half an inch The Irides of the Eyes yellow The skin of the sides of the Head round the Eyes is bare and of an ash-colour The Legs very short and black A ring of green feathers compasses the legs above the knees We saw this at London in the shop of a certain trades-man who told us that it was brought out of the East-Indies CHAP. V. * Clusius his Discourse and Account of Parrots THe Noble Philip Marnixius of St. Aldegond had a Parrot whom I have oft heard laugh like a man when he was by the by-standers bidden so to do in the French Tongue in these words Riez Perroquet riez that is Laugh Parrot laugh Yea which was more wonderful it would presently add in the French Tongue as if it had been endued with reason but doubtless so taught O le grand sot qui me faict rire that is O great fool who makes me laugh And was wont to repeat those words twice or thrice But among others I saw one of those great ones in the house of the illustrious Lady Mary of Bremeu Dutchess of Croy and Areschot of happy memory before she went out of Holland the like whereto for variety and elegancy of colours I do not remember to have ever seen For though almost all the feathers covering the body were red yet the feathers of the Tail which were very long were partly red and partly blue but those on the Back and Wings particoloured of yellow red and green with a mixture also of blue It s Head about the Eyes was white and varied with waved black lines like the Head of the Canida I do not remember the like Parrot described in any Author Moreover this Bird was so in love with Anna the Dutchesses Neece now Countess of Meghen and Baroness of Grosbeke that where ever she walked about the Room it would follow her and if it saw any one touch her cloaths would strike at him with its Bill so that it seemed to be possessed with a spirit of jealousie That Parrot of the greater kind called by the Brasilians Arat as Lerius writes must needs also be a very handsom one For he saith that the prime feathers of the Wings and Tail which are a foot and half long are half Scarlet-coloured half of an elegant blue the shaft or Nerve which cuts the feather through the middle long-ways distinguishing those colours that is each feather being on one side the shaft blue on the other side red but that the rest of the feathers of the whole body are altogether blue He adds that both those sorts of greater Parrots viz. Arat and Canide were in great esteem among the Brasilians because they pluckt their feathers three or four times a year to make Clothes Caps Bucklers and Curtains And though they are not kept tame yet are they wont more to frequent and abide in great trees in the middle of the Villages than in Woods Besides those two huge ones the same Lerius reports that there are found three or four sorts of Parrots among the Brasilians The first of those great and thick-bodied ones which the Tououpinamboutii a people of Brasil call Aicurous having its head adorned with feathers particoloured of yellow red and violet the ends of the Wings of a lovely red and the feathers of the Tail long and yellow the rest of the body being wholly green That this kind is seldom transported into forein Countries and yet there is none that may more easily and perfectly be taught to speak He adds further that a certain Brasilian woman living in a Village two miles distant from the Island in which he with other Frenchmen dwelt had a Parrot of this kind which she made much of which seemed to be endued with that understanding and reason that it could discern and comprehend whatever she said who brought it up For saith he walking forth sometimes to refresh our selves as far as that Village when we passed by that womans house she was wont to call upon us in these words Will you give me a Comb or a Looking-glass and I will presently make my Parrot sing and dance before you If we agreed to her request as soon as she had pronounced some words to the Bird it began not only to leap upon the Perch on which it stood but also to talk and whistle and imitate the shoutings and exclamations of the Brasilians when they prepare themselves for the battel In brief when it came into its Dames mind to bid it sing it sang to bid it leap it leapt But if taking it ill that she had not obtained what she asked she said to the bird Auge that is be still or silent It stood still and held its peace neither could we by any means provoke it to move either foot or tongue The second kind is called by the Brasilians Marganas and is like those Parrots that are wont to be brought into Europe of no great account among them by reason of their multitude or abundance they being not less frequent there than Pigeons with us The third sort of Parrots called by them Tovis are not greater than a Starling and have their whole body covered with feathers of a deep green But the feathers of the Tail which are very long have a mixture of yellow He added further that he had observed that the Parrots of that Country did not build Nests hanging down on the boughs or twigs of trees as some by their Topographical Tables would persuade us but in the hollows of trees of an orbicular figure sufficiently hard and firm Then Clusius tells us that he saw Parrots brought from Fernambuco of the Brasilians not exceeding the bigness of a Stare covered with feathers wholly of a green colour but all having a short Tail and white Bill and they who brought them over reported that this kind was very noxious to fruit That they fed them by the way with grains of Maiz that is Indian Wheat In the second Voyage the Hollanders made into the East Indies in Java and certain neighbouring Islands they observed Parrots far more elegant than those they were wont to bring out of Brasil and they understood that they were called Noyras by the Portugues that frequented Java and the Moluccas That they were not very big-bodied but of so elegant a colour that they thought more beautiful could not be painted by the hand of Man For the Breast and Belly were covered with feathers of a florid shining red colour the Back with golden-coloured Plumes the Wings adorned with feathers particoloured of green and blue Underneath the Wings the feathers were of a lovely shining red But that the price of those birds there was very great so that they were not rated at less than eight or ten German Dollars Linscotius writes that the Portugues had often made trial to bring over of them to Lisbon but could never effect it because they were too tender and delicate But the Hollanders with a great deal of
promiscuously by that nefarious coition interdicted mankind by no less than a capital punishment Which things Pliny after his manner hath wittily and elegantly comprised in a few words Illae i. e. foeminae quidem maritos suos fallunt quoniam intemperantiâ libidinis srangunt earum ova nè incubando detineantur Tunc inter se dimicant mares desiderio foeminarum Victum aiunt venerem pati That they make two Nests wherein they lay their Eggs half in one and half in the other in one whereof the Female sits and in the other the Male and that both do hatch and bring up their part of Young That the Hens without being ever trodden by the Cocks if they do only stand opposite to them and the wind blow from thence upon them will conceive Eggs and those prolific Of which thing some Modern Writers have indiscreetly indeavoured to give an account before they had any assurance of the truth of the matter of fact That the Hens are so intemperately lustful that contrary to the manner of other birds they cannot abstain from the use of Venery so much as while they are sitting Which particulars also Pliny briefly and ingeniously thus words Neque in ullo animali par opus libidinis Si contra mares steterint foeminae aurâ ab his flante praegnantes fiunt Hiantes a. exertâ linguâ per id tempus aestuant concipiúntque supervolantium afflatu saepe voce tantùm audita masculi Adeoque vincit libido etiam foetûs charitatem ut illa furtim in occulto incubans cùm sensit foeminam aucupis accedentem ad marem recanat revocétque ultro se praebeat libidini That the Cock being overcome in fight dares never so much as come in sight of his Mistris or Mate That the Partridge when her own Eggs are broken or any ways marred or lost steals another Partridges Eggs sits upon them hatches them broods and brings up the Young which yet when they are a little grown hearing their Dams voice that is the voice of that Partridge that laid the Eggs do by instinct presently know it and leaving their Foster Mothers betake themselves to their own Dams That she often turns her upon her back and so lying with her belly upward covers her self with clods and straws and by that means deceives and escapes the Fowlers But it is not worth the while to insist long upon rehearsing or refuting these particulars These Birds saith Aldrovandus in the Feasts and Entertainments of Princes hold the principal place without which such Feasts are esteemed ignoble vulgar and of no account Indeed the Frenchmen do so highly value and are so fond of Partridge that if they be wanting they utterly sleight and despise the best spread Tables and most plentiful and delicate Treatments as if there could be no Feast without this dish As the flesh of Partridge saith Bellonius is very delicate and grateful to the Palate so in like manner is it greatly commended for that it nourishes much is easily digested and breeds good bloud in the body The flesh of the greater kind is more solid and hard though hard only comparatively of the lesser more tender and consequently yields a finer more dissipable and spirituous nourishment is also of easier concoction but yet is not so white as that of the greater Palate-men and such as have skill in eating do chiefly commend the Partridges Wing preferring it much before the Leg as indeed it is much better Hence that English Proverbial Rhythm If the Partridge had the Woodcocks thigh 'T would be the best bird that e're did fly He that desires yet further information concerning the quality and temperament of Partridges flesh let him consult Aldrovand §. VII Bellonius his Greek Partridge or great red Partridge the same with the precedent THe great Partridge which the Grecians following the Italians commonly call Coturno seems to us to be different from the Partridges both of France and Gothland For it is twice as big as our Country Partridge hath red Bill and Legs is spotted on the Breast and sides in like manner as ours of the bigness of a handsom Hen. This kind of Partridge is so frequent in the Rocks of Colme the Cyclades Islands and the Sea-coast of Candy that there is not such plenty of any other bird Their cry is different from that of our Partridge being great and sonorous especially in breeding and coupling time when they express and often repeat the sound of this word Cacabis whence it should seem that the Latines were taught by the Greeks to express the note of a Partridge by the word Cacabare We also borrowed the name Cacabis whereby we in some places call a Partridge from their voice or cry They follow one another on the Rocks Of this kind in my judgment Aristotle is to be understood when he saith If Hens couple with Partridges they generate a different kind They build in an open place without cover or shelter in May-time among certain herbs what time they come down from the Rocks seeking convenient places to build and bring up their Young They lay their Eggs upon the ground under some great stone sometimes eighteen sometimes sixteen more or less like Hens Eggs but less white and speckled thick with small red spots very good to eat as Hens Eggs but their Yolks congeal not After they have hatcht their Young they lead them out into the Champain or open fields to seek their food Wherefore we think this kind of Partridge to be altogether different from ours for in some places of Italy both kinds are found and called by divers names viz. This by the name of Coturno the other by the name of Perdice or Pernice Thus far Bellonius Aldrovandus thinks that this bird differs from the greater red Partridge or Coturnice of the Italians only in bigness and truly I am now wholly come over to his opinion sith Bellonius himself makes them all one What Partridges Bellonius means by the Partridges of Gothia I know not §. VIII The Quail Coturnix IT is the least bird in this kind of a flatter or broader body and not so narrow or compressed sideways as the Land-Rail or Daker-Hen It s length from the tip of the Bill to the end of the Tail is seven inches and an half Its breadth between the extremities of the Wings spread fourteen inches It s Bill from the tip to the corners of the mouth half an inch long its figure more depressed and plain than in the rest of this kind The lower Chap black the upper of a pale dusky The Irides of the Eyes are of a hazel colour The Eyes have a nictating membrane The Breast and Belly are of a dirty pale yellow The Throat hath a little mixture of red ruffi Under the lower Chap of the Bill is a long and broad stroke of black tending downward Above the Eyes and along the middle of the Head are whitish lines The head
Perchance these may be the same with those which Aldrovandus tells us are called by his Country men Colombe sotto banche that is Pigeons under Forms or Benches from their place of various colours and bigger than the common wild Pigeons inhabiting Dove-cotes 2. Croppers so called because they can and usually do by attracting the Air blow up their Crops to that strange bigness that they exceed the bulk of the whole body beside A certain Hollander informed Aldrovandus that these Kroppers Duve as they call them are twice as big as the common Domestic Pigeons which as they fly and while they make that murmuring noise swell their throats to a great bigness and the bigger the better and more generous they are esteemed Those that I saw at Mr. Copes a Citizen of London living in Jewin Street seemed to me nothing bigger but rather less than Runts and somewhat more slender and long-bodied These differ no less one from another in colour than the precedent 3. Broad-tail'd Shakers called Shakers because they do almost constantly shake or wag their Heads and Necks up and down Broad-tail'd from the great number of feathers they have in their Tails they say not fewer than twenty six When they walk up and down they do for the most part hold their Tails erect like a Hen or Turkey-Cock These also vary much in colour 4. Narrow-tail'd Shakers These agree with the precedent in shaking but differ in the narrowness of their Tails as the name imports They are said also to vary in colour This kind we have not as yet seen nor have we more to say of it 5. Carriers These are of equal bigness with common Pigeons or somewhat less of a dark blue or blackish colour They are easily distinguished from all others 1. By their colour 2. In that their Eyes are compassed about with a broad circle of naked tuberous white furfuraceous skin 3. That the upper Chap of the Bill is covered above half way from the Head with a double crust of the like naked fungous skin The Bill is not short but of a moderate length They make use of these birds to convey Letters to and fro chiefly in the Turkish Empire Perchance these may be the Persian and Turkish Pigeons of Aldrovand all over of a dusky or dark brown colour excepting the Eyes which are scarlet the Feet which are of a pale red and the Bill which as he saith is yellow wherein they differ from ours whose Bills are black The nature of these birds is such that though carried far away they will return speedily thither where either themselves were bred or brought up or where they had hatcht and brought up Young Of this kind we saw in the Kings Aviary in St. James's Park and at Mr. Copes an Embroiderer in Jewin Street London Moreover we read that the Ancients sometimes made use of Pigeons in sending Letters as for example Hirtius and Brutus in the Siege of Modena Hirtius sending a Dove to Brutus and Brutus back again to Hirtius having by meat laid in some high places instructed these Pigeons before shut up in a dark place and kept very hungry to fly from one to another 6. Jacobines called by the Low Dutch Cappers because in the hinder part of the Head or Nape of the Neck certain feathers reflected upward encompass the Head behind almost after the fashion of a Monks Hood when he puts it back to uncover his Head These are called Cyprus Pigeons by Aldrovand and there are of them rough-footed Aldrovandus hath set forth three or four either Species or accidental varieties of this kind Their Bill is short The Irides of their Eyes of a Pearl-colour and the Head as Mr. Cope told us in all white 7. Turbits of the meaning and original of which name I must confess myself to be ignorant They have a very short thick Bill like a Bullfinch The crown of their Head is flat and depressed The feathers on the Breast reflected both ways They are about the bigness of the Jacobines or a little bigger I take these to be the Candy or Indian Doves of Aldrovand tom 2. pag. 477. 478. the Low Dutch Cortbeke 8. Barbary-Pigeons perchance the Candy-Dove of Aldrovand The Bill is like that of the precedent A broad circle of naked tuberous white flesh compasses the Eyes as in the Carriers The Irides of the Eyes are white My worthy Friend Mr. Philip Skippon in a Letter to me concerning tame Pigeons writes that the Eyes of this kind are red Perchance the colour may vary in several birds 9. Smiters I take these to be those which the fore-mentioned Hollander told Aldrovandus that his Country-men called Draiiers These do not only shake their Wings as they fly But also flying round about in a ring especially over their Females clap them so strongly that they make a greater sound than two Battledores or other boards struck one against another Whence it comes to pass that their quil-feathers are almost always broken and shattered and sometimes so bad that they cannot fly Our Country-men distinguish between Tumblers and Smiters 10. Tumblers these are small and of divers colours They have strange motions turning themselves backward over their Heads and shew like footbals in the Air. 11. Helmets In these the Head Tail and quil-feathers of the Wings are always of one colour sometimes white sometimes black red yellow or blue the rest of the body of another different from that whatever it be These are also called Helme by the Low Dutch as Aldrovandus writes from the relation of the fore-mentioned Dutchman 12. Light-horsemen This is a bastard kind of one Parent a Cropper the other a Carrier and so they partake of both as appears by the Wattles of their Bill and their swollen throats They are the best breeders of all and will not lightly forsake any house to which they have been accustomed 13. Bastard-bills Which name why it is imposed upon them I know not unless perchance because their Bills are neither long nor short so that it is not certain to what Species they ought to be referred They are bigger than Barbaries have a short Bill and red Eyes but are not all of the same colour 14. Turners having a tuft hanging down backward from their Head parted like a horses Main 15. Finikins like the precedent but less 16. Mawmets called as I take it from Mahomet perchance because brought out of Turkey notable for their great black Eyes else like to the Barbaries 17. Spots because they have each in their forehead above their Bill a spot Their Tail is of the same colour with the spot the rest of the body being white The Younger Pigeons never tread the Females but they bill them first and that as often as they tread them The elder Doves bill only the first time the second they couple without billing Aldrov Ornithol tom 2. pag. 363. The Sex especially of the tame Pigeons is easily known by their note or murmur
true cause of their so doing to hinder their prospect any ways but just forward to see where they are to pitch their stake or clap on their hands So at length not without extreme toil and danger they arrive at the Nest which with that long pole or stake I mentioned they draw up out of the deep hole where it was placed and carry away with them cherishing and bringing the Young up at their own houses And afterwards either sell them dear or present them to Gentlemen and great persons of their knowledge Thus far Seillerius I suspect that this very bird which Gesner calls Blauvogel is the same which about Chur in the Grisons Country and elsewhere is called Steirotele or near akin to it Bellonius who thinks this bird to be the Cyanus or as Gaza translates it the Caeruleus of Aristotle writes thereof in this manner That bird which Aristotle calls Cyanus Pliny Caeruleus because it haunts among the Rocks of the high Mountains and is like a Blackbird is now by the Grecians commonly called Petrocoslypho that is the Rock-Ouzel It is lesser than a Blackbird and blue all over kept in Cages and highly esteemed for its singing It s voice is the same with the Blackbirds It hath no French name because it is not found in France nor yet in Italy unless brought thither in Cages It is sometimes taken out of the Nest to be taught so speak articulately In another place where he also treats professedly of this bird adding a figure of it although saith he we call the bird by Aristotle entitled Cyanus by Gaza rendred Caeruleus In French Merle bleu yet we do not this as if it were known to France but because of the Countrimen of Epidaurus who use divers Idioms some who speak Italian call it Merlo biavo others who speak Greek Petrocossypho others who speak Dalmatic call it simply Merle Kept in a Cage it sings more sweetly even than a Blackbird For which reason the Countrimen of Illyricum who live among the Rocks take them out of the Nests and carry them to the Cities to sell It is not found in France unless brought in from abroad It builds in the tops of Mountains as we observed in Candy Citharaea Corcyra Zacynthus and Euboea now commonly called Negroponte Aristotle also in the fore-quoted place making mention of it saith it was commonly seen among the Rocks in Scyros Aristotle composing his History of Animals at Athens sent abroad men through divers Countries to search out all kinds of living Creatures In Scyros the Mountains are cragged with many Rocks But to make a brief compendious description of this bird we need but imagine a small Blackbird of a blue colour for just such a one is this bird It is full of tongue and seldom descends into the plain Country It breeds for the most part five Young and never more It affords as good and better nourishment than a Blackbird flies swifter and uses the same food All this out of Bellonius whom Aldrovandus pronounces mistaken in that he thought this bird to be the Cyanus of Aristotle Himself with Gesner deeming the Cyanus of Aristotle to be of the Wood-pecker kind Which how he proves see in this place Turner conjectures the Caeruleus of Aristotle to be that bird which is called in English a Clot-bird a Smatch an Arling a Stonecheck and in High Dutch Ein Brechvogel This he saith in England breeds in Coney-burrows and under stones and appears not in Winter The English names and place of building argue Turner to have meant the common Oenanthe or White-tail which is a far different bird from the Caeruleus of Bellonius For my part to speak freely what I think I judge the Blauvogel of Gesner to be the very same bird with the solitary Sparrow but the Caeruleus of Bellonius to be a bird specifically different and which I have not yet seen alive though I have often seen its picture §. IV. The Indian Mockbird Caeruleus Indicus WE saw this Bird dried in Tradescants Cabinet It is of the bigness of a common Lark hath a streight sharp Bill a long Tail And is all over of a blue colour Upon second thoughts however Tradescant might put the Epithete of Indian upon this bird I judge it to be no other than the Caeruleus or Blue Ouzel of Bellonius described in the precedent Article §. V. * Aldrovandus his Brasilian Merula Book 16. Chap. 16. BEllonius figures this bird among the Merulae induced only by this reason that those who bring it out of Brasil into Europe call it the Brasilian Blackbird Wherefore seeing he speaks nothing concerning the nature of the Bird and it is alike unknown to me I also adjoyn it to the Merulae although in the shortness or rather crookedness of its Bill it differs much from them Those saith Bellonius who trade in Countries newly discovered bring back thence such strange rarities as they think will sell dear with us here But because they cannot bring the birds themselves alive in Cages therefore they flay off the skins of such as are more beautiful than the rest as this is and bringing them over make a great gain of the sale of them especially of this which they call the Brasilian Blackbird though in bigness it differs from a Blackbird The colour of the whole body except the Tail and Wings which are black is so deep perchance by the word intensè he may mean bright a red that it exceeds all other rednesses The Tail is long the Feet and Legs black The Bill short as in a Sparrow The feathers are red to the very bottom That which Aldrovandus describes perchance from a picture was in some things different from Bellonius his bird For saith he the Wings are not all over black but all the upper feathers by the shoulders of a deep red Next to them are some black ones then red ones again the subsequent viz. all the great feathers being black as is also the Tail The Bill also is not so short as in Sparrows yet thick and remarkably crooked without of a dusky colour within yellow as I conjecture from the colour of the corners of the mouth rictûs Moreover the Feet are not black but of an ash-colour only a little dusky being great for the proportion of the Legs The Claws short but crooked of the same colour We have seen in Tradescants Cabinet a red Indian bird dried of the bigness almost of a Mavis having a long Tail which perchance is the same with the bird in this Article described §. VI. * The Rose or Carnation-coloured Ouzel of Aldrov lib. 16. cap. 15. THis bird our Fowlers call the Sea-Starling It is seen sometimes in our fields and is much among dung-heaps To me it seems rather to be a kind of Ouzel Merula than Starling For a Starling is spotted which this is not It is somewhat less than a Blackbird hath its Back Breast and Wings above of a Rose
THE History of Birds Containing Such Birds as we suspect for fabulous or such as are too briefly and unaccurately described to give us a full and sufficient knowledge of them taken out of Franc. Hernandez especially Of the foolish Sparrow THis Bird is deservedly famous for its notable folly It is not afraid of them that go to catch it but sits still with a great deal of confidence till they lay their hands upon it not offering to fly away but only seeming to wonder what they intend to do It is a Sea-fowl and feeds upon fish It hath the cry of a Jay is of the bigness of a Mag-pie of the shape and colour of the Gull excepting that part of the forehead next the Bill which is cinereous whole-footed It s Bill is three inches long slender round and streight only a little crooked near the tip Its Legs and Feet which are like those of other whole-footed Birds black Its Pupil is also black but the membrane about the Pupil grey The tameness of the Birds of the Island Cerne is well known and celebrated They alight upon the heads and shoulders of the Mariners that go ashore there as it were upon trees and suffer themselves without difficulty to be caught coming readily to hand Of the Bird called Daie laying great Eggs. THe Bird called Daie is remarkable for the extraordinary and unusual nature or manner of its Eggs and Young It is not bigger than a Pigeon and tolerable good meat For its Nest it scrapes a hole with its Feet and Tail in sandy grounds four spans deep where when the rains fall it lays its Eggs which are bigger than Goose-eggs almost as broad as ones fist called by the Natives Tapun fifty or more in number being of a gross and fat substance without any Yolk in them which roasted or boiled are good wholsom food but fried tough bad and of hard concoction It is very strange more strange I dare say than true that so little a Bird should lay so great Eggs and so many together and in such deep vaults under ground and that being there hidden they should be hatched without being ever sitten upon or cherished by the old ones and that the Young once hatched should of themselves presently fly away I dare boldly say that this History is altogether false and fabulous For though some Birds lay very great Eggs as for example Puffins Guillemots Razor-bills c. some also build in holes under ground Yet such lay but one Egg not a great many before they sit Neither do I think that there is any Bird in the world whose Eggs want the white Of the Guitguit that sets upon Ravens A Little body contains a great spirit and courage There is a very small Bird Guitguit the Indians call it like the Wren of a green colour and sweet-tasted flesh Such is the wonderful force of nature that this Bird as little as it is and next to nothing dares set upon and pursue whole flocks of Ravens and forces them to hide themselves from it and to take shelter among the Reeds I suppose that this story is feigned in imitation of what the Ancients have delivered concerning the Wren viz. that with great courage indeed fool-hardiness she dares enter combat with the Eagle Of the Bird called Maia THere is another sort of small Birds especially in the Island Cuba that fly in flocks and waste the fields or plantations of Rice which grain grows abundantly and is of much use in those Countries called Maia of a fulvous colour its flesh pleasant of easie concoction and yielding a plentiful nourishment Whose Stomach or rather Craw and first receptacle of nourishment is on the back side of the Neck A wonderful and singular thing of which there is not another instance in nature Of the Yayauhquitotl or long-tail'd Bird. THere proceed from the end of the Tail or Rump of this Bird two feathers longer than the rest below naked without any lateral hair-like bodies adorned at the tips with blue and black Vanes The body of the Bird is as big as a Stares particoloured of blue green fulvous and grey Perchance this may be the same Bird which Marggrave hath accurately described under the title of Guira-guainumbi Of another sort of Xochitenacatl that is the Toucan or Brasilian Pie THis Bird breeds and feeds on the shores of the Southern America being of the bigness of a Pigeon with a thick sharp-pointed black Bill black Eyes and a yellow Iris. The Wings and Tail are particoloured of black and white a black list reaching from the Bill to the very end of the Breast yet is there some yellow about the forepart of the Wings The rest of the body generally is of a pale colour excepting the Feet and Legs which are brown and the Claws which from white incline somewhat to a pale yellow It lives about flowring trees feeding upon the honey it sucks out of their flowers It breeds its Young in the Spring and is much esteemed by the Tototepecenses in whose Country it is very frequent Of the Bird called Momot THis abides and delights in hot Countries It is of the bigness of a Dove hath scarlet-coloured Eyes with a black Pupil A crooked blackish Bill almost three inches long sharp-pointed the nether Chap shorter the upper serrate A blue Head like a Peacocks brown Feet the rest of the body green What is rare and extraordinary in this Bird is that it hath in its Tail one quil longer than the rest and which is feathered only at the end This is I dare say more strange than true For the Tails of all Birds I ever yet saw have their feathers growing by pairs that is two of a sort on each side one and that so beautiful a Bird should be of no use but for its feathers Of the Verminous Bird or Tuputa THis Bird seems to be of a strange nature as we gather from its note from which it took its name Tuputa but it is and deservedly more famous for its singular putrefaction For while it is living it is wholly stuft with worms instead of flesh all its members and muscles being full of them Nothing of flesh besides these and the skin Yet they do not eat or make their way through the skin which is adorned with thick-set feathers It abides among Sedge and in grassie places For shape of body it is like a Pheasant but lesser What is here delivered concerning this Bird if understood generally of all the individuals of this sort we are so confident to be false that we think it needless to spend time in the confuting of it This however we thought fit to signifie to the Reader lest he should imagine we gave any credit to the story Of the Mozambick Hens THe feathers flesh and bones of these Hens are so black that being boil'd one would think they had been sodden in ink yet are they thought to be very savoury and far better than those of other Hens
these birds they say are able to kill and eat up a Cow neither do they abstain from men There are but few of them were there many they would destroy all the Cattel in Peru. They report that there are four distinct kinds hereof found in the Island Marignan De Laet. Hist Ind. Occident lib. 16. cap. 13. and Lerius in Hist Brasil Birds of one and the same kind kept tame by reason of the diversity of the Climate or Country in which they live the food which they use and other accidents vary much in their colours magnitude taste of their flesh and perchance also figure of their bodies Wild fowl for the most part are much what of the same magnitude and constant to their colours For the most part I say this holds true in wild Birds yet some few there be of these that vary much in their colours as for example Russes of which it is reported there cannot be found two alike and the Scaup-duck The nails or claws hair horns and the like saith Aristotle in Beasts spring out of the skin whence it comes to pass that they change colour together with the skin being white or black or party-coloured c. according to the colour of the skin out of which they grow But the matter is far otherwise in Birds of all sorts for of what colour soever the feathers are the skin underneath out of which they grow is but of one colour Moreover one and the same feather is sometimes stained with divers colours and in a wonderful order Dr. Harvey Of Birds some are gregarious that is live and fly together in companies or slocks as for example Pigeons Rooks Stares c. Others in coupling and breeding time fly by pairs the Male and his Female After they have hatcht they company with their brood till their young be grown up and can shift for themselves and then they beat them away Some Birds live a Conjugal life one Cock and one Hen pairing together and both concurring and assisting each other in sitting and feeding their young Of this sort are Partridges and other Birds of the Poultry kind Pigeons of which the Cock takes his turn of sitting building the nest and feeding the young In those that pair there are always more Males than Females bred but in such whereof one Male suffices for many Females more Females than Males Most Birds while they sleep turn their head backward and put it under their wing and also stand upon one foot the other being drawn up to keep it warm as I suppose among the feathers or by the heat of the body That there are in Animals those they call natural instincts the manner of building their Nests in Birds is alone sufficient to evince For whereas those of the same Species in Countries most remote and distant from each other do make their Nests always of the same materials and constantly observe the same shape or form of them as if they made them by the same pattern they must necessarily either learn so to do by institution or imitation of their Parents or else have the knowledge or ability so to do by natural instinct but neither by institution for who ever saw the old or the young teaching or learning of one another Nor by imitation for the young forsake the Nests so soon as they are fledg'd when as they are very simple and witless and neither regard nor heed almost any thing but their food and themselves next Spring building they could neither see their Parents making their Nests nor any other birds of their kind whom they might imitate It remains therefore that they act by instinct And here we cannot but admire with Harvey some of these natural instincts in Birds viz. that almost all Hen-birds should with such diligence and patience sit upon their Nests night and day for a long time together macerating and almost starving themselves to death that they should expose themselves to such dangers in defence of their Eggs and if being constrained they sometimes leave them a little while with such earnestness hasten back again to them and cover them Ducks and Geese while they are absent for a little while diligently cover up their Eggs with straw With what courage and magnanimity do even the most cowardly birds defend their Eggs which sometimes are subventaneous and addle or not their own or even artificial ones Stupendious in truth is the love of birds to a dull and liveless Egg and which is not likely with the least profit or pleasure to recompense so great pains and care Who can but admire that passionate affection or rather fury of a clocking Hen which cannot be extinguished unless she be drencht in cold water During this impetus of mind she neglects all things and as if she were in a frenzy lets down her Wings and bristles up her Feathers and walks up and down restless and querulous puts other Hens off their Nests searching every where for Eggs to sit upon neither doth she give over till she hath either found Eggs to sit or Chickens to bring up which she doth with wonderful zeal and passion call together cherish feed and defend What a pretty ridiculous spectacle is it to see a Hen following a bastard brood of young Ducklings which she hath hatched for her own swimming in the water How she often compasses the place sometimes venturing in not without danger as far as she can wade and calls upon them using all her art and industry to allure them to her All Birds in coupling and breeding time are most loquacious and canorous Birds grow much faster and sooner attain their just magnitude than Quadrupeds Those that are fed by the old ones with meat put into their mouths in a month or six weeks space almost all of them and some in much less time become fit to fly and attain to very near the measure of bigness due to their kind All of them in six months come to their full growth and perfection Neither yet is this in them as in Quadrupeds a sign of short life Many Birds are very ingenious and docile as may appear from that they are so easily taught to imitate mans voice and speak articulately which no Quadruped for ought I have heard or read could ever be brought to though their Organs seem to be much fitter for that purpose as being much more conformable to mans CHAP. VI. Containing some particulars which Mr. Willughby propounded to himself to enquire out observe and experiment in Birds 1. WHether Rapacious diurnal Birds only have the upper Chap of their Bills covered as far as the nosthrils with a naked skin which our Falconers call the Sear 2. Whether the Parrot only moves the upper Chap as Aldrovandus affirms and whether the Cross-bill which doth in like manner make use of her Bill for climbing and some other birds do not so too 3. Whether any Birds change their Bills and Claws as is
but small The Guts have many revolutions The blind's no more than half an inch long Scarce any foot-step to be found of the * Ductus intestinalis channel conveying the Yolk to the Guts This Bird delights to feed upon Carrion that is the Carkasses of dead Animals when they begin to putrefie Neither doth it feed only upon Carrion but also set upon kill and devour living birds in like manner as the Raven Moreover it eats Grain and all sorts of Insects in England at least For beyond Seas they say it meddles with no kind of Grain This kind of Bird abounds with us in Britain as Cardan and Turner truly observe because here is plenty of food for them They build upon high trees and lay four or five Eggs at a time like Ravens but less They are very noisom to Lambs new-yeaned if they be weak and feeble first picking out their eyes They are said to have a very sagacious sent so that it is difficult to shoot them they smelling the Gunpowder at a great distance Ravens Crows c. roost as they say upon trees with their Bills directed toward the Sun-rising That the Crow it self saith Aldrovandus is capable of humane speech and hath been taught to pronounce several words both we our selves do certainly know and Pliny a Witness beyond exception testifieth writing thus There was also in the City of Rome whilest I was recording these things a Crow belonging to a Roman Gentleman brought out of Baetica first admirable for its colour which was exceeding black then pronouncing many words in connexion and still learning more and more As for its pace it is reckoned among those birds which neither run nor leap but walk Aldrovandus The Females only sit and that diligently the Males in the mean time bring them food as Aristotle saith In most other birds which pair together the Male and Female sit by turns They do not saith Aldrovandus as I hear feed their Young till they begin to be feathered the same also is reported of Ravens and many other birds that are much on the Wing You will say wherewithal are they nourished in the mean time and how do they grow I answer with the Yolk of the Egg remaining in the Belly after exclusion For we have elsewhere shewn that a good part of the Yolk is received into the cavity of the belly in birds newly hatched which being by degrees conveyed into the Guts by a certain passage called by us ductus intestinalis serves to nourish the Young newly excluded §. III. Cornix frugivora seu frugilega The Rook. IT weighed nineteen ounces Its length from the tip of the Bill to the end of the Tail was twenty inches to the end of the Claws eighteen The breadth or distance between the tips of the Wings extended thirty eight inches It hath no Craw but instead thereof the Gullet below the Bill is dilated into a kind of bag wherein it brings meat to feed its Young In the old ones of this sort the feathers about the root of the Bill as far as the Eyes are worn off by often thrusting the Bill into the ground to fetch out Earth-worms c. So that the flesh thereabouts is bare and appears of a whitish colour By which note this bird may be distinguished from the common Crow Howbeit the Bill it self is not white as Bellonius writes and others believe It differs also from the Crow 2. In that it is somewhat bigger 3. In the purple splendour or gloss of its feathers 4. In that it is gregarious both flying and breeding in company The number of beam-feathers in each Wing is twenty of which the fourth is the longest being by measure ten inches and a quarter The shafts of the middle Wing-feathers end in bristles or spines The Tail is seven inches and an half long made up of twelve feathers the exteriour whereof are a little shorter than the middle ones The Bill from the tip to the Angles of the mouth is two inches and an half long The Nostrils round The Tongue black horny and cloven at the end The hind-toe hath a large strong Claw The outmost fore-toe is joyned to the middlemost as in the Crow It hath a large Gall short blind-guts like the Crow of about half an inch The stomach is great and musculous as in granivorous birds The Guts wide and variously reflected They are most greedy of Corn yet feed also upon Earth-worms and other Insects refraining from garbage and carrion They build many together upon high trees about Gentlemens houses who are much delighted with the noise they make in breeding time Both Cock and Hen sit by turns Their Eggs are like Crows but lesser spotted with greater spots especially about the blunt end I have been told by a worthy Gentleman of Sussex who himself observed it that when Rooks build one of the Pair always sits by to watch the Nest till it be finished whilst the other goes about to fetch materials Else if both go and leave the Nest unfinished as sometimes they venture to do their fellow-Rooks ere they return again will have rob'd and carried away to their several Nests all their sticks and whatever else they had got together Hence perhaps the word Rooking with us is used for cheating or abusing These Birds are noisome to Corn and Grain So that the Husbandmen are forced to employ Children with hooting and Crackers and Rattles of Metal and finally with throwing of stones to scare them away Such as have no Servants or Children to spare for such a purpose make use of other devices either of Mills made with Sails to be turned by the Wind making a continual snapping as they turn wherewith they fright the birds or of Bugbears or as we call them Scare-Crows placed up and down the fields and dressed up in a Country habit which the birds taking for Country men dare not come near the grounds where they stand I was also told by the fore-mentioned Gentleman that if Rooks infest your Corn they will be more terrified by taking a Rook and plucking it limb from limb in their sight and then casting the several limbs about your field than if you hang up half a dozen dead Rooks in it §. IV. The Royston Crow Cornix cinerea frugilega THat we described weighed about twenty two ounces Its measures were from the point of the Bill to the end of the Tail twenty two inches to the Angles of the mouth two inches and an half Between the Wings extended three feet and three inches The Bill long strong smooth black but having the tip whitish the upper Chap somewhat longer than the lower and a little bowed or crooked The Nosthrils round covered with bristly hairs The Tongue broad black a little cloven and rough on the sides The Irides of the Eyes of a cinereous Hazel colour The Head Wings and Throat as far as
are equal and from the tenth all the rest Almost all of them have their lower half blue and the upper black The foremost are black almost down to the bottom only in their exteriour Webs they have a mixture of blue The covert feathers of the Wings are of a pale blue of which colour also but paler are those that invest the underside of the Wing The Tail consists of twelve feathers of which the ten intermediate are equal each being four inches three quarters long The two extreme longer than the rest by three quarters of an inch The two middlemost are of a dark ash-colour the next to them have their tips of a bluish white which colour gradually increases in the rest till in the outmost it takes up half the feather Below the white the interiour webs of the feathers are black and the exteriour blue The tips of the outmost feathers are black The tail-feathers and sails of the Wings where ever they are blackish above are blue underneath The outmost feather of the Ala notha is black the rest blue The Feet are short and like those of a Dove of a dirty yellow colour The middle Toe the longest next to that the outmost fore-toe The Claw of the middle Toe in the inner side is edged The Claws are black and the Toes divided to the bottom The Stomach within was of a Saffron colour and therein we found a large Grass-hopper The Guts thirteen inches and an half long the blind Guts two and an half We found of these Birds not only in Germany but also in the Isles of Sicily and Malta to be sold in the Markets and in the Poulterers shops There are many singular and characteristic marks in this bird as 1. The knobs or wart-like bunches under the eyes 2. The figure of the Tail the outmost feather on each side being longer than the rest 3. The Toes divided down to the bottom 4. The Tongue having only two forked Appendices * Gesners blue Crow the same I suspect with the precedent The blue Crow whose figure Jo. Kentmannus sent to Gesner but the History thereof George Fabricius out of Misnia is a wild bird and not easie to be tamed called by the Misnians Ein wild Holtzkrae of others Galgen-regell or Halck-regel It is found beyond the River Elb in the Luchovian Forest and in the neighbouring Woods It haunts and abides in desart and unfrequented places Some from the colour call it Ein Tentschen Pappagey that is The German Parrot It is transported into Forein Countries for no other commendation but the colour So far George Fabricius The Bill as the Picture shews is black The Legs dusky and for the proportion of the body small It is here and there all over the body viz. on the Head Wings Tail about the Rump and all the underside of a shining blue colour in some places more sincere in some mixt with green The colour of the Back and upper side of the Neck is dusky The greater feathers of the Wings black I am verily perswaded that this bird is no other than the Strasburgh Roller §. V. * The Sea-Pie Pica Marina ALdrovandus in the twelfth Book and fifteenth Chapter of his Ornithology doth thus briefly describe this bird The whole Bird excepting the Head Neck Feet and also part of the Wings is of a greenish colour The Bill is strong a little longer than a Pies very sharp The top of the Head and down as low as a third part of the Neck is of a delayed Chesnut colour The lower part of the Head to the Temples and Eyes yellow The Eyes black with yellow Irides encompassed again with a black circle The Feet dusky the Toes long the Nails very crooked and black The rest of the body green except the second row of Wing-feathers which are of a dilute Chesnut having their ends blue Whether he himself saw this Bird or described it from a picture he tells us not But in that he affirms that the Strasburg Roller never lives in maritime places and so without reason challenges the name of the Sea-pie which the Bolognese as Gesner witnesseth attribute to it he is without doubt deceived Sith we our selves as we said before saw at Messina in Sicily and in the Isle of Malta several of them §. VI. * The Persian Pie. Aldrovandus THe bird which Aldrovandus calls by this name and describes from a Picture sent him from Venice hath a strong thick short whitish Bill Also white Eyes with a black Pupil The second row of Wing-feathers the Rump and foremost feathers in the Tail are yellow The Feet are bluish with black tabulary scales The Claws small but crooked and black Else it is all over of a dusky colour Besides these Dr. Charleton in his Onomasticon Zoicon p. 68. mentions another sort of Pie viz. The Indian Mock-bird not much unlike the Jay but somewhat smaller We have not as yet had the hap to see this bird Nor is there any thing written of it by others that we know of §. VII Caryocatactes Gesn and Turn IT weighed five ounces three quarters It s length from the Bill to the end of the Toes was thirteen inches and an half to the end of the Tail the same The breadth between the tips of the Wings spread twenty two inches and an half The Bill from the tip to the corners of the mouth is almost two inches long black strong and like that of a Pie save that it is not sharp pointed but blunt at the end and the upper Mandible a little prominent The Tongue is short scarce reaching beyond the Angle of the lower Mandible cloven with a deeper incision than in any other Bird I have observed In the lower Chap from the Angle is a wrinkle exactly equal to the fissure or cleft of the Tongue so that the Tongue seems never to extend further the wrinkle filling up the fissure The bottom of the Palate and sides of the fissure therein are rough The Irides of the Eyes are of a hazel colour The Nosthrils round and covered with whitish bristly reflected feathers The whole body as well lower as upper side is of a dusky red all over except the Head beautified with triangular white spots in the tops of the feathers these spots on the Breast are greater than elsewhere The Head is not spotted at all The upper side of the body partakes more of red Between the Eyes and Bill it is white The feathers under the Tail beyond the vent are milk-white The sails in each Wing are about twenty of a black or dark colour the Tail-feathers twelve all of equal length being by measure four inches three quarters except the outmost on each side which are a little shorter And for their colours the outmost on each side are three quarters white and from them the white part is gradually less and less in the succeeding feathers to the middlemost in which it doth wholly disappear The
that we know 8. To lay white Eggs. Whether all these marks agree to those American Birds which we have ranked under this head we know not We have referred them to this kind for the like disposition of their Toes two forward two backward especially seeing they belong neither to Parrots nor Owls Albertus writes that all Woodspites build in the hollows of trees which before him Pliny also hath recorded They themselves are said to hew out for themselves a place to build in making such an artificial hole so exactly round that the most skilful and experienced Geometrician could not with his Compass make a rounder They hatch and bring up six or seven Young at once The Eggs of all kinds of them that we have hitherto seen are white The Woodspite is called by the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from striking or piercing of trees The Latine name Picus some think to be derived from the French and Italian word Becco signifying a Bill or beak of a bird Aldrovandus thinks that it was rather deduced from the Flemmish word Picken signifying to strike or knock with the Bill The word Pick with us is variously applied but originally seems to have the same signification as in Flemmish viz. either to strike with the Bill or gather up with the Bill Hence in the North of England these Birds are called Pickatrees a word exactly of the same signification with the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Woodpeckers will learn to speak I can hardly be perswaded though Albertus Magnus and Scaliger affirm it The Woodpecker was not only by the ancient Latines called Pluviae avis the Rainsowl but is so also by our Country men now adays because by its voice more loud and frequent than usual it is thought to presage rain CHAP. V. Of several sorts of Woodpeckers §. I. The greatest black Woodpecker THe Cock which we described weighed ten ounces and an half being in length from the tip of the Bill to the end of the Tail eighteen inches and an half in breadth between the tips of the Wings spread twenty nine inches and an half It s Bill from the point to the Angles of the mouth was two inches and an half long strong hard triangular as in the rest of this kind Above the Nosthrils a hard wrinkle is produced beyond the middle of the Bill That part of the Bill which is below the wrinkle is white the rest black The Tongue when extended is of a very great length It can shoot it out and draw it back at pleasure which is common to it with the rest of this kind Its Nosthrils are round covered with reflected hairs Its Head very great The Irides of the Eyes are of a pale yellow The colour of the whole body is black excepting the crown of the head which down to the Nosthrils is of a lovely red or Vermilion colour The number of flag-feathers in each Wing is nineteen of which the fifth and sixth are the longest the Sarcel or pinion feather is very short and not greater than those of the second row The Tail is made up of ten feathers of which the outmost are the shortest the rest on both sides gradually longer to the two middlemost which are the longest of all All but the outmost which as we said are the least and shortest are stiff sharp-pointed bending inward about seven inches long upon which in climbing trees they lean and support their bodies The Legs on the forepart are feathered down half way behind no longer than the knees The Feet are of a lead colour It hath two back toes as the rest of its kind The Claws strong and great except that of the lesser back-toe which is very small The Gall of a dark green The Testicles yellowish The Guts seventeen inches long great and lax The stomach also lax and membranaceous full of Hexapods and Ants. It altogether wants the Appendices or blind Guts as the rest of this Tribe This Bird we found in the Market at Ratisbone in Germany to be sold killed not far from that City It is not found in England that we know of §. II. The green Woodpecker or Woodspite called also the Rain-fowl High-hoe and Hew-hole THe Cock weighed six ounces three quarters It s length from the Bill to the Toes was eleven inches to the end of the Tail thirteen and an half The Wings extended were equal to twenty one inches and an half The Bill from the point to the Angles of the mouth was almost two inches long black hard strong triangular ending in a blunt point A reddish dusky circle immediately encompasses the Pupil of the Eye the rest of the Iris being white The Tongue when stretched out is of a very great length ending in a sharp bony substance rough underneath wherewith as with a Dart it strikes Insects The top of the Head is of a Crimson or Vermilion colour spotted with black The Eyes are encompassed with black under the black on each side is another Vermilion spot The Throat Breast and Belly are of a pale green The Back Neck and lesser rows of covert feathers of the Wings green The Rump of a pale yellow or straw-colour as Aldrovandus rightly expresses it The feathers under the Tail are crossed with transverse dusky lines In each Wing are nineteen prime feathers beside the outmost which is very short of a dusky colour and marked with semicircular white spots But more particularly the outer Webs of the interiour flags are green the inner Webs dusky with semicircular white spots The outer Webs of the exteriour flags dusky and painted with white spots the inner Webs of the same colour with the precedent The feathers covering the roots of the flags underneath are of a pale green with transverse dusky lines The Tail consists of ten feathers stiff and bending inwards which by reason the shaft reacheth not to the end of the Webs seem to be forked The two middlemost feathers are the longest by measure four inches and an half have their tips black else they are marked with cross bars above of a dark green and underneath whitish the three next on each side differ not from these Of the two outmost which are blunter than the rest the greater are all over varied with transverse bars of black and dark green alternately placed the lesser or outmost have their tops green and bottoms black The Feet and Toes are of a pale green and sometimes of a lead colour The Claws dusky The Toes placed as in the rest of this kind two forward two backward The lowest bones of the fore toes are joyned together It hath a large Gall an Inch and half long The right Testicle round the left oblong and bent almost into a circle which lest any one should think accidental I observed in three several birds It hath no blind Guts but in their stead the streight Gut is dilated in that place It s Crop was full of Ants and Ants Eggs. It feeds also upon
antipathy When as the thing it self is by experience found to be false We have beheld more than once not without pleasure and admiration a Capon bringing up a brood of Chickens like a Hen clocking of them feeding of them and brooding them under his Wings with as much care and tenderness as their Dams are wont to do And we were told that he was trained and induced to perform this office almost after the same manner that Jo. Baptista Porta prescribes lib. 4. Magiae Nat. cap. 26. First they make him very tame so as to take meat out of ones hand then about Evening-time pluck the feathers off his breast and rub the bare skin with Nettles and then put the Chickens to him which presently run under his breast and belly and it is likely rubbing his breast gently with their heads allay the stinging and it ching of the Nettles and this they do for two or three nights till he begin to love and delight in the Chickens Perchance also the querulous voice of the Chickens may be pleasant to him in misery and invite him to succour the miserable A Capon once accustomed to this service will not give it over but when one brood is grown up you may take them away and put another to him of newly hatcht Chickens and he shall be as kind to them and take as much care of them as of the former and so others till all being grown up or removed he hath been for some time idle and disused the employment I might be infinite should I prosecute at large all that might be said of this bird or write a full exact and particular History of it If any Reader desires to know more of it let him consult Aldrovandus whose design was to omit nothing in his History which was either known to himself or had been before published by others This same Author in his Ornithology gives us many kinds or rather rarities of Hens 1. A common Hen but white and copped lib. 14. cap. 2. 2. A dwarf Hen or short-leg'd Hen Which variety is also found in England kept by the curious and called Grigs 3. A Padua Cock and Hen Which ought rather to be called a Pulverara Cock and Hen from Pulverara a Village some miles distant from Padua where they are found These are larger and fairer Fowl than the common sort else differ in no particular Whence also if they be removed into other Countries they do by degrees degenerate and in a short time in some few generations come to be of the size and and shape of the Natives of such places 4. A rough-footed Cock and Hen lib. 14. cap. 5. 5. A Turkish Cock and Hen different from ours especially in the variety and beauty of their colours cap. 6. 6. A Persian Cock and Hen whose characteristic is the wanting of a Rump or Tail This kind is also kept by some among us and called Rumkins The first five varieties in my opinion differ not specifically For these Birds by reason of the difference of Climate soil food and other accidents vary infinitely in colours differ also in bigness and in having or wanting tufts on their heads c. Those birds which he describes and gives figures of in the tenth and eleventh Chapters under the titles of Another Indian Cock and Hen and in the twelfth Chapter under the title of two other Indian Hens are the same with the Mitu and Mituporanga of Marggravius of which we shall give an account § IV. The Wool-bearing Hen I take to be altogether fabulous and its figure in Aldrov lib. 14. cap. 14. taken out of a certain Map fictitious Perchance it was no other than the frisled or Frisland Hen which Odoricus de Foro Julii and Sir John Mandevil call the Wool-bearing Hen. The birds which M. Panlus Venetus makes mention of in these words In the City Quelinfu in the Kingdom of Mangi are found Hens which instead of feathers have hairs like Cats of ablack colour and lay very good Eggs seem to be Cassowaries Besides those set forth by Aldrovandus we have often seen and our selves also have now at Middleton another kind or variety of Hen called in English the Frisland Hen not as I suppose because it was first brought to us out of Frisland but because the feathers of the body are curled or frisled By which Epithete I believe this Bird was at first called the word being afterward by the mistake of the Vulgar corrupted into Frisland of like sound For knowing this to be an outlandish Hen they thought it could not be more fitly denominated than from its Country and thereupon imagined it to be called a Frisland Hen instead of a frisled Hen. Nor did they want a probable argument to induce them to think it to be of a Frisland breed or original viz. the curling of the feathers which one would be apt to attribute to the horror of cold I suppose this to be the same bird which Aldrovandus hath put in the Chapter of monstrous Hens in the last place whose figure he saith was sent him by Pompilius Tagliaserrus of Parma with this description I would have you to understand that there are two things especially found in this Cock worthy of admiration The first and chief is that the feathers of its Wings have a contrary situation to those of other birds for that side which in others is naturally under most or inmost in this is turned outward so that the whole Wing seems to be inverted The other is that the feathers of the Neck are reflected towards the head like a crest or ruff which way the whole Tail also turns up A Hen cut asunder in the middle in this case they prefer a black one and applied hot to the head in the phrensie headach c. usually helps and gives ease They say also that used in like manner it heals the bitings of venomous beasts Laid upon Carbuncles it draws out the venom nor must we omit that it stanches the bleeding of green wounds A live Hen or Cock pluckt about the Fundament and so applied to Pestilential swellings called Bubones draws out the venom 1. The Jelly of an old Hen made of a Hen cut with Calves feet and Sheeps feet or Beef boiled six or seven hours in a close vessel to which you may add Spices or Cordial waters is a great strengthener and nourisher 2. Cock-Ale is made of Hensflesh boiled till the flesh falls from the bones then it is beaten with the bones and strained for Wine or Ale with Spices Note The flesh of Hens is better than that of Cocks except Capons The flesh of a black Hen that hath not laid is accounted better and lighter 3. Cock-broth is thus made Tire and old Cock till he fall with weariness then kill and pluck him and gut him and stuff him with proper Physic and boil him till all the flesh falls off then strain it This broth mollifies and by means of the nitrous parts wherewith
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
The ring also is of a different colour for in the Indian Turtles it is slender and black and compasses the Neck round whereas in the common ones it is more than an inch broad parti-coloured and compasses not the Neck The longer feathers of the Wings the Rump and whole Tail are of a dusky colour having their shafts black and edges white The Belly especially near the vent is yellow The Feet red adorned with whitish tables The Claws are dusky inclining to yellow They feed upon Millet Thus far Aldrovandus Of this sort of Bird we have seen many kept by the curious in Aviaries and Cages §. VI. * The Indian Turtle or Cocotzin of Nieremberg the Picuipinima of Marggrave Our least Barbados Turtle IT is a little bigger than a Lark Nieremberg saith than a Sparrow hath a small dusky black Bill like a Pigeons black Eyes with a golden Circle The whole Head the upper part of the Neck the Sides Back and Wings are covered with dark ash-coloured or black and blue feathers having black semilunar borders But the long feathers of its Wings which are seen as it flies are of a red colour and black on one side and in their tips The Tail is of a good length consisting of dusky ash-coloured feathers yet some of them are black and have their exteriour half white The feathers of the Belly are white having their borders black of the figure of a Crescent The Legs and Feet like those of other Doves but whitish These Pigeons are good meat and grow very fat Nieremberg adds that the Head is little the Bill little and black the Neck short the Legs red wherein it differs from Marggraves bird the Claws dusky and little The Mexicans gave it its name from the colour of its Wings and the noise it makes in flying the Spaniards who call it a Turtle from its murmuring voice and the taste and quality of its flesh although it be much less than our common Turtle It cries hu hu affords good nourishment though somewhat hard of concoction It is found in Mountainous places and also near Towns It is native of the Country of Mexico and very common there They say that it will cure a woman of jealousie if you give it her boil'd to eat so that she knows not what she eats There is also another sort of this Bird every way like it save only that the body is fulvous and black and the Head ash-coloured Whence some call it Tlapalcocotli This Bird is either the same with or very like to our least Barbados Turtle which is of the bigness of a Lark being exactly equal to the figure we give of it taken from the live bird §. VII The Ring-Dove Palumbus torquatus THat we described weighed twenty ounces and an half It s length from the tip of the Bill to the end of the Tail was eighteen inches Its breadth thirty It s Bill yellowish covered for some space from the Head with a red or purplish skin wherein are the Nosthrils Above the Nosthrils is as it were a white Dandroof The Tongue is sharp-pointed not cloven but channel'd The circle about the Pupil of the Eye of a pale yellow The Feet were bare of a red colour as in other Pigeons The outmost Toe by a membrane joyned to the middlemost as far as the first joynt The Legs feathered almost down to the foot The upper part of the Neck is adorned with a semicircular line of white which they call a ring and from whence the Bird took its name Ring-Dove Both above and beneath this ring the Neck as it is variously objected to the light appears of various colours The Head and Back are of a dark ash-colour The lower part of the Neck and upper part of the Brest are purplish or red with a certain mixture of cinereous The Belly of a light ash-colour inclining to white In the Cock these colours are deeper than in the Hen. The quill-feathers in each Wing about twenty four of which the second is the longest The ten foremost or outmost were black The second and succeeding as far as the seventh had their utmost edges white The rest of the hard feathers were of a dusky ash-colour At the bottom or rise of the bastard Wing a white spot tending downwards covered the ninth tenth eleventh and twelfth quill-feathers The Tail was seven inches long and made up of twelve feathers the top or end for two inches and an half being black the remaining part cinereous The Liver was divided into two Lobes It had no Gall-bladder but a large Gall-channel to convey the Gall into the Guts These Birds in Winter-time company together and fly in flocks They build in trees making their Nests of a few sticks and straws They feed upon Acorns and also upon Corn and Ivy and Holly berries §. VIII The Stock-Dove or Wood-Pigeon Oenas sive Vinago IT is as big or bigger than a common Pigeon The Cock weighed fourteen ounces and an half was from Bill to Tail fourteen inches long and between the tips of the Wings extended twenty six broad The colour and shape of the body almost the same with that of a common Pigeon The Bill also like and of equal length of a pale red colour The Nosthrils were great and prominent The top of the Head cinereous The Neck covered with changeable feathers which as they are variously objected to the light appear of a purple or shining green no Silk like them The fore-part of the Breast the Shoulders and Wings are dashed with a purplish or red-wine colour whence it took the name Oenas The Wings Shoulders and middle of the Back are of a dark ash-colour the rest of the Back to the Tail of a paler All the quil-feathers except the four or five outmost which are all over black with their edges white have their lower part cinereous and their upper black The Tail is five inches long made up of twelve feathers having their lower parts cinereous their upper for one third of their length black The nether side of the body excepting the upper part of the Breast is all cinereous The Wings closed reach not to the end of the Tail In both Wings are two black spots the one upon two or three quil-feathers next the body the other upon two or three of the covert feathers incumbent upon those quils Both spots are on the outside the shafts and not far from the tips of the feathers The two outmost feathers of the Tail have the lower half of their exteriour Vanes white The Feet are red the Claws black the Legs feathered down a little below the Knees The blind Guts very short It had no Gall-bladder that we could find a large Craw full of Gromil seeds c. It had a musculous Stomach long Testicles and a long Breast-bone §. IX * The Rock-Pigeon THis as Mr. Johnson described it to us hath a small body ash-coloured and red Legs But these two last notes are common to most Pigeons
spots and a few black ones The Throat and upper part of the Breast are darker than the Belly for that the forementioned colours are there more mingled and confounded whereas in the belly they are more distinct and make greater spots If you heed each feather you shall find the bottom to be blue in the middle a yellow spot encompassed with a black line and the top white The Wings are long reaching almost to the end of the Tail The description of the Bill and Legs we have already given in Mr. Willughby's words and have nothing further to add concerning them It is said to abide and build in mountainous places It is kept in Cages for its singing I suspect that Bellonius his solitary Sparrow is the same with this bird though the description answers not exactly in all things §. IV. * The Brasilian Pitanga guacu called by the Portugnese Bemtere Marggrav IN bigness it is equal to a Stare hath a thick broad Pyramidal Bill a little more than an inch long outwardly sharp A broad compressed Head A short Neck which sitting it contracts or draws up A body near two inches and an half long The Legs and Feet dusky Four Toes disposed in the usual manner The Head upper side of the Neck the whole Back Wings and Tail of a dark brown or black mingled with a little green The under side of the Neck the Breast and lower Belly have yellow feathers But above by the Head it hath a Crown like that of a Monk of a white colour It hath a loud shrill cry Some of these birds have on the top of their Heads a yellow spot and some have it partly of a clay colour else in all things like This kind is called by the Brasilians Cuiriri CHAP. XX. Atinga guacu mucu of Marggrave IT is about the bigness of a Throstle Hath a great Head a Neck of a moderate length a body three inches long The Bill a little hooked of a colour mingled of green and yellow sanguine Eyes with a black Pupil The Legs are ash-coloured of a moderate length above the Knees I suppose he means covered with feathers In the Feet four Toes disposed after the usual manner an exceeding long Tail viz. of about nine inches consisting of about ten feathers of which some of the lower are shorter than the upper The whole Head Neck Back Wings and Tail have brown or fuligineous feathers which in the Tail are darker-coloured than the rest The end of each feather of the Tail for about half an inch is white and between the white and red part shaded with black The Throat Breast lower Belly and Thighs are covered with ash-coloured feathers On the Head it hath long feathers which it can set up like two horns It is a bird remarkable for the length of its Tail For its agreement in bigness its Bill and some other accidents we have subjoyned it to the Thrush-kind CHAP. XXI The Witwall as it is by some called Galbula seu Picus nidum suspendens Aldrov Oriolus Alberti Chloreus Aristotelis Icterus Plinii in Aldrovandus his judgment THis bird from the beginning of the Bill to the end of the Tail was by measure ten inches long Equal in magnitude to or somewhat bigger than a Thrush Its Bill more than an inch long red like a Thrushes but bigger and longer Its Tongue cloven and rough The Irides of its Eyes red Its Legs Feet and Toes of a Lead-colour The hind-Toe near the rise of it was broad and callous The outer Toe joyned to the middle as in the rest of this kind up to the first joynt The quil-feathers of the Wings were black But the tips of the fifth sixth and seventh also of the tenth and four subsequent white and the utmost edges of the third and fourth The foremost feathers of the second row were almost half way of a pale yellow Else the upper surface of the whole Wing black The twelve feathers of the Tail were of equal length viz. about three inches and an half The two middlemost black the rest had their upper halfs yellow their lower black All the body beside was of a bright yellow very beautiful to behold So that for the lustre and elegancy of its colours it scarce gives place to any of the American birds Between the Eyes and Nosthrils on each side it had a black spot In the Female the colours are not so fair and lively the yellow being mingled with black and brown the Breast shaded with dusky lines The lesser rows of Wing-feathers and the two middle feathers of the Tail green The young ones also are greener and have their Breasts spotted The Guts are sixteen inches long great and lax the blind Guts very small and short The Testicles round In the Belly we found Caterpillars We shot this bird near Frankeford in Germany Afterwards we saw many of them at Naples in the Poulterers Shops Whence we guess that they are frequent in the neighbouring Country The structure of the Nest and how artificially it hangs it see in Aldrovand The Low Dutch call this bird by a very fit name Goutmerle that is the golden Ouzel For it agrees with Thrushes or Blackbirds in the shape of the Bill and the whole body in the bigness also food and manner of living It is called Galbula or Galgulus from its yellow colour It is a bird of passage Gesner writes that it comes into his Country for the most part in May but sometimes also in April After whose coming they have certain hope that there will be no more frosts Whence it appears that it delights in hot places and seasons It feeds wonderfully fat hath very delicate flesh and yields wholsom nourishment and no wonder sith it is akin to the Thrushes and uses the same food viz. Insects and Berries CHAP. XXII * Matuitui of Marggravius IT is of the bigness of a Stare Hath a short Neck a strong Breast short Legs a Tail two inches and an half long It hath a streight strong Bill the upper Chap whereof is a little prominent the point inclining downwards of a Vermilion colour The whole Head upper side of the Neck Back Wings and Tail are brown spotted with a pale yellow partly speckled like a Sparrow-Hawk Under the Throat it hath yellow feathers The Breast and Belly are white speckled with brown The Legs of a dark ash-colour CHAP. XXIII * Guirapunga of Marggrave THe cry of this Bird may be heard a great way off It is bigger than the Missel-bird almost equal to a Pigeon Hath a Bill an inch long and pretty broad sharp-pointed the upper part a little prominent above the lower and bending downward black having wide or open Nosthrils It s Mouth is large the slit reaching as far as the Eyes so that the aperture of the Mouth with the Bill forms a triangle It hath a short Tongue Eyes between black and blue Under the Throat which is broad and in the lower part of
streight slender sharp-pointed above half an inch long somewhat flat of a dusky colour Its Tongue broad cloven The Irides of its Eyes hazel-coloured Its Nosthrils round Its Feet of a pale yellow inclining to flesh colour Its Claws dusky that of the back-toe longest The outmost fore-toe sticks to the middle below near the divarication The Breast and Belly are of a pale whitish yellow the Throat deeper coloured both spotted with black in the middle parts of the feathers The Head and Back are particoloured of black and reddish yellow the middle of each feather being spotted with black The Neck is ash-coloured A white line encompasseth the Head from Eye to Eye like a Crown or Wreath The Rump is of a yellowish red or tawny Each Wing hath eighteen prime feathers the outmost being much shorter than the rest The next five are half an inch longer than the rest having their points sharp and their outer edges white The rest have blunt points indented as it were in the middle having yellow edges The feathers of the bastard wing are dusky with clay-coloured tips and at its root is a white spot The small feathers on the ridge of the Wing are ash-coloured The Tail was two inches long consisting of the usual number of feathers viz. twelve not forked yet the middle feathers were something shorter than the rest and ended in sharp points being between green and a sordid red or fulvous colour The four next on each side had blunt points were whitish at tips the outmost most the rest in order less else blackish It hath no Craw In the Stomach we found Beetles Caterpillars Gromil-seed c. The stomach was provided with strong and thick muscles The blind Guts in this kind as in all other small birds that we have observed are very short The Gut below these appendants is larger These birds fly many together in company singing as they fly with a note not much unlike a Blackbirds It is distinguished from the common Lark by the following marks especially 1. Whistling like a Blackbird 2. A Circle of white feathers encompassing the Head from Eye to Eye like a Crown or Wreath 3. The first or outmost feather of the Wing being much shorter than the second whereas in the common Lark it is near equal 4. The outmost feathers of the Tail having white tips 5. That it sits upon trees 6. It is lesser than the common Lark but hath a shorter and thicker or rounder body for its bigness Aldrovandus makes no mention of this bird that I know of Olina figures and describes it in his Uccelleria under the title of Tottovilla The Woodlark is comparable to the Nightingale for singing and by some preferred before it He will also emulate the Nightingale and hath great variety of notes It is a very tender bird and yet breeds the soonest of any in England My Author saith that he hath had a Nest of young birds ready to fly by the sixteenth of March That it builds most commonly in lays where the grass hath been pretty rank and is grown russet under some large Turf to shelter its Nest from the wind and weather He could never bring up a nest of young ones because they either had the cramp or fell into a scouring in less than a weeks time after he had taken them Nor could he ever hear of any who had kept them so long as till they sung So that they are never bred from the Nest The Seasons of taking Woodlarks and which best to keep There are three seasons of taking Woodlarks 1. The first is in June July and August when the Branchers are taken having not yet moulted These birds sing presently but continue their singing but little for they soon fall a moulting They are commonly very familiar birds as being taken young 2. The next season for taking them is in the latter end of September which my Author calls the general flight-time when they rove from one Country to another By this time they have all moulted their feathers and you can hardly distinguish a young bird from an old The birds taken at this season are brave strong and sprightful and prove well at Spring if they be well kept all Winter otherwise they will be lousie and quite spoiled They usually begin not to sing till after Spring and continue till July 3. The third season is from the beginning of January to the latter end of February when they are paired and have parted with their last years Brood These sing within three or four days or a week at furthest if they be well conditioned birds and will soon become tame For your fearful wild buckish birds seldom prove good For upon every turn they bolt against the sides of the Cage and bruise themselves and so are apt to leave off singing Therefore if you have a bird that is a good bird and wild have a Net knit French Meash and put it in the inside of the Cage sowing it close to the sides and strait that when he bolts or flirts he may take no harm Birds taken at this season for the most part prove the best they being in full stomach and singing in a very short time after and being also more perfect in their song than those taken at other seasons How to order a Woodlark when taken In the first place you must have a Cage with two pans one for mixt meat and another for Oatmeal and whole Hemp-seed First boil an Egg hard Then take the crum of a half-peny white-loaf and as much Hemp-seed as the bread Chop your Egg very small and crumble your bread and it together Then bruise your Hemp-seed very small with a rolling pin or pound it in a Mortar mingle all together and give it him 2. You must put red gravel sifted fine at the bottom of his Cage for he delights to bask himself in the sand which if he doth not pretty often he proves lousie and then seldom comes to any thing If you leave gravel-stones in the sand he will be apt to break his feathers in basking him Shift this sand twice a week otherwise he will be subject to clog his feet with his dung 3. Be sure that his meat be not too stale for he will never thrive upon it when dry or mouldy 4. Have a great care to shift his water oft thrice a week at least for it stinks sooner than any birds water because throwing about his meat some falls into it which causes it immediately to stink 5. Line your Pearch in the Cage with some green bays or else make a Pearch of a Mat which I have found them very much to delight in Note 1. If your bird be very wild when he is taken keep him three or four days from company till he begins to eat his meat Strew some of the Hemp-seed and Oatmeal upon the sand and some of his mixt meat also because sometimes they find not the Pan till they be almost famished Note 2. If he
good way and toward the tip moderately hooked The Claws also are whitish §. X. The Bird called Spipoletta at Florence Tordino at Venice Perchance the Stopparola or Grisola or Spipola secunda of Aldrovand IT is less than a Lark about the bigness of a Beccafigo From Bill point to Tail end 7⅛ inches long Between the tips of the Wings extended eleven three quarters broad It s Bill is small slender about half an inch long streight sharp and cole-black Its Spur or back-claw very long like a Larks It s colour on the top of the Head Neck Shoulders and Back cinereous with a dash of green Mr. Willughby makes the Back to be of an obscure or dusky yellow the Head more cinereous The Breast and Belly are white The Throat spotted The Belly of the Hen-bird is yellowish The Throat Breast and Belly in some are white in others of a lovely yellow But in all generally the Breast is darker than the Throat or Belly and spotted It hath in each Wing eighteen prime feathers I found not in this kind that small short outmost feather which we have observed in the Wings of many small birds of a dark or dusky colour excepting the outer edges which are either whitish or yellowish The feathers also of the second row are of the same colour with those of the first The Tail is about three inches long and consists of ten feathers of which the two outmost on each side have their outward Vanes and tops in the whole above their halves milk-white all the rest are dark-coloured and almost black especially in the Males excepting the two middlemost which round the edges are either yellowish or white Mr. Willughby describes the Tail a little otherwise and perchance more exactly thus The Tail is black but the upper half of the outmost feather on each side and the tip of the next are white the two middlemost from dusky incline to an ash-colour This bird is sufficiently distinguished by the length of its heel from other sorts of birds by the black colour of its Wings and Tail Bill and Feet from other Larks Concerning its manners place nest breeding c. we have nothing further to add We saw it at Venice and Florence in the hands of Country-men and Fowlers among other small birds to be sold in the Markets At Florence they called it Spipoletta whence induced by the agreement of names we guess it to be either the first or second Spipola of Aldrovandus But yet seeing in the descriptions of these birds there is no mention made of the length of the heel which it is not likely so curious a spectatour as Aldrovand should either oversee or through neglect and forgetfulness omit notwithstanding the convenience of names these may perchance be distinct Species And therefore that we may not give the Reader just occasion to to complain that we have rashly omitted any thing in our Ornithology we will annex to this Chapter Aldrovandus his descriptions of Spipolae Stopparolae and other small birds to which we judge this to be the same or very like The first Spipola of Aldrovandus The first Spipola which is greater than the rest in this kind hath an ash-coloured Head Under the Bill a white spot in place of a beard It s Breast is red Its Belly particoloured of red and white Its Tail black above white underneath It s Back ash-coloured Its Wings particoloured of white black and red its Legs and Feet yellow its Claws black Its Bill long slender and dusky coloured This bird if it be exactly described is to us as yet unknown The other Spipola of Aldrovandus This inclines more to an ash-colour than the precedent But differs from it in that it hath not a red Brest but marked with black spots drawn downwards It is also more cinereous above than beneath Moreover the Belly is almost white Behind the Eyes is a great spot approaching after a sort to a ferrugineous colour The master feathers of the Wings and those which cover them are black their sides and ends being cinereous The Legs and Feet are dusky The Tail ash-coloured The third Spipola of Aldrovandus described in the same Chapter This some call Boarina It is a small bird almost all over of a pale or whitish yellow but deeper in the Wings than elsewhere The Bill and Feet are dusky The Stopparola of Aldrovand lib. 17. cap. 27. The Fowlers saith he of our City call this bird Stopparola a name I know not what it signifies nor whence it is derived unless perchance it be from Stubble which our Country men call Stoppia It is if I be not mistaken of the Genus of the Muscicapae hath the Breast and Belly for the most part white the Head which on the Crown is speckled with white spots Neck Back and Tail brown the quill-feathers of the Wings black as are also the coverts but yellowish on the sides The Legs and Feet slender and black The Bill indifferently long sharp-pointed and black A Bird like to Stopparola Magnanina Aldrov in the same place It is of the bigness of a Wagtail hath a long streight sharp Bill yet above having a little declivity black above and of a horn colour underneath The Neck Breast and Belly pale The Eyes small and lively having a black Pupil and a white circle and a dusky spot hardly conspicuous about them The Feet leadencoloured The Grisola of Aldrovandus There is a certain other small bird caught in our fields which the Fowlers call Grisola perchance from its grey or hoary colour although it be not grey but of a dusky ash-colour Or perchance because it cries much keeping alone for we sometimes use the word gridare to signifie lamenting It feeds upon flies and other such like Insects as I gather from the figure and construction of its Bill for it is slender streight and long On the Neck and Breast it is distinguished with oblong brown spots tending downwards The whole Belly is white The Head upper side of the Neck Back and Tail are dusky as are also the Wings the feathers whereof have their sides and ends of a pale ash-colour The Legs and Feet are also dusky or blackish The Glareana or Grien Vogelin of Gesner Hither also for its spotted Breast we will refer the Glareana or Grien Vogelin of Gesner which because the Author described from the inspection of a Picture sent him from Strasburgh we suspect not to differ from the above described although in some particulars it seems to vary We refer the Reader that desires more concerning it to Gesner or Aldrovandus CHAP. II. Of the Swallow in general THe characteristic notes of Swallows are a great Head a short Neck a small short Bill a wide mouth for the more easie catching of Flies and other Insects as they flie to and fro Very long Wings a swift and almost continual flight a long and forked Tail for the more ready and speedy turning their body
Its Rump Breast and Belly milk-white Under the Chin the white is somewhat more sullen or obscure Each Wing hath eighteen master-feathers From the tenth the six or seven following have their tips broad and indented The tips of the interiour quil-feathers are white The Tail is less forked than in the House-Swallow The feathers from the middle on each side are longer in order the exteriour than the interiour almost by an equal excess otherwise than in the House-Swallow the outmost feathers of whose Tail as we said before exceed the next three times as much as they do the following c. The length of the outmost feathers is two inches and an half of the middlemost one and three quarters In the stomachs of the Young of this kind we found no stones but many Flies and Beetles This bird builds a round Nest like the House-Swallow and also of like matter yet not in Chimneys but in Windows under Eves of Houses c. It differs moreover in that the House-Swallows Nest is like those of other birds semicircular and all open above but its Nest is covered above a round hole only being left open in the side by which the old one goes in and out §. III. The Sand-Martin or Shore-bird Hirundo riparia Aldrov THis bird is the least that we know of the Swallow-kind being from the tip of the Bill to the end of the Tail no more than five inches and a quarter long It s Bill is small sharp flat black as in the rest of this kind from the point to the angles of the Mouth half an inch long Its Tongue cloven Its Eyes great its Feet dusky At the rise of the back-toe a few small feathers grow else the Legs are bare as far as the knees It s Head Neck and Back are of a dark dun or Mouse colour Its Chin Breast and Belly white At the bottom of the Throat a Ring of the same Mouse-dun encompasses the Neck The number of feathers in Wings and Tail is the same as in other Swallows But the quil-feathers of the Wings are blacker than the feathers on the back from the tenth to the last all of equal length the six next to the tenth have their tips indented The middle feathers of the Tail are an inch and three quarters long the outmost an inch and half It builds in the holes of River-banks lays five or six Eggs makes its Nest of straws bents c. within of feathers on which it lays its Eggs. It differs from the Common Martin in having no white upon the Rump nor its feet feathered as that hath Of this kind great numbers are brought to the Markets at Valentia in Spain to besold for the use of the Kitchin where the Fowlers and Country people call them Papilion di Montagna They are frequent also in Holland and no less in England §. IV. The black Martin or Swift Hirundo apus THis is the biggest of all Swallows we have hitherto seen It hath a great Head a huge wide mouth but a very small black Bill wherein it agrees with the Churn-Owl towards the Nosthrils broad and depressed It s Tongue is broad and somewhat cloven Its Nosthrils long placed obliquely obtuse toward the Head acute toward the point of the Bill Its Eyes great and their Irides of a hazel colour It hath almost no variety or difference of colour in the whole body For as well the upper as the lower side and also the Wings and Tail are black with an obscure tincture of green or red Only under the Chin is a notable spot of white or ash-colour It hath in each Wing eighteen quil-feathers all ending in sharp points but especially the exteriour ones The Tail is about an hand-breadth long consisting of but ten feathers from the middle to the outmost in order one longer than another ending all in sharp points Its Legs are very short but thick Its Feet very small All its Toes stand forwards for the least which in others is wont to stand backward is in this placed the same way with the rest The least Toe hath as in other birds one bone The other three contrary to the manner of all other that we know besides it have all an equal number of bones or joynts viz. only two the one very short the other longer The Toes also are all divided from the very rise The Gall-bladder is little The Stomach not very fleshy out of which dislected we took Beetles and other Insects They say that by reason of the length of its Wings and shortness of its Legs if it happens to alight or fall upon the ground it cannot raise it self up again but may easily be caught Wherefore it doth either always fly or sit upon the tops of Churches Towers or other ancient buildings It s weight was three quarters of an ounce Its length from the tip of the Bill to the Claws five inches to the end of the Tail seven and a quarter The distance between the tips of the wings extended sixteen inches and an half Of this kind we have seen the Picture of one having its whole nether part Throat Breast and Belly white And as we said before Scaliger mentions one of the bigness of a Buzzard §. V. * Aldrovandus his Sea-Swallow THis bird in my judgment belongs not to this Family but ought to be ranked with the lesser Lari or Sea-Gulls It is saith Aldrovandus much bigger than a Swallow and hath longer legs It s whole Belly up to the Breast is white its Head Wings and Back duskish Its Wings and Tail as in Swallows are very long and of a blackish colour but brown withinside It s Tail is forked It s Bill strong and black as in a Gull Its Mouth wide and of a scarlet colour within From the Bill through the Eyes almost to the Breast is extended a notable black line which near the Breast makes as it were a Collar The Feet are as black as Jet and as I said before less than a Swallows For its likeness it is called by Fowlers The Sea Swallow §. VI. * The American Swallow called by the Brasilians Tapera by the Portugues Andorinha Marggrav IT is like our Country Swallows of the same bigness and flying about after the same manner It hath a short broad black Bill A wide Mouth which it can open beyond the region of the Eyes like the greater Ibijan elegant black Eyes Long Wings reaching as far as the end of the Tail which is of a good breadth Its Legs and Feet like those of our Country Swallows All the upper part of the Head the Neck Back Wings and Tail feathers are of a brown colour mingled with grey The Belly is white as are also the feathers under the Tail The Legs and Feet dusky This bird perchance may not differ specifically from our Europaean black Martin or Swift For that as we before observed the Europaean Swift varies sometimes in colour being found with a white
attentive and heedful would either have expected from those little Creatures or easily observed When I asked the Host whether their Tongues had been slit or they taught to speak any thing He answered no whether he had observed or did understand what they sung in the night He likewise denied that The same said the whole Family But I who could not sleep whole nights together did greedily and attentively hearken to the birds greatly indeed admiring their industry and contention One of the stories was concerning the Tapster or House-knight as they call them and his Wife who refused to follow him going into the Wars as he desired her For the Husband endeavoured to persuade his wife as far as I understand by those birds in hope of prey that she would leave her service in that Inn and go along with him into the Wars But she refusing to follow him did resolve either to stay at Ratisbone or go away to Nurenberg For there had been an earnest and long contention between them about this matter but as far as I understood no body being present besides and without the privity of the Master of the House and all this Dialogue the birds repeated And if by chance in their wrangling they cast forth any unseemly words and that ought rather to have been suppressed and kept secret the Birds as not knowing the difference between modest and immodest honest and filthy words did out with them This dispute and wrangling the Birds did often repeat in the night time as which as I guessed did most firmly stick in their memories and which they had well conned and thought upon The other was a History or Prediction of the War of the Emperour against the Protestants which was then imminent For as it were presaging or prophecying they seemed to chant forth the whole business as it afterwards fell out They did also with that story mingle what had been done before against the Duke of Brunswick But I suppose those Birds had all from the secret conferences of some Noblemen and Captains which as being in a public Inn might frequently have been had in that place where the Birds were kept These things as I said they did in the night especially after twelve of the clock when there was a deep silence repeat But in the day-time for the most part they were silent and seemed to do nothing but meditate upon and revolve with themselves what the Guests conferred together about either at Table or else as they walked I verily had never believed our Pliny writing so many wonderful things concerning these little Creatures had I not my self seen with my Eyes and heard them with my ears uttering such things as I have related Neither yet can I of a sudden write all or call to remembrance every particular that I have heard The Nightingale is very impatient of cold and therefore in Winter-time either hides it self in some lurking place or flies away into hot Countries Ireland as Boterus relates is altogether destitute of Nightingales which whether it be true or not I cannot tell In the South part of England in Summer time they are very frequent but in the North more rare Some build upon the ground at hedg-bottoms others in thick green bushes and shrubs They lay four or five Eggs. It is called in Italian Rossingnuolo from its red or fulvous colour or as Aldrovandus rather thinks from the diminutive Latine word Lusciniola In Italy among those little birds which growing fat in the Autumn are sold indiscriminately for Beccafico's the Nightingale is one It breeds in the Spring-time about the month of May building its Nest of the leaves of trees straws and moss It seldom sings near its Nest for fear of discovering it but for the most part about a stones cast distant It is proper to this Bird at his first coming saith Olina to occupy or seize upon one place as its Freehold into which it will not admit any other Nightingale but its Mate It haunts for the most part in cool or shady places where are little Rivulets of water such as are Quick-set hedges small groves and bushes where are no very high trees for it delights in no high trees except the Oak Additions to the History of the Nightingale out of Olina and others §. 1. The choice of the Nestlings and how to take and order them for singing MAke choice of such to bring up for singing as are bred earliest in the Spring because 1. They prove the best singers as having more time to con and practise their notes before Winter 2. They are easiest rear'd and become strong to endure the cold having mued their feathers before Autumn whereas the second brood muing them later are subject to be over-run with Vermine and often surprized and killed by the cold while they are bare of feathers 3. Such consequently prove more healthful and long-lived The young Nightingales saith Olina must be taken when they are well feathered saith a late English Author when they are indifferently well feathered not too little nor too much if too much they will be sullen and if too little if you keep them not very warm they will die with cold and then also they will be much longer in bringing up and together with the Nest put in the bottom of a little basket made of straw covering the Nest so that they cannot get out not tangle or double their Legs keeping them at first in a quiet place where few people resort feeding them eight or ten times a day with heart of a Veal or Weather raw well cleansed and freed from skin films sinews and fat cut into small pieces of the bigness of a writing Pen. Our English Author mingles a like quantity of white bread soaked in water and a little squeezed with the flesh chopping both small as if it were for minc'd meat giving to each bird upon a sticks end two or three small pieces of the quantity of a grey Pease at a time Make them drink two or three times a day by putting to them a little Cotton-wool dipt in water on the end of a stick Keeping them in this manner covered till they begin to find their feet and leap out of the Nest Then put them in a Cage with fresh straw fine moss or hay at the bottom lining the Pearches with green bays for they are very subject to the cramp at the first feeding and ordering them as before till you see they begin to feed themselves which you shall perceive by observing them pick the meat from the stick then take of the heart some pieces of the bigness of a nut and fasten them to the Cage sides When they are come to feed themselves give them four or five times a day a gobbet or two Let them have a cup of water very clean and bright changing the water in Summer-time twice a day doing the same by the flesh that it grow not sower nor stink When they are fully grown put
much gold half fire-colour and a little green In brief shining like the Sun In the Belly are a few white feathers mixt The Legs are black The Wings blackish The Tail almost an inch and half long handsom and broad consisting of some feathers of the same rare colour with the rest of the body some of a mixt colour of green and golden and white about the edges some half white half green shining with golden that is on one side the shaft white on the other green 7. The seventh is a little less than the fifth and sixth kind hath a Bill not altogether an inch long being of an ash-colour all over the body almost like a Sparrow which here and there shineth rarely with a mixture of red like a Rubine 8. The eighth is the most elegant of all hath a streight black Bill half an inch long a long double or cloven Tongue It s bigness and shape agrees with that of the second kind The whole Head above and upper part of the Neck shine with an admirable Rubine-colour as if a Rubine were illustrated by the Sun-beams But the Throat and under-side of the Neck do resemble pure polished Hungarian gold shone upon by the Sun-beams So that it is impossible in words perfectly to set forth the likeness of these colours much less for a Painter to represent or imitate them The beginning of the Back is covered with a Velvet black the rest with dusky feathers with which is mixt something of a dark green The whole lower Belly is invested with feathers of the same colour with the back the Wings with a dusky as in other kinds Near the Vent it hath a white spot The Legs are slender and black The Tail little more than an inch long consisting of feathers of a feuillemort colour which at the ends are dusky about the edges The Tail is broad which it spreads very wide in flying The Wings end with the Tail 9. The ninth is for figure and bigness like the first It s Bill is black above and red underneath It s whole body shines with that bright green colour mixt with golden that the Belly of the second sort is of The Wings are dusky The Tail an inch long pretty broad consisting of feathers of the colour of polished blue steel This Bird is by the Brasilians called by many other names besides Guainumbi as Aratica and Aratarataguacu as Marggrave tells us and Guaracyaba that is A Sun-beam and Guaracigaba that is the hair of the Sun according to de Laet. It is common in almost all the hotter Countries of America It is reported saith Nierembergius that the powder of this Bird taken inwardly cures the Falling sickness What I find in Marggravius concerning the Tail of the first Species viz. that it consists of four feathers I vehemently suspect to be a mistake either of the Printer or of the Author for in the Tail of one that I examined I found the usual number of twelve feathers CHAP. XV. Slender-billed Birds whose Tail is particoloured §. I. The Fallow-Smich in Sussex the Wheat-ear because the time of Wheat-harvest they wax very fat called by the Italians Culo Bianco and by us also in some places White-tail from the colour of its Rump Oenanthe sive Vitiflora of Aldrovandus IN bigness it exceeds the House-Sparrow The colour of its Head and Back is cinereous with a certain mixture of red like to that which is seen in the Back of the Hawsinch The Back of a Female Bird which I described at Florence was cinereous with a certain mixture of green and red The Rump in most is white whence also it took its name in some it is of the same colour with the Back or more red The whole Belly is white lightly dashed with red The Breast and Throat have a deeper tincture of red The Belly in the Cocks is sometimes yellowish Above the Eyes is a white line continued to the hinder part of the Head Below the Eyes a black stroak is extended from the corners of the mouth to the ears I found not this black line in the Females Both the quil-feathers and covert-feathers of the Wings are all black besides the fringes or extreme edges which are white tinctured with a sordid red The Tail is two inches and a quarter long made up of twelve feathers of which the two middlemost have their upper half white the rest their lower the other half being black Moreover the tips and edges of them all are white In the Hen the white takes up but a quarter of the feathers The Bill is slender streight black more than half an inch long The mouth is black within the Tongue black and cloven The aperture of the Mouth great The Irides of the Eyes hazel-coloured The back-toe is armed with a great Claw The Stomach is not very musculous out of which dissected we took Beetles and other Insects It breeds in forsaken Coney-burroughs The Sussex Shepherds to catch these Birds use this Art They dig long turves of earth and lay them across the holes whereout they were digged and about the middle of them hang snares made of horse-hair The Birds being naturally very timorous if a Hawk happen to appear or but a cloud pass over and intercept the Sun-beams hastily run to hide themselves in the holes under the Turves and so are caught by the Neck in the snares Upon the Downs of Sussex which are a ridge of Mountains running all along by the Sea-coast for thirty or forty miles in length they are taken yearly in great numbers in Harvest-time or the beginning of Autumn where for their fatness and delicate relish they are highly prized Aldrovandus hath another Oenanthe which is a little less than the former but yet bigger than a Sparrow on the Head Neck Back and lesser Wing-feathers of a reddish yellow deeper on the Back lighter on the Breast having black Eyes behind which is also a long black spot of a semilunar figure A long slender black Bill black Wing-feathers whose ends are yellow as are also those of the Tail-feathers There is also a Bird called Strapazino by our Fowlers saith Aldrovand in the Bononian Territory whose Rump underneath and almost the whole Tail are likewise white The Head and Back of a rusty yellow The Wing-feathers half black and half yellow the Bill indifferent long of a dusky colour The Throat Breast and Belly are white lightly dashed with yellow The Tail toward the Rump is yellow else black §. II. The Whin-chat under which also we treat of the Anthus or Florus of Aldrovand IN bigness it scarce exceeds a Wagtail The upper side of the body viz. The Back Head and covert-feathers of the Wings are of a pale feuille-mort colour variegated with black spots placed in rows If you heed each single feather the middle part of it about the shaft is black the sides of a feuille-mort or dusky yellow The Belly is white with a tincture of red The
pale red no other colour interceding The Eyes and Bill for the proportion of the body are great and this last whitish The Tail is forked the Feet yellowish adorned with transverse lines almost of a flesh-colour The Claws black pretty long and sharp §. VII * The Ring-Sparrow of Bellonius and the small Sparrow living about Walnut-trees of the same Author THe first of these differs from the common Sparrow as well in that it is of a diverse colour as because the spot which in that is black in this is yellow He calls it Torquatus because a white ring or wreath encompasses the Eyes under the Eye-brows Moreover it is more cinereous than the common Sparrow hath a greater voice and exceeds it in the bigness of the Body and Bill It abides in Woods building in the hollows of trees The other called Friguet by the French is least of all having a very short thick black Bill its Feet Legs Head and Wings like those of the Wall-Sparrow It builds in Trees §. VIII * The tailed purple and black Indian Sparrow of Aldrov Book 15. Chap. 28. IT hath a Tail five inches long made up of ten very black feathers The quil-feathers of the Wings are also cole-black The Head Neck and Rump are of a deep purple colour yet the roots or bottoms of the feathers yellow The Bill is pretty thick somewhat hooked and sharp something resembling that of the Butcher-bird black above beneath where it grows to the Head white The colour of the Legs I know not for they were wanting in the case communicated to me but it is likely that it hath black ones §. IX * The Tijepiranga of Brasil or American Sparrow Marggrave IT is a little bigger than a Lark and sings like our common Sparrow It s whole Body Neck and Head are of a delicate red or sanguine colour But the Wings and Tail of a shining black saving that in the beginning of the Wings there is something of red mixt therewith The Legs are black below the Knees bare of feathers above covered with black feathers The Bill like a Sparrows the upper Chap black the nether black also toward the point but white toward the Head The feathers on the Head black which she is sometimes wont to ruffle up after the manner of Sparrows All the feathers of the whole body are black within red without yet so complicated that outwardly they appear wholly red The Tail is almost three inches long Each foot hath four Toes and so disposed as in most other birds There is found another sort of this bird of the bigness of a Sparrow whose whole body is covered with bluish ash-coloured feathers But the Wings approach something to a Sea-green In the Belly and lower part of the Neck or Throat it is white or rather of a shining silver colour The Legs are ash-coloured as is also the Bill which is like a Chaffinches Each foot divided into four Toes and those situate as is usual in birds §. X. * The long-tail'd Indian Sparrow with a scarlet Bill of Aldrovand IT is of equal bigness to our House-Sparrows if you except the longer feathers of the Tail It hath a short thick Bill of a scarlet colour It s Head is flat elevated near the Neck blackish with a mixture of a greenish colour inclining to blue which also is seen running downward through the Back and upper part of the Wings The Wings are of three colours chiefly first that now mentioned secondly a white as appears in the figure thirdly a black To which succeeds fourthly a yellowish colour next which are the quil-feathers again black but cinereous within The Throat lower side of the Neck the Breast and Belly are white The Tail is double as in the Peacock and also of two colours The lesser which sustains the greater being as it were its prop is white the greater consisting of four very narrow feathers of nine inches long is of a deep black The Legs and Feet are spotted of black and white the Talons black and as in birds of prey very sharp and hooked §. XI * Another Indian long-tail'd Sparrow of Aldrovand Book 15. Chap. 23. THis is an exceeding beautiful bird even fairer than the former Of the same bigness It s Bill is blue Its Head also as in that flat but more elevated in the Neck all black its Eyes also black encompassed with a white circle and having a yellow Iris Its Neck and Breast are of a scarlet colour its Belly and Thighs white Its Wings Back and Tail black But a certain paleness is mingled with the quil-feathers of the Wings The longer feathers of the Tail which are two exceeding long ones viz. five Palms and very broad and a third first also broad but ending in very slender filaments are supported by other smaller ones The Legs and Feet are white The Claws black and as in the precedent notably sharp and hooked §. XII * A short-tail'd Indian Sparrow of Aldrovand Book 15. Chap. 24. THis Bird is lesser than the two former all over black Which colour yet hath I know not what kind of blue and violet gloss as is usually seen to happen in deep blacks The Bill and Feet are of a flesh-colour the Claws black The Eyes also black but encompassed with a white circle §. XIII * The short-tail'd Italian Sparrow of Aldrovand THe Bird saith he which you see here delineated having a very short Tail called Passerino that is a little Sparrow is sometimes taken in the Country about Bologna It s whole body is of one colour viz. yellowish Yet its Breast and Belly are whiter than the other parts It s Bill is of a deeper yellow §. XIV * The rumpless black and red Indian Sparrow of Aldrovand THe whole body both above and underneath as also the beginnings of the Wings are of a most lovely shining scarlet colour The rest of the Wings is black But yet if their feathers are spread out something of white appears in their sides The Feet also are black Moreover it hath along the Back two oblong black spots almost contiguous The Bill for the proportion of the body small for it is a thick-bodied bird for its bigness and less also than in the common Sparrow white where it is joyned to the head else black sharp and slender It altogether wants a Rump §. XV. * The rumpless blue red and black Indian Sparrow of Aldrovand THis Bird is longer than the former but less corpulent and of three colours especially viz. red blue and black The Head Neck and Breast and all the lower parts are of a deep red colour On the sides of the Neck are two large contiguous spots of a semilunar figure and scarlet colour The Wings are very long black and blue about the sides The Legs short and black The Bill a little crooked black but white near the forehead All these Indian Sparrows are to us unknown Aldrovandus also himself saw only the pictures of them not the
the same colour with the middle of the Back The Wings when closed reach as far or further than the Tail it self which is short of about an inch and half or two inches consisting of twelve feathers of an ash-colour The two middlemost darker than the rest and almost black The whole Belly and underside of the Wings as white as Snow The Breast in some spotted or clouded with brown in others perhaps these are the Males no spots appear yet the Breast is darker than the Belly and inclined to red The blind guts are an inch and half long The Stomach not very musculous These birds live upon the sandy shores of the Sea and fly in flocks We saw many of them on the Sea-coasts of Cornwall CHAP. X. * The Rotknussel of Baltner Rotkmillis or Gallinula Melampus of Gesner Aldrov THe German name Rotkmillis saith Gesner seems to be compounded of the colour For this Bird is of a red or russet colour with dusky spots in the Neck and about the Eyes But Kmillis I know not whence derived is a more common or general word sith another Water-hen of this kind is also called Matkmillis We from the colour of the Legs have imposed on it the name Melampus which signifies Black-soot For there is no bird I know of this kind that hath blacker feet The body is dusky with some spots of a sordid and dark colour The Bill also is black The Wings marked with black spots To this Bird saith Aldrovand that which I here give you called by our Fowlers Giarola a name common to many birds is very like if not the same For on the Head Neck and Breast down to the middle of the Belly it is red sprinkled with brown and sometimes also white spots Its Feet and Legs are cole-black The small Wing-feathers are distinguished with cinereous and black The great ones are black The Bill is long and a little bending sharp at point The Belly is white with a tincture of red and curiously spotted with black spots The Tail also is white but black at the end CHAP. XI * Matkneltzel of Baltner Gallinula Erythra of Gesner THis Bird the Germans call Matkern but for what reason saith Gesner I know not I from the colour of its whole body have called it Erythra But though almost the whole body I except the Belly which is whitish with a faint tincture of red and the Legs which are ash-coloured be red yet is that redness darker on the Back and intercepted with white spots Brighter in some of the Wing-feathers the longest whereof approach to the colour of red Oker In the Neck beneath are some white specks The Bill is black not without somewhat of red shorter than in most others of this kind It is taken among Reeds with snares It hath a cry somewhat resembling the sound of Fullers striking of Wool Leonard Baltner describes his Matkneltzel if at least it be the same bird with Gesners Matkern thus It is a very fair beautiful bird From the tip of the Bill to the end of the Claws it is a full Strasburgh Ell long It weighs six Lots and an half that is three ounces a quarter For a Lot is about half an ounce It Guts are an Ell long It frequents Waters and seeks its meat in watery places The Cocks are adorned with beautiful feathers like those of Partridges and have pale-red Feet The feathers of the Hens are less beautiful and their Feet grey Some also weigh thirteen Lots and are three quarters of a Ell long These birds in figure magnitude and colour do very nearly resemble the Female RUFFS which they call REEVES Whether they be the same or not let the Virtuosi at Strasburgh where they are found examine CHAP. XII The north-North-Country Dunlin of Mr. Johnson IT is about the bigness of the Jack-Snipe or Judcock hath a streight channell'd black Bill a little broader at the end oblong Nosthrils a blackish Tongue The Throat and Breast white spotted with black The middle of the Belly is blackish waved with white lines The lower Belly and feathers under the Tail white All the upper side is red every where spotted with pretty great black spots with a little white Yet the Wings from a grey incline to a brown or dusky colour The Legs and Feet are of a competent length and black The back-toe the shortest The Tail consists of twelve feathers of which the two middlemost are dusky brown with one or two red spots the rest from brown incline to white It gets its food out of the mud The Rotknussel or Gallinula melampus of Gesner and Aldrovand differs not much from this bird CHAP. XIII §. I. The Stint which the French call the Sea-Lark Schoeniclos seu Junco Bellonii An Cinclus prior Aldrov IT is equal to the common Lark or but very little less For the shape of its body like to a Snipe From Bill to Feet eight inches and an half long It s Bill is streight slender black an inch and half long and like to a Snipes bill The Tongue extended to the end of the Bill The Feet dusky or blackish with a tincture of green The toes not joyned by any membrane The back-toe small The colour of the upper side of the body excepting the prime feathers of the Wings and first row of coverts is grey or cinereous with black spots or lines in the middle of each single feather The feathers in the middle of the Back and upper side of the Wings have a tincture of red Mr. Willughby describes it a little differently thus The middle parts of the feathers on the Head are black the edges red or russet The Neck is more of an ash-colour The Back-feathers of a dark purple with reddish ash-coloured edges Those on the Rump of a lighter red with black lines or stroaks down their shafts The Wings are long and when folded up reaching to the end of the Tail The quil-feathers of each Wing twenty four of a dusky colour as far as they appear above the covert-feathers for their bottoms are white and the interiour in order gradually more than the exteriour to the nineteenth which is almost wholly white Mr. Willughby in the bird he described observed the tips of the second row of Wing-feathers to have been also white in the same proportion as in the Sanderling making together a white line cross the Wing yet narrower than in that The exteriour edges of the fifth counting from the outmost and of the subsequent to the eleventh are white The four next the body are wholly dusky and by little and little streightned into sharp points and when the Wing is closed reach almost to the end of the Tail The Tail is scarce two inches long not forked made up of twelve feathers of which the two middlemost are longer than the rest sharper pointed also and darker-coloured All the rest are of a pale ash-colour without any cross lines or bars only their outmost edges whitish All the
back-feathers are black The Tail and covert-feathers of the Wings are of a dusky ash-colour as in Geese The ends of the quil-feathers black The Tail is about seven inches long made up of twenty or twenty two feathers of almost equal length save that the outmost are a little shorter than the middlemost Each Wing hath twenty eight quil-feathers The Bill toward the Head is of a Lead-colour the end being yellowish The upper Mandible broad and flat the nether as it were two long ribs or spars joyned at one end with a thick yellow skin interceding which reaches backwards to the Throat beyond the Bill At the end of the Bill is a little knob or protuberance but the utmost tip of the Bill is hooked The Nosthrils are situate at the base of the Bill near the Head above the cranny or furrow running along the length of the Bill as in the Soland-goose and are round The Eyes are of a yellowish ash-colour or rather whitish The Legs and Feet of a lead colour The shanks bare above the knees All the four toes are web'd together as Aldrovand hath rightly observed We saw and described this Bird in the Royal Aviary in St. James Park near Westminster The Emperour of Russia by his Embassadours sent to his Majesty in the year 166â— among other rarities presented the King with two birds of this kind Franciscus Stellutus in a Letter to Jo. Faber at Rome describes a Pelecan he saw at Fabriano thus This Bird is much bigger than the biggest Goose yea equal to or bigger than a Swan That which Gesner described weighed twenty four pounds of twelve ounces the pound Of Aldrovands two one weighed eighteen pounds the other twenty five Of a whitish colour yet not purely white but clouded with something of dusky or red Nor is this colour uniform all the body over for the Wing-feathers are darker than of the rest of the body Its Feet are made up of three Toes joyned together by a membrane and a Heel behind Here by inadvertency I suppose Stellutus is mistaken for all four toes are web'd together The Bill almost as long as ones arm but not toothed The tip of the upper Chap is bent downward with a hook like the claw of some bird I could not see any Tongue neither could Faber who saw this same bird afterward at Rome find the Tongue though he searched diligently for it but where the root of the Tongue was fixed I observed certain perforate bodies On the crown of the Head there stood up some feathers elevated above the rest imitating a Crest The bag which hangs down under the Bill and which makes the Pelecan greatly different from other birds is membranaceous which it sometimes contracts and draws up so to the Bill that it is scarce conspicuous other times it suffers to be so dilated as to receive and contain many Faber saith thirty pounds of water The membrane being so stretcht and distended that it appears transparent many fibres and veins running up and down through it I wondered most they are Fabers words when the Bill being opened very wide I saw the whole head of a man of great stature received in that vast gulf of the Craw. In the Head I discovered two manifest but small holes reaching to the brain which served for smelling Wanting a Tongue it must make that uncouth sound like the braying of an Ass by the help of its Larynx only I heard not this but the Keeper of this Bird that carried it up and down to shew when he provoked it striking it on the Bill and the Bird seemed angry and ready to peck or strike with its Bill so that it would sometimes catch hold of his hand it made a noise somewhat like the cry of a Goose and that a small and hoarse one The noble Lord Jo. Carolus Schaad related to me that a great while since there were three Pelecans shot in the River Danow running through Bavaria two of which were kill'd the third brought alive to the Duke of Bavaria's Court where it lived forty years It was much delighted in the company and conversation of men and in Musick both Vocal and Instrumental For it would willingly stand by those that sung or sounded the Trumpet and stretching out its Head and turning its Ear to the Musick listened very attentively to that sweet harmony though its own voice is said to be like the braying of an Ass This confirms what we read in Aldrovand of the age of the Pelecan which was kept fifty years at Mechlin and was verily believed to be eighty years old Thus far Faber It is singular in this Bird that its bones are pellucid solid without any marrow at all within and that the division of the Wind-pipe into two branches is near about the middle of the stomach which I never observed in any other bird saith Aldrovand This bird feeds upon fish as do all the rest of this kind Faber saw it swallow two fresh Hakes that weighed about four pounds whole Many of them frequent the River Danow but breed not there Bellonius saith he saw flocks of Onocrotali in Egypt Olaus Magnus writes that they are frequent in the Northern Countries Oviedus reports that there is often seen a great flock of them about Panama in the West Indies where they breed on the adjacent Rocks and Islandr There are said to be of them likewise on the Caspian Sea Of old time it seems they have frequented the Coast of Italy about Ravenna for Martial hath it Turpe Ravennatis guttur Onocrotali Matthiolus makes them very common in the Sea-coasts of Tuscany especially about the Cape Argentaro being frequently found about Port Hercole and the Lake of Urbicello where the Inhabitants call them Agrotti What credit this deserves saith Faber I know not this I know that many of Matthiolus his Country men have scarce ever seen so much as the Picture of an Onocrotalus which if they were so common there would not sure be accounted such strange things as to be carried about to shew at Rome and in other places of Italy CHAP. II. The Soland Goose Anser Bassanus IN bigness it equals a tame Goose It is by measure from the tip of the Bill to the end of the Feet thirty four inches long To the end of the Tail thirty nine Its Wings are of an extraordinary length for being extended their extreme tips are seventy two inches distant It s Bill is long streight of a dark ash-colour a little crooked at the point having on each side not far from the hook an angular Appendix or tooth like the Bills of some rapacious birds Beyond the Eyes the skin on the sides of the Head is bare of feathers as in the Cormorant The Palate and all the inside of the Mouth is black The slit of the Mouth huge wide At the angle of the Upsilon-like bone is a very small Tongue The Ears of a mean size The Eyes hazel-coloured In another bird
ease and expedition under water than either upon the surface of the water or upon the Land So soon as it is risen above water it holds up its Head looks about it and with wonderful celerity plunges it self under water again It can hardly raise it self up out of the water but when it is once gotten upon the Wing it can hold out flying a long time The stomach of that we dissected was full of grass and weeds Bellonius saith that it feeds most willingly upon fishes Being rosted it smells very strong Both Gesner and Aldrovand describe two kinds of small Douckers but they differ so little one from the other that I suppose the diversity is rather in Age or Sex than in Species CHAP. III. Whole-footed Douckers with Tails §. I. The greatest speckled Diver or Loon Colymbus maximus caudatus Mergus max. Farrensis five Arcticus Clus THis is a singular kind of Bird and as it were of a middle nature between whole-footed birds with four fore-toes and with three In bigness it exceeds a tame Duck coming near to a Goose It is long-bodied hath a round Tail and a small Head The upper part of the Neck next to the Head is covered with feathers so thick set that it seems to be bigger than the very Head it self The colour of the upper part viz. the Neck Shoulders covert-feathers of the Wings and whole Back is a dark grey or dusky pointed or speckled with white spots thinner set on the Neck and thicker on the Back These white spots are bigger upon the long scapular feathers and coverts of the Wings and smaller in the middle of the Back The lower part of the Neck the Breast and Belly are white In a bird I saw that was killed in the Isle of Jarsey the Head was black and also the Neck which had a white or rather grey ring about the middle of an inch or inch and half broad consisting of abundance of small white specks We counted in the two outmost joynts of each Wing thirty quil-feathers but they are short all black or of a dark brown It hath a very short Tail of the figure of a Ducks made up of at least twenty feathers It s Bill is streight sharp like that of the Guillem almost three inches long the upper Mandible black or livid covered with feathers to the very Nosthrils reflected a little upwards the nether is white The Nosthrils are divided in the middle by a skin hanging down from above It is whole-footed and hath very long fore-toes especially the outmost The back-toe is very short and little Its Legs are of a mean length but flat and broad like the ends of Oars the exteriour surface being brown or black The interiour livid or pale-blue The Claws broad like the nails of a man The Legs in this bird are situate almost in the same plain with the Back so that it seems not to be able to walk unless erected perpendicularly upon the Tail It hath no Labyrinth upon the Wind-pipe The Liver is divided into two Lobes and hath a bladder to contain Gall Above the stomach the Gullet is dilated into a kind of Craw the interiour surface whereof is granulated with certain papillary glandules The Throat is vast loose and dilatable The guts large especially towards the stomach The stomach less fleshy and musculous than in granivorous birds The Bird described was shot on the River Tame in Warwickshire I have seen four of them 1. One at Venice in Italy 2. One in Yorkshire at Dr. Hewleys shot near Cawood 3. A third in the Repository of the Royal Society 4. A fourth in the house of my honoured friend Mr. Richard Darley in London taken in the Isle of Jarsey They differ something one from another in colours For some of them have a ring about their necks their Back Neck and Head blacker and painted with little white lines Others want the ring and have the upper side of their bodies more ash-coloured or grey varied with white specks and not lines Perchance these are the Hens those the Cocks §. II. * Gesners greatest Doucker Colymbus maximus Gesneri IN the Lake of Constance I hear there is taken though but seldom a certain bird congenerous to the aforesaid but bigger than a Goose called Fluder from its uncouth fluttering motion on the surface of the water for that it can neither fly well nor walk conveniently unless it leans both upon Feet and Wings as do also the other Douckers by reason of the position of the Legs so turned backwards That it hath a long sharp Bill A loud shrill cry of a singular kind That it dives exceeding deep so that it is sometimes taken twenty yards deep under water viz. with a Net or an Iron-hook baited with a fish that they are commonly sold for two drachms and an half of silver a piece Leonard Baltner a Fisherman of Strasburgh describes this bird thus In bigness it equals a Goose Its length from the point of the Bill to the end of the Toes is one Strasburgh yard and an half It s Bill from the point to the Eyes is five inches long The Legs from the Claws to the feathers that is the bare part ten inches The space of the Wings extended two yards and a quarter The Stomach small It feeds upon fish The Bill sharp The Feet broad the toes web'd together The upper side of the body is cinereous and black the under-side white The Tail three inches long It dives very far a Pistol-shot before it rises again It s flesh is commended for good meat and is of no unpleasant taste This Bird if it be different from the above described is I confess hitherto to me unknown Mr. Johnson in his Papers sent us writes that he hath seen a bird of this kind without any spots in its Back or Wings but yet thinks it not to differ specifically but accidentally §. III. * Wormius his Northern Doucker called Lumme IT is common among the Norwegians and Islanders who in their own Country Language call it Lumme Carolus Clusius mentions it in his Auctarium pag. 367. It is an elegant bird of the bigness of a Duck with a black sharp Bill two inches long It s Head and Neck are covered with grey cinereous feathers ending in a sharp point as if it had a Monks hood on its Back It s Back and Wings are black sprinkled over with square spots of white which yet are bigger on the Back than the Wings Under the Neck is a square oblong black spot like to a shield five inches long and two broad compassed on all sides with feathers variegated of black and white as with a Girdle The whole Belly and lower parts of the Wings are white The Legs are stretcht forth beside the Tail as if they grew out of the Vent fitted not so much for walking as for swimming not slender but flat and broad Each foot hath three Toes that are black and joyned together with black
between the Wings are something crooked and of the colour of the Claws The feathers of this Bird are highly esteemed among the Indians and preferred even before Gold it self the longer ones for crests and other ornaments both of the head and whole body both for War and Peace But the rest for setting in feather-works and composing the figures of Saints and other things which they are so skilful in doing as not to fall short of the most artificial Pictures drawn in colours For this purpose they also make use of and mingle and weave in together with these the feathers of the humming bird These Birds live in the Province of Tecolotlan beyond Quauhtemallam towards Honduras where great care is taken that no man kill them Only it is lawful to pluck off their feathers and so let them go naked yet not for all men indifferently but only for the Lords and Proprietors of them for they descend to the Heirs as rich possessions Fr. Hernandez in some pretermitted annotations adds concerning the manner of taking these Birds some things worth the knowing The Fowlers saith he betake themselves to the Mountains and there hiding themselves in small Cottages scatter up and down boil'd Indian Wheat and prick down in the ground many rods besmeared with Birdlime wherewith the Birds intangled become their prey They fly in flocks among trees on which they are wont to sit making no unpleasant noise with their whistling and singing in consort They have by the instinct of nature such knowledge of their riches that once sticking to the Birdlime they remain still and quiet not strugling at all that they may not mar or injure their feathers The beauty whereof they are so in love with that they chuse rather to be taken and killed than by endeavouring to get their liberty do any thing that may deface or prejudice them They are said to pick holes in trees and therein to build and breed up their Young They feed upon Worms and certain wild Pinnae of that sort which the Mexicans are wont to call Matzatli They love the open air nor hath it been yet found that ever they would be kept tame or brought up in houses They make a noise not much unlike Parrots But they have a chearful and pleasant whistle and they sing thrice a day to wit in the Morning at Noon and about Sun-set Next to the Quetzaltototl the Tzinitzian is most esteemed It is a small bird almost as big as a Dove clothed with feathers of many colours with which the Natives compose Images and Figures of wonderful subtilty and curiosity For from this artifice they are become known and famous all the world over These they use and make shew of on Feast days in War in their Temples and public Merriments and Dancings It s Bill is short crooked and pale its Head and Neck like a Doves but covered with green and shining feathers It s Breast and Belly are red excepting that part which is next the Tail For that is died with blue and white promiscuously It s Tail green above and black underneath Its Wings partly white and partly black The Iris of its Eye is yellow but inclining to scarlet The Legs and Feet cinereous It lives in hot Countries near the Southern Ocean It is nourished up in Cages and fed with fruits It is as beautiful and lovely a Bird as any is but neither doth it sing nor is its flesh that I know of good Totoquestal also as Antonius Herrera writes is a lesser-sized bird than a Pigeon all over green The feathers of its Tail are very long highly prized and a special commodity used in commerce It was a capital crime to kill this bird wherefore they only pluckt it and let it go Of the Thrushes of Chiappa and Artisicer-Sparrows THere is a sort of Thrushes found in Chiappa which they call Artisicer-Sparrows They are black only on the Breast and red on the Head They feed only upon Acorns With their Bill they perforate the barks of Pine-trees and in each hole fitly accommodate or stick in an acorn so that by the hand it cannot be pluckt out and so very elegantly set the Pine-tree round with Acorns Then sticking to the bark with their Feet they strike the A corn with their Bill and devour the kernel Of the long bird or Hoitlallotl HOitlallotl or the long bird is more taken notice of for its running than for its feathers From the tip of the Bill to the end of the Tail which also is a span long it is extended nine inches It s Bill is black above cinereous underneath three inches long and moderately thick It s Tail is green but with a purplish splendour The feathers of the whole body from white tend to fulvous but toward the Tail from black to the same colour Yet the feathers on the upper side of the body are black sprinkled with white spots It flies near the ground and makes but short slights but runs so swiftly that it far exceeds the speed of the fleetest horses It lives in hot Countries and yields no very desirable nourishment Of Indian Quails THose of New Spain call Quails Colin These are like our Country Quails though they be without doubt to be referred to the kind of Partridges There are found many sorts of them in New Spain Some brown and crested which they call Quauhtzonecolim of a moderate bigness and a remarkable but mournful cry Others brown in like manner but without crests and a little less Others the biggest of all of a fulvous colour but their Heads varied with white and black the ends extremis of their Wings and Back white their Bill and Feet black They are all as I said like to the Spanish Quails very good and pleasant meat provided you kill them two or three days before they be rosted and served up Physicians allow sick persons to eat of their flesh Neither is there any Fowl among the Indians next to tame Poultry whose flesh is to be preferred before it either for wholsomness or taste They have a tune like our Quails and some a more pleasant one than others They are kept in Coops and fed either with common or Indian Wheat and are common in many parts of this Country The same Author Fr. Hernandez of the Coyolcozgue or sounding Quail in another place writes thus It is one among many other sorts of Colin or Mexican Quails of which we shall speak singly like to our Quails for bigness note feeding flight and conditions but of a different colour above mingled of fulvous and white underneath only fulvous yet the crown of the Head and the Neck are set with black and white feathers which make seams or strakes on each side from the Neck to both Eyes The Eyes are black and the Legs fulvous It is native of this Country and frequent in the open fields as is the common Quail and yields a like nourishment coming next to the Spanish Partridge of which it is
defending and shifting for it self flying near the ground and that with great force and swiftness for two hundred or three hundred paces and when it alights or falls on the ground running so swiftly that scarce any man can overtake it It hath only three Toes in each foot like the Bustard or Plover The roots of all the feathers are red and as it were of a sanguine colour so joyned to the skin as in the Bustard whence also we take it to be a kind of Bustard For both but especially this is white under the Belly But the Back is variegated with three or four colours to wit a yellow tending to red with somewhat of cinereous and red intermixed Four Wing-feathers in the upper part have black tips Under the Bill down as far as the Breast it is white A white Collar near the Crop compasses the Breast as in the Savoy Merulae or Water-Ouzels But this Collar appears not in Bellonius his figure The colour of the Head and upper part of the Neck is the same with that of the Back and Wings The Bill is black less than in the Ionic Attagen The Legs incline to cinereous He that desires an exact description of this Bird let him imagine a Quail of the bigness of a Pheasant but very much spotted for just such is this Field-Duck All the interiour parts it hath common with other granivorous birds It is reckoned among delicate Birds and esteemed as good meat as a Pheasant It feeds indifferently upon all sorts of Grain as also upon Ants Beetles and Flies and likewise upon the leaves of green corn And although the colour of the Neck and Head be not always the same and herein consists the difference between the Male and the Female yet the Back and Wings never change colour This Bird seems not to have been mentioned by the Ancients CHAP. XIV Of Doves or Pigeons in general THe Marks common to all sorts of Pigeons whereby they may be distinguished from all other kinds of Birds are not very many viz. a peculiar figure of body resembling that of a Cuckow short Legs long Wings swift flight a mournful voice to lay only two Eggs at one sitting but to breed often in a year Aldrovandus saith it is proper to all Pigeons to wink with both Eye-lids They do not all agree in the figure of the Bill For some have slender and indifferently long Bills others thick and short ones The Feet of all at least so many as we have yet seen are red or sanguine In the Pigeon-kind the Male and Female divide between them the labour of incubation sitting by turns The Male also assists the Female in feeding and rearing the Young And for an internal note it is common to them to have no Gall-bladder CHAP. XV. Of the several kinds of Pigeons §. I. The common wild Dove or Pigeon Columba vulgaris A Female which we described weighed thirteen ounces Was in length from Bill to Tail thirteen inches in breadth twenty six It s Bill was slender sharp-pointed and indifferently long like to that of a Lapwing or Plover above the Nosthrils soft and white by the aspersion of a kind of furfuraceous substance else dusky The Tongue neither hard nor cloven but sharp and soft The Irides of the Eyes of a yellowish red The Legs on the forepart feathered almost to the Toes The Feet and Toes red the Talons black The Head was of a pale blue the Neck as it was diversly objected to the light did exhibite to the Beholder various and shining colours The Crop was reddish the rest of the Breast and Belly ash-coloured The Back beneath a little above the Rump was white which is a note common to most wild Pigeons about the shoulders cinereous else black yet with some mixture of cinereous The number of prime feathers in each Wing was about twenty three or twenty four Of these the outmost were dusky of the rest as much as was exposed to sight black what was covered with the incumbent feathers cinereous The covert-feathers of the ten first Remiges were of a dark cinereous Of the rest of the covert-feathers almost to the body the tips and interiour Webs as far as the shafts were cinereous the exteriour black The covert-feathers of the underside of the Wings purely white The Tail is made up of twelve feathers four inches and an half long the middle being somewhat longer than the extremes The tips of all were black The two outmost below the black on the outside the shaft were white all the rest wholly cinereous the lower part being the darker The feathers incumbent on the Tail were cinereous It had a great Craw full of Gromil seed The blind Guts were very short scarce exceeding a quarter of an inch It hath as we said of Pigeons in general no Gall-bladder and lays but two Eggs at a time This kind varies mumch in colour there are found of them ordinarily milk-white Aldrovandus describes and figures many sorts of tame Pigeons which he thus distinguishes Tame or house Doves are either Of our Country which have their Feet either Naked The greater called Tronfi and in English Runts whose description and figure you have t. 2. pag. 462. The lesser or most common t. 2. pag. 463. Rough The greater t. 2. pag. 466 The lesser Crested t. 2. pag. 469. Smooth-crown'd t. 2. pag. 467. Outlandish to wit Frisled Pigeons t. 2. pag. 470. Cyprus Pigeons Hooded with their Feet Rough t. 2. pag. 471. Bare of which there are several kinds set forth p. 472 473 474 Smooth-crowned called Indian Pigeons t. 2. pag. 477. Candy Pigeons having in the Bill above where it is joyned to the Head a white Tubercle or Wattle p. 478. Persian or Turkey Pigeons of a dark colour p. 481. Varro's Stone or Rock Pigeon Under the title of Domestic which I have Englished tame or house Doves he comprehends the common wild Pigeon kept in Dove-cotes which is of a middle nature between tame and wild §. II. Divers sorts of tame Pigeons 1. THe greater tame Pigeon called in Italian Tronfo Asturnellato in English a Runt a name as I suppose corrupted from the Italian Tronfo Though to say the truth what this Italian word Tronfo signifies and consequently why this kind of Pigeon is so called I am altogether ignorant Some call them Columbae Russicae Russia-Pigeons whether because they are brought to us out of Russia or from some agreement of the names Runt and Russia I know not These seem to be the Campania Pigeons of Pliny They vary much in colour as most other Domestic Birds Wherefore it is to no purpose to describe them by their colours In respect of magnitude they are divided into the biggest and the lesser kind The greater are more sluggish birds and of slower flight the same perchance with those Gesner saith he observed at Venice which were almost as big as Hens The lesser are better breeders more nimble and of swifter flight