the blind gut seems to be nothing esse but the Colon continued or produced from the fundament upward making acute Angles with the gut called Ileum but in Birds the Appendices descend from the stomach downwards toward the Fundament making acute Angles with the gut called Rectum What the use of these Appendices or blind guts in Birds and beasts may be I confess my self not clearly as yet to understand In most Birds we have about the middle of the guts observed a certain small Appendix or blind gut like a little Worm which is nothing else but the remainder of that passage by which the Yolk is conveyed into the guts of the young chicken In some birds this is very conspicuous being of half an Inch or almost an Inches length In others it is much shorter and smaller and in some again it is wholly obliterated and disappears The use of this passage Mr. Nicolas Steno did first find out or at least first publish to the world the invention of It is true indeed it was known to us before we saw his Book I think we had the first notice of it from Dr. Walter Needham However the glory of the Invention is of right due to him who first communicated it to the world Aristotle Fabricius ab Aquapendente Dr. Harvey and others have observed a great part of the Yolk to remain in the Chickens belly after exclusion yet did they not know that it was by this passage as it were by a funnel conveyed into the guts but thought that by the mediation of capillary veins dispersed through it it was by degrees liquefied and received immediately into the bloud The outlet of the channel from the Gaul to the guts in most Birds is a great way distant from the stomach because say some they do not make water and so there is more fluid matter mingled with their Excrements For the use of the Gaul is partly to attenuate and make fluid the Excrements partly by its acrimony to stimulate thâ— guts and provoke Excretion But upon this account there should rather be less need of Gaul Birds therefore being now known to have large reins and to avoid Urine with their harder Excrements their Excrements also excepting those of the carnivorous kind being not very fluid considering the quantity of Urine mingled with them perchance the Gaul-channel may enter the gut at such distance from the stomach for no other reason than lest the Gaul should regurgitate into it In very many Birds the passage from the Gaul-bladder and the Porus bilarius do not concur in one common channel but penetrate the gut severally at a good distance the one from the other All Birds though they want a bladder for Urine yet have they largereins and ureters by which the Urine is carried away Birds saith Dr. Harvey and Serpents which have spungy lungs make but little store of water because they drink but little and that by sipping and some of them as Eagles not at all and therefore they have no need of a bladder but their Urine distils down into the common sewer or sink Cloaca designed also for receiving the Excrements of the belly and being therewith mingled both are cast out together This Urine of Birds differs from that of other Animals for whereas there are in Urine two parts one more serous and liquid the other more thick and gross which is called the sediment hypostasis and subsides or settles to the bottom when the Urine is cool Birds contrary to viviparous Animals have the greatest quantity of this thick part which is distinguished from the other by its white or silver colour and found not only in the common sink where it abounds and daubs or sinears over the exrements of the belly but in the whole channel of the Ureters which may be distinguished from the coats of the Kidneys by this whiteness Neither is this grosser matter descending from the reins to be seen in Birds alone but also in Serpents and other oviparous Animals especially those whose Egg is covered with a hard shell They have also greater plenty of this than of the more serous and thin part which is of a middle consistence between thick urine and dung so that passing through the Ureters it resembles milk curdled or lightly condensed and being cast forth easily congeales into a friable crust See more of this matter in Harvey De Generat Animal Exercit. 11. The Ancients taking it for granted that Birds make no Urine assigned this reason thereof That all the superfluous moisture was spent in nourishing the feathers All Birds that I have hitherto dissected have a double Pancreas which some call the Sweet-bread in Quadrupeds The stones of Cock-birds are deeply withdrawn within the cavity of the body being fastned to the back just beneath the Liver In the Spring time when they are full of Sperm they swell to twice or thrice the bigness they are of in the Winter In some whole-footed broad-billed birds and Divers the Windpipe ends in a kind of Vessel made up of bones and intermediate membranes being in divers birds of a different figure from which arise the two branches going to each side of the Lungs The bones give the figure and consistency to this Vessel as do the Ribs to the Breast and the annulary Cartilages to the Windpipe In some birds this Vessel is made up wholly of bone as in wild Ducks without any void spaces to be filled and closed up with membranes This Vessel from the windings of its internal Cavity we are wont to call a Labyrinth What the use thereof is whether to increase the force of the Voice or for a receptacle to contain Air which may serve them while they dive to enable them to continue longer under water or to perform both these offices or for neither of them we do not as yet certainly know That it doth not serve to intend the Voice may be gathered from that some Birds of this Tribe that want it have a shrill and vehement Voice And that it doth not conduce to diving may be inferred from that the Douckers Colymbi which of all birds dive most and continue longest under water want it Since the writing of
this we have been assured by an ingenious observer of what we did indeed suspect before but were not very confident of viz That these Vessels are proper only to the Cocks in the broad-billed or Duck-kind but in the Divers Mergi common to both sexes at least if we be not mistaken in our opinion of the difference of sex in those Birds what we take to differ only in sex differing specifically CHAP. III. Of the Generation of Birds ALL Birds are oviparous that is bring forth Eggs and not live Young This though it be common to Serpents Fishes and Insects yet in Birds the figure of the Eggs and the brittleness of the Shell and the distinction of White and Yolk and the manner of Incubation are peculiar The Eggs of all Birds if the exteriour bark be pilled off are white It is most probable that Hen-birds have within them from their first formation all the Eggs they shall afterward lay throughout their whole lifes time so that when their cluster of Eggs is wholly spent they cease breeding and become effete as Angelus Abbatius hath observed of Vipers For we our selves have found in Birds that breed only once or at most but twice in a year a lump of seed-eggs as I may call them enough to serve them for many years productions Seeing then it is certain that some birds do become effete with age and that all of them have at all times of the year a considerable mass of Eggs within their bodies I think we do not without reason thence infer that all the Eggs they shall ever lay are connate with them I am not ignorant that Dr. Harvey doth assert that though a Hen hath no seed-eggs within her yet after coition she will breed new ones But I think that Great Naturalist did not sufficiently consider or examine this matter and therefore he doth only touch it obliquely and by the by For he together with Fabricius doth confess that there are in the Ovaria of Hens and almost all other oviparous Animals an innumerable multitude of Eggs of divers growths from an almost invisible quantity to the consummate magnitude Now why should Nature prepare so great a stock of Yolks which as we said would suffice for many years births if she had given to females a faculty of generating new ones Neither is it true only of Birds but also of all female Quadrupeds yea and of women themselves that they have in them from the beginning the Eggs or seeds of all the conceptions they shall afterwards bring forth through their whole lives For those two bodies in Females that are wont to be called Testicles are nothing else but two Ovaria as will manifestly appear to any one that will but take the pains to dissect them made up of very many Eggs of different magnitude all which being either brought forth or by any means marred and corrupted that female ceases to bear neither doth there remain to her any further hope of generation The parts of an Egg are 1. The Shell which hardens in the very womb before the Egg be laid contrary to what Aristotle Pliny and Fabricius ab Aquapendente following them have delivered And this any one may with his fingers easily try in a Hen with egg ready to lay or if he dare not trust his fingers let him but open the Hens belly and his eyes will convince him of the truth of what we say But if any one wants either opportunity or will to make trial let him consult the eleventh Exercitation of Dr. Harveys Book of the Generation of Animals and he will there find it clearly demonstrated 2. Four membranes two exteriour which begirt and embrace the outer White one interiour which contains the Yolk and a fourth middlemost which encompasses the inner White 3. A twofold White which Dr. Harvey first observed in a Hens Egg both involved in their proper membranes the one thinner and more liquid the other thicker and more clammy and a little more inclining to whiteness in staler Eggs after some days incubation growing yellowish As this second White covers the Yolk round so that exteriour liquor encompasses it That both these Whites are distinct is even from hence manifest The outward bark or shell being taken away if you pierce both the subjacent membranes you shall see the exteriour liquid White forthwith flow out Then turning back the said membranes this way and that way into the Platter in which the Egg is supposed to lie the interiour and thicker White will still retain its place and globose figure viz. being terminated by its proper membrane which is so thin that it is altogether invisible to the eye This if you cut the second White will straitway run out and diffuse it self this way and that way and lose its round figure just as any liquor runs out of a bladder containing it when it is cut Then the proper membrane of the Yolk broken the Saffron-coloured liquor flows out and the former globosity subsides or sinks 4. The Yolk of which see Dr. Harveys Book of the Generation of Animals Exercit. 12. 5. Two Treddles one in the acute the other in the obtuse Angle The greater part of them is within the White yet do they stick fast to the Yolk being hung upon its membrane They are oblong bodies more concrete than the White and also whiter knotty and not without some brightness wherein they resemble Hail whence they took their name Chalazae For each Treddle consists as it were of many hail-stones joyned together by the White The one of these is greater and stretched out further from the Yolk towards the obtuse end of the Egg The other is less extended from the Yolk downwards toward the acute part The greater is made up of two or three knots as it were hailstones standing at a moderate distance one from the other the lesser in order succeeding the greater These Treddles are found in all the Eggs of all birds as well subventaneous as fecund Whence appears the common mistake of our Housewives who think that the Treddles Grandines are the Cocks Sperm and that the Chicken is formed of them This is a mistake not of old Women or common People only but also of great Physicians and Naturalists as Hieronymus Fabricius ab Aquapendente in his book of the Formation of the Egg and Chicken and Joannes Faber in his excellent Expositions of some Pictures of Mexican Animals of Recchus His words are these Which I long ago most diligently observed before I heard of Aquapendentes work to wit that the Chicken hath its first rise or original from the Treddle which the Italians call La Galladura the Germans most fitly Den vogel that is the bird because the bird is bred or formed of it This part is situate between the Yolk and the White in the likeness of a hailstone or pretty great oblong Pearl and is of a substance
round the World with falshood and lying because after his return from that long Voyage giving the first notice of this Bird to the Europaeans in the Diary of his travel he attributes to it slender Legs a Palm long For my part though hitherto I confess I have been in the same erroneous opinion with them in thinking these birds to be footless contrary to the sentence and judgment of Aristotle who affirms that no bird wants feet because those which I hapned to see both in my Spanish Voyage stopping two months at Lisbon and also in the Low Countries in the Cabinets of sundry persons delighted in such exotic things were all without feet and exenterated yet at that time to say the truth I was not at all curious in observing whether there were any difference between them But the last Voyages of the Hollanders into India have made me without difficulty to change my opinion it being certain that there have been some brought over entire and retaining still their legs and feet And by those who saw them I understood that their Legs were very like those of a Magpie but weaker and not so thick differing also in colour as not being black but tending to a Chesnut Notwithstanding I had a great desire my self to see them and if I could have got but one presently to have taken a draught thereof that I might expose it to the view of the Reader and confirm the truth and faithfulness of Pigafeta But they having been for their rarity presently bought up and carried away to Francfurt on the Main and one of them thence to the Emperour Rudolphus the second of that name his Majesty being as I hear greatly delighted in these kind of strange forein things and in the knowledge of all the wonders of nature I was frustrated of my hope But if it happens that there be any entire ones brought over and that I get seasonable notice of it I will do my endeavour to procure one at least to borrow it that I may set forth its figure to confute and extirpate the commonly received opinion or conceit that these birds want feet Howbeit the Mariners that brought these Birds though they went not to those Islands where the birds themselves breed and live yet were informed as I was assured by those of whom they bought them that they were all furnished with Feet and did both walk and fly like other Birds But that the Inhabitants so soon as they take them do exenterate them and cut off and cast away their Legs and then expose them to the Sun that they may dry the more readily and so dried either keep them to sell or fasten them to their Helmets instead of Plumes of feathers They added moreover that those birds lived in Woods and were wont to fly thirty or forty together in flocks accompanied with their King or Captain who always flies high above the rest and which seems to be fabulous if they be thirsty use to send out one of their company first to the water to make trial of it which if it receives no harm from drinking it then the whole flock fly thither and drink But if it returns sick or indisposed the rest avoid that water and fly away to seek out some other They further added that the Islanders were wont to taint and infect this water for to catch these Birds after this manner When they espy a flock of Birds they mark diligently whither they betake themselves and as soon as they see the bird that was sent out after it hath drank flown back again they presently cast poyson into that water which the whole flock coming to drink of is infected and becomes their prey Besides that these Birds were wont sometimes to be shot with Arrows And if their King happens to be killed and fall down the rest that are in that flock fall together with him and yield themselves to be taken as refusing to live after they have lost their King Furthermore they made two kinds of those Birds The one of the Greater which were more beautiful and the other of the Lesser which wereless beautiful Affirming that both kinds have their peculiar King and different in colour That the birds of the greater kind whose King is of an elegant and beautiful colour were found only in the Isle Aru or Arou for so that Vowel u is to be pronounced But that the Isles called Papuas nigh to the Island Gilolo did produce the birds of the lesser kind and that their King was less handsom covered with black feathers for bigness equal to a Starling and having some feathers like horse-hairs Perchance this black King may be the fourth Species set forth by Aldrovandus Those that sold these Birds being asked by the Mariners how they were called by the Inhabitants answered Boëres that is Birds For so they called all Birds neither did they know how to distinguish them by peculiar names Now having seen a very elegant Bird of the greater sort and bigger also than the rest of this kind in the house of the famous Peter Paroias Doctor of Physick and primary Professor in the University of Leyden I took care to get the figure thereof cut that I might set it forth subjoyning a short History as faithfully taken as I could which should by right have taken up the first place in the fifth Book of Exotics But seeing the six first Books are already printed off I thought fit to insert it with some other things I afterward got into this Auctarium §. IX * A Bird of Paradise of the greater sort Clus THe bulk of the body of this bird came near for bigness to that of a Swallow From the top of the Head to the Rump it scarce exceeded five inches length The Crown from the Bill to the Eyes and Neck was covered with very thick-set short little feathers resembling filaments or thrums of Silk their upper parts or ends being of a yellow colour the lower where they are inserted into the skin dusky The under-part of the Head next to the lower Chap of the Bill was very thick-set with thrums rather than feathers being very short and like to Velvet of a deep black from the Eyes as far as the Throat The Throat as low down as the Breast was adorned with the like feathers or rather silken thrums and those of a deep green so beautiful and shining that there cannot more elegant ones be seen in the Neck of the wild Drake or Mallard The feathers covering the Breast were also exceeding fine and small but longer and very soft of a black colour inclining to red so that they seemed to be nothing but ends of Silk The Bill was but small and sharp-pointed an inch and half long black in the part next the Head the top being somewhat whitish In the Head also near the Bill appeared very small footsteps of Eyes The Back Belly and Tail-feathers were of a ferrugineous or dusky red colour The Tail it self
but a certain skinny rough matter It hath a handsom Tail two inches long which it can spread wide to the end whereof the Wings reach In all the lower part of the body the feathers are mixt white and black as in a Sparrow-Hawk In the Head Back Wings and Tail they are black white being interspersed with a grateful variety and something also of yellow mingled with the white In a word it is black and speckled here and there with white There is also found another Species of this of the same colour and make with this but as big as an Owl The mouth opened will easily admit a mans fist §. III. * Marggravius his Brasilian Guira querea approaching to the Goat-sucker or Swift IT is of the bigness of a Lark but because it hath long Wings and a Tail much longer it seems greater It hath a broad flat and pretty great Head great black Eyes A small triangular compressed Bill the upper Chap being hooked A wide Mouth much wider than the Bill and which being opened represents a Triangle At each end of the upper Mandible on both sides for the length of an inch in either it hath about ten or twelve thick bristles like Swines stretched forth both forward and sideways It s body is not long but almost round Each foot hath four Toes standing after the usual manner the middle whereof is longer than the rest and furnished with a Claw finely serrate or toothed like a Comb. All the Claws are black It hath long Wings viz. half a foot The Tail eight inches long having in the outsides two feathers longer than the rest The whole Bird is of a dusky ash-colour with dark yellow or whitish spots intermingled after the manner of a Sparrow-Hawk Round the Neck behind the Head it hath a ring of a dark golden colour The Legs are cinereous or dusky The Toes connected by a little skin not so broad as in Ducks for it is no water-fowl This latter Bird doth more resemble a Swallow than a Goat-sucker The former also is not unlike the Hirundo apus or Swift Indeed the Goat-sucker and Swift agree in many particulars as the smalness of the Bill the wideness of the Mouth the shortness of the Legs and situation of the Toes BOOK I. PART I. SECT III. Of Frugivorous Hook-bill'd Birds or Parrots CHAP. I. Of Parrots in general THe Parrot hath a great Head a hard Beak and Skull But why Nature gave it a hooked Bill whereas it is rather a Frugivorous than a Carnivorous or Rapacious Bird Aldrovandus gives this reason Because for the weakness of the Feet descending or climbing up boughs or grates it could not commodiously sustain the weight of its body were not the Bill of that crooked semicircular figure that it can as it were with a hook or grapple catch hold of whatever is near For the Parrot in climbing Walls or Trees first catches hold with her Bill as it were with a Hook then draws up her body then fastens her Feet then reaching up higher claps on her Beak again and so puts forward her body and feet alternately The Parrot alone with the Crocodile moves the upper Jaw as all other Animals do the lower The Tongue is broad which is common to it with other Rapacious birds of the figure of a Gourd-seed as Scaliger notes Hence it is called in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both because its Tongue resembles a mans and also because it imitates humane speech The Feet are of a singular fashion for they have not three Toes standing forward and one backward but two each way like Woodpeckers Jo. Faber in his Expositions of Nardi Antonio Recchi his Animals found in New Spain hath noted and observed concerning the Toes of Parrots something not mentioned by any Author viz. That when they walk climb up or descend down the sides of their Cages they stretch two of their Toes forward and two backward but when they take their meat and bring it to their mouths they make use of three Toes to hold it till they have eaten it up Yea which may seem wonderful they do so dexterously and nimbly turn the greater hind-toe forward and backward that on sight of it you would confess your self not to know whether it were given them by Nature to be used as a fore-toe in feeding or a back-toe in walking So that it seems in this respect they resemble Owls It hath crooked Claws wherewith it holds its meat like Rapacious birds and brings it to its mouth after the manner of men For taking it in its Toes it lifts it up to its mouth not turning the foot inward but outward after a fashion not only usual and ridiculous but one would think also incommodious It doth not only first of all with its Bill as it were with Teeth break or divide entire Almonds but rolling them up and down within the Cavity of its Bill doth as it were champ and chew them softning them before it swallows them Parrots while they are yet wild and at liberty do eat all sorts of grain and pulse And this is peculiarly observed of them above other creatures that as Swallows feed upon Hellebore and Starlings upon Hemlock so do they upon the seed of Bastard Saffron which to man is a purgative not only without receiving harm thereby but growing fat with it Moreover they eat all sorts of fruits as well such as are covered with a soft rind as those with a hard shell viz. Nuts c. and are greatly delighted in them They do not only imitate mans voice but in wit excell all other birds as Aldrovandus proves by many Histories and examples I shall not think much to set down one very pleasant story which Gesner saith was told him by a certain friend of a Parrot which fell out of King Henry VIII his Palace at Westminster into the River of Thames that runs by and then very seasonably remembring the words it had often heard some whether in danger or in jest use cried out amain A Boat a Boat for twenty pound A certain experienced Boatman made thither presently took up the Bird and restored it to the King to whom he knew it belonged hoping for as great a reward as the Bird had promised The King agreed with the Boatman that he should have as the Bird being asked anew should say And the Bird answers Give the Knave a Groat They are very frequent in both Indies as well East as West They breed not in cold Countries for they are impatient of cold so that they can hardly bear our Winters unless they be kept in Stoves or hot places And whereas in their own Country to wit the Indies they are much upon the Wing with us by reason of the inclemency and sharpness of the Air they grow torpid and unactive and less fit for flight They are said to be very long-lived They breed in hollow trees witness Marggravius Lerius and Piso where they make a round hole
outwardly and lay two or three Eggs like to Pigeons without any made Nest as Marggravius saith Lerius affirms that they do build Nests sufficiently firm and hard of a round orbicular figure Whence it is manifest that they do not hang their Nests upon the slender twigs of Trees as Cadamustus and others have delivered For that bird which hangs its Nest on this fashion called by the Brasilians Guira tangeima as Marggravius writes is much different from the Parrot Though you touch her Eggs yet will not the Parrot forsake them but hatch them notwithstanding Parrots are made of several colours by the Tapuyae by plucking them when they are young and then staining their skins with divers colours These the Portugues call counterfeit Parrots Which thing if it be true for to me indeed it seems not probable it is to no purpose to distinguish Parrots by the diversity of colour sith therein they may vary infinitely In all Parrots that I have hitherto observed the Nosthrils were round situate in the upper part of the upper Chap close by the feathers and very near one to another Parrots in respect of bigness may be divided into three kinds viz. the greatest mean-sized and least The greatest are equal in bigness to our common Raven or as Aldrovandus saith to a well-fed Capon and have long Tails In English they are called Macaos and Cockatoons The middle or meansized and most common Parrots are as big or bigger than a Pigeon have short Tails and are called in English Parrots and Poppinjayes The least are of the bulk of a Blackbird or a Lark have very long Tails and are called in English Parakeetos CHAP. II. Of the greatest sort of Parrots called Maccaws and Cockatoons §. I. * Aldrovandus his greatest blue and yellow Maccaw THe body of this equals a well-fed Capons From the tip of the Bill to the end of the Tail it was two Cubits long The Bill hooked and in that measure that it made an exact semicircle being outwardly conformed into the perfect roundness of half a ring a full Palm long and where it begins as thick within half an inch if you measure both Mandibles The upper Mandible is almost two inches longer than the nether which on the lower side downward is convex and round The whole Bill is black The Eyes white and black Three black lines drawn from the Bill to the beginning of the Neck representing the figure of the letter S lying compass the eyes underneath The Crown of the Head is flat and of a green colour The Throat adorned with a kind of black ring The Breast Belly Thighs Rump and Tail underneath all of a Saffron colour The Neck above Back Wings and upper side of the Tail of a very pleasant blue or azure The Tail eighteen inches long more or less The Legs very short thick and of a dusky or dark colour as are also the Feet the Toes long armed with great crooked black Talons §. II. * The other Maccaw or Macao of Aldrovandus THis is nothing less than the foregoing of the same length but seemed not to be so thick-bodied It s Bill is shorter than the precedents being not drawn out into so long a hook yet almost three inches long and as many broad where it is joyned to the head the upper Chap being white the nether black The region of the Eyes and the Temples are white The crown of the Head more than a Palm long and flat The Back beginning of the Wings Throat Breast Belly Thighs and finally the whole Tail above are beautified with a most lovely Scarlet or red colour as is also the inner side of the flag-feathers of the Wings The second row of the covert Wing-feathers are yellow with scarlet edges each adorned with a kind of eye of blue near the tip The outer surface of the flag-feathers and the Rump I suppose he means the Tail underneath tinctured with a deep blue The Legs are short the Feet divided into long Toes armed with crooked Claws Both of a duskish or dark ash-colour §. III. A Maccaw described at London the same I suppose with the precedent called by Marggrav Araracanga AT London we observed and described a certain Macao either the same with the precedent I mean in kind or very like it It was of the same bigness had a huge Bill the upper Mandible being almost wholly white the lower black The skin about the Eyes was bare of feathers and rough or rugged The whole head Breast and Belly red like minium The Wings and Tail parti-coloured of red yellow and blue The Tail of a great length especially the two middlemost feathers which do much exceed the rest and are of a blue colour I take that which Marggravius describes Book 5. Chap. 9. to be the same with this Let the Reader compare the descriptions His runs thus It is bigger than our common Raven Hath a great Head broad and flat above fair * grey Eyes * Coesius with a black Pupil A white Membrane encompasses the Eyes as also the Jaws and lower Bill I suppose he means that the skin thereabouts is white and bare of feathers This under the Eyes is produced in a semilunar form The Bill is great hooked white above black underneath It hath a Tongue like a Parrot and eats after the same manner It learns also to pronounce some words The upper Chap of the Bill is about three inches long broad or deep It hath black Legs and Feet like a Parrot The whole Head Neck Breast Belly Thighs and Tail underneath as also the beginning of the Wings above are cloathed with most lovely and elegant red feathers The middle part of the Wings is adorned with green and the lower half of them from the middle to the end with blue The Rump or lower part of the Back and the Tail are blue some brown feathers being also intermingled The Tail is about ten inches long running out much beyond the ends of the Wings §. IV. * The Macao called Ararauna by the Brasilians Marggrav the same with Aldrov his first IT is in shape like the precedent but of a different colour It s Bill black Eyes grey Pupil black The skin about the Eyes white variegated with black as if it were wrought with a Needle The Legs and Feet dusky fusca The forepart of the Head above the Bill hath a copple or tuft of green feathers Under the lower Bill black feathers compass the Throat The sides of the Neck the whole Breast and lower Belly are covered with yellow feathers The hinder or extreme part of the Head the backside of the Neck the whole Back and outsides of the Wings with blue The ends of the Wings have yellow feathers mingled with the blue The Tail consists of long blue feathers wherewith some yellow ones are mingled The inner or underside of all the blue feathers in general is black These feathers do also cast a shew of blackness from their sides Upon
the Peacock kind saith Aldrovandus To me it seems to be more like the Peacock than the common Cock in its bigness and stature or tallness in the manner of carrying its Tail but especially of setting it up and spreading it as if both it self admired it and took pride in shewing it to others That these birds were the Meleagrides of the Ancients as also their Gallinae Africanae Numidicae guttatae Aldrovandus takes much pains to prove In English they are called Turkeys because they are thought to have been first brought to us out of Turkey Turkeys love hot Countries yet they can bear cold ones well enough after they are grown up and have been used to them But their young Chickens are very nesh and tender and not to be reared without great care and attendance Their flesh is very white and delicate a dish becoming a Princes feast saith Aldrovandus if it be well concocted yielding a plentiful and firm nourishment of the same taste and quality with that of a Peacock and as difficult to concoct unless its hardness be before by some means corrected This is to be understood of old and well grown Turkeys for Turkey-pouts and young Turkeys are tender enough and of easie concoction The antipathy this Fowl hath against a red colour so as to be much moved and provoked at the sight thereof is very strange and admirable §. IV. The Brasilian Mitu or Mutu of Marggrave THis Bird saith Marggrave is of the Pheasant kind the Spaniards also as Nierembergius tells us call it a Pheasant But we partly for its bigness partly for its colour partly also for its gentle nature easily becoming tame but chiefly for that it spreads its Tail in like manner circularly think that it ought rather to be ranked with the Peacock and Turkey to which we have therefore subjoyned it It is bigger than the common Cock or Hen. The length of its body from the Neck to the rise of the Tail is ten inches The length of the Neck six inches It is all over covered with black feathers except on the Belly and under the Tail whereit is of a brown colour almost like that of a Partridge The feathers on the Head Neck and Breast are finer than the rest and for softness and beauty comparable to black Velvet On the top of the Head it hath black feathers complicated into a very low and flat cop which one that carelesly beheld the Bird would scarce take notice of but when it is angry or on other occasions it can erect them into a conspicuous crest It hath a remarkable Bill not thick crooked about an inch and half long The lower Chap is small the upper almost four times bigger The Bill is of a very bright carnation colour but toward the tip white Its Legs are like a Hens ten inches long to wit four from the Feet to the Knees and six above them where they are covered with black feathers It hath also four Toes like a Hens which from their rise to the first joynt are connected by an intervenient skin as in some other birds It hath a Tail a foot long like a Turkeys which it always moves in breadth crying Kit Kit like them A well-shaped Head like a Gooses a Neck about six inches long as was before said Brave great black Eyes and behind the Ears a white naked spot like a Hen. It is easily made tame it roosts willingly on high upon trees like Turkeys Finally it hath very good and savoury flesh The Pauxi of Nieremberg the Indian Hen of Aldrovandus lib. 4. cap. 12. a variety of the Mitu It was saith Nieremberg out of Fr. Hernandus of the bigness of a Dunghil-Cock or something bigger Its feathers were of a black colour but shining and almost like a Peacocks Its Bill red crooked and like a Parrots c. What was most remarkable in and peculiar to this Bird was a certain tumour fastened to the root of its Bill where it was more slender of the shape of a Pear of the hardness of a stone and of a blue colour like that of the stone called Cyaneus or the Turcois Aldrovandus describes his Indian Hen from a Picture as I suppose in this wise From the Bill to the end of the Tail which was white and striped with black lines it was black which blackness yet did every where incline to blue The vent and beginning of the Tail underneath were white It s Bill was strong crooked and red Its Legs were almost of the same colour but much paler and in their hind part inclining to blue The Claws were black It carried on its forehead a great protuberance of the shape of a Fig and of a bluish colour The Tail was long not erect as in our common Cocks and Hens but extended in length as in a Pie These birds differ not from the Mitu in any thing almost but that protuberance or excrescence at the beginning of the Bill Nierembergius also makes mention of this variety in his tenth Book Chap. 75. The Pauxi saith he for so he there calls this Bird hath a great head which in some is plain or smooth in others crested in others instead of a crest of feathers arises a stone or globular body a stone they call it though it be not over-hard like an Egg or bigger of the colour of Soder I wonder that Marggrave should make no mention of this bunch Surely it was wanting in all the birds he saw Whether this Bird be a Species distinct from the Mitu or only accidentally different we refer to further inquisition §. V. The other Indian Cock of Aldrovandus Mituporanga of Marggravius Tepetototl of Nierembergius THere is also found saith Marggrave another kind of this Bird which the Brasilians call Mituporanga differing only in the Bill and feathers of the Head This kind hath no long Bill but an indifferently thick one yet not so high as the Mitu nor so crooked The tip of both Chaps is black all the rest of the Bill covered with a Saffron-coloured skin the like whereto it hath also about the Eyes It hath goodly black Eyes The Head and Neck covered with feathers of a deep black like Velvet On the top of the Head it hath curled feathers twisted or turning up spirally as far as the beginning of the Neck which it can erect in the manner of a curled or frisled crest All the rest of the Bird is black wherewith is here and there mingled a gloss of green About the vent it hath white feathers The Legs are cinereous and of the figure of the Mitu's The Tail black but the extremities of its feathers white This Bird also easily becomes very tame and familiar Of this Bird Nierembergius writes thus The fawning and familiarity of Dogs doth not exceed the officiousness of the Tepetototl or Mountain Bird which others call Tecuecholi and the Spaniards Natives of America a Pheasant which is very tame and domestic It
are of an ash-colour on the sides ferrugineous near the shafts adorned with black spots in the longest feathers in both Webs opposite one to another in the lesser in one Web only or if there be any mark in the interiour Web it is more obscure and scarce observable The Wings closed are nine inches long spread eighteen inches broad The Wing-feathers that are next the body are variegated with the same colours as those on the middle of the Back The subsequent are liker those on the lower part of the Back Yet the ridges of the Wings resemble those of the common Partridge whose colour the prime feathers or quils of the Wings do almost exactly represent viz. being of a dusky ash-colour and all over spotted with whitish spots The Breast and Belly whereabout the Gizzard lies and that part thereof which the Wings cover glister with the same colours wherewith the Neck is beautified but more obscure and the feathers here are much bigger Near the vent and on the Thighs it is of a dark ferrugineous The Legs Feet Toes and Claws are of a horn colour yet the Toes and Claws are darker than the Legs A thick membrane and perchance not unfit for swimming connects the Toes The like whereto that I know of is not found in any other pulveratricious bird The Legs are armed with Spurs shorter than in a Cock but sharp and of a black colour The Hen is nothing so beautiful as the Cock almost of the colour of a Quail It lives in the Woods and feeds upon Acorns Berries Grain and Seeds of Plants It frequents rather Coppice Woods than where there are only Timber-trees The Books of all Writers of Animals Ancient and Modern celebrate the Pheasant for the goodness of its flesh assigning to it the first place among birds at Table Physicians make it the standard wherewith they compare and accordingly judge of the temperament and goodness of other meats saith Longolins as he is cited by Aldrov Aldrovandus by many arguments proves that Pheasants are better meat than Pullen which who desires to know may consult him in the Thirteenth Book and Fifth Chapter of his Ornithology At last he thus concludes Pheasants therefore as well because they are rare as because they are of a most delicate taste and yield so excellent a nourishment as we have proved seem to be born only for great mens Tables and have been always had in highest esteem of all Birds Pheasants Partridges Quails and some other Birds are taken in great numbers with a Net they call commonly Expegatorium by the help of a Setting-dog trained up for this sport who finds out the birds and when he sees them either stands still or lies down on his belly not going very near them least he should spring them but looking back on the Fowler his Master wags his Tail by which the Fowler knows that the Birds are near the Dog and so he and his Companion run with the Net and cover both Birds and Dog That all Birds but particularly Pheasants Partridge and Quails are far more savoury and delicate when killed by a Hawk than if they be caught in snares or by any other fraud many have written and most think And indeed there is no doubt but by this means their flesh becomes more short and tender For that violent motion of the bloud occasioned by their flight and its fervent heat consequent thereupon macerates the flesh and disposes it to corruption but that it thence becomes more savoury and delicate all men now-adays are not agreed But the old rule forbids me to dispute about tastes Boterus reports that Ireland wants Pheasants and Partridges §. II. The Brasilian Jacupema of Marggrave IT is a sort of Pheasant something less than a Pullet It s Head is not great like a Hens as is also the Bill The Eyes are black the Neck about seven inches long The length of the body from the bottom of the Neck to the rise of the Tail about nine inches Of the Tail which is broad a whole foot The Legs are long which he divides into upper and lower the upper five inches long the lower three or a little more In each Foot four Toes like those of Hens of which the middle of the three foremost is two inches long The whole bird is clothed with black feathers with which something of brown is mixed The feathers of its Head it can erect in form of a Crest and those black feathers I suppose he means those on the Head which make the Tuft or Crest are encompassed with other white ones The Throat under the Head and for an inch and half down the Neck is bare of feathers and covered with a red skin The whole Neck below is variegated with white feathers dispersed among the black ones as also all the lower Belly and the hindmost half of the Wings The upper Legs and the Tail are wholly black without the admixture of any brown The lower Legs and Feet are of an elegant red colour They are made tame and their flesh is good This bird took its name from its voice for it cries Jacu Jacu Jacu This might as well have been ranked among the Domestic birds §. III. The common Partridge Perdix cinerea THe Cock weighed fourteen ounces and a quarter the Hen thirteen and an half The length of the Cock from the Bill to the Claws was fourteen inches and a quarter to the end of the Tail twelve and three quarters The Bill from the tip to the corners of the aperture of slit of the mouth three quarters of an Inch to the Eyes an inch The breadth was twenty inches The Bill in young Partridges is of a dusky colour but in old ones it grows white The Irides of the Eyes are a little yellowish Under the Eyes are certain red excrescencies The Chin and sides of the Head are of a deep yellow or Saffron-colour The Cock hath on his Breast a red mark of a semicircular figure resembling a Horse-shooe The Hen hath not so much red on her Breast Below the Chin as far as the Horse-shooe mark it is of a blue cinereous adorned with transverse black lines Beneath the mark the colour fades into dirty or yellowish cinereous The longer feathers on the sides of the Breast and Belly have each of them a great transverse red spot their shafts being white The upper side of the body is particoloured of red cinereous and black This Naturalists call a testaceous or potsheard colour The Prime feathers in each Wing are about twenty three in number of which the foremost are dusky with transverse yellowish white spots The longest feather is five inches and a quarter The interiour covert-feathers of the Wings and the long feathers springing from the shoulders have their shafts of a yellowish white The Tail is composed of no less than eighteen feathers and is in length three inches and an half The four middle feathers are of the same colour with the rest of