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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
friend_n	write_v	year_n	young_a	120	4	5.6127	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66534	The ornithology of Francis Willughby of Middleton in the county of Warwick Esq, fellow of the Royal Society in three books : wherein all the birds hitherto known, being reduced into a method sutable to their natures, are accurately described : the descriptions illustrated by most elegant figures, nearly resembling the live birds, engraven in LXXVII copper plates : translated into English, and enlarged with many additions throughout the whole work : to which are added, Three considerable discourses, I. of the art of fowling, with a description of several nets in two large copper plates, II. of the ordering of singing birds, III. of falconry / by John Ray ...	Ray, John, 1627-1705.; Willughby, Francis, 1635-1672. Ornithologiae libri tres. English.	1678 (1678)	Wing W2880; ESTC R9288	670,235	621

else white The seventh had only a black spot near the tip All the rest were white In brief the ridge upper or fore-part of the Wing extended was all along black which colour near the Back was dilated into a large and broad stroak or spot The Bill was more than an inch long something arcuate or bending downwards especially toward the point which is sharp of a black colour The lower Mandible not far from the tip bunched out into an angle underneath as in the rest of this kind Its Legs and Feet were of ash or livid colour Its Claws black It hath some rudiment of a hind-toe rather than a perfect toe for it is only a carneous knob without any Claw The Legs also are destitute of feathers for about the length of an inch above the knees The colour of the Mouth within and the Tongue is like that of an Assyrian Apple as Bellonius hath observed The Tail is five inches long made up of twelve almost equal feathers The number of quil-feathers in each Wing twenty eight or twenty nine This Bird is easily known and distinguished from all others of this kind that we have hitherto observed by its wanting the back-toe It is common on our Sea-coasts §. VI. The Pewit or Black-cap called in some places The Sea-Crow and Mire-Crow Larus cinereus Ornithologi Aldrov Also the Larus cinereus tertius Aldrov The Cepphus of Turner and Gesner IT is about the bigness of a tame Pigeon That which we described weighed about ten ounces Its length from tip of Bill to end of Tail was fifteen inches Its breadth thirty seven It s Bill was of a sanguine colour bending something downwards from the point to the angles of the Mouth two inches long The Palate was of a red-lead colour The Eyes hazel-coloured The edges of the Eye-lids red Both upper and lower Eye-lids towards the hind-part of the Head were compassed with white feathers The Head and Throat were black but dilute The middle of the Back ash-coloured The Neck Tail Breast and Belly white The number of quil-feathers in each Wing twenty nine The tip and extreme edges of the first were white the rest of the feather black the following feathers to the tenth had black tips yet with some diversity in several birds else the whole Wings were ash-coloured The Tail all snow-white of about five inches length not forked consisting of twelve feathers The Wings gathered up reach beyond the end of the Tail The Legs were of a dark sanguine colour The back-toe small The Claws little and black The Males differ little from the Females in colour or outward appearance Near Gravesend a huge number of these birds frequent the River Thames We saw and described at Chester a Bird of this kind which there they called the Sea-Crow which differed from the precedent in some accidents of less moment viz. The crown or top of its Head only was black not its Throat Each Wing had twenty eight quil-feathers the outmost of which had its tip and exteriour edge black the three next in order had their outer Webs white their tips and interiour edges black the three succeeding had only their tips black The third fourth and fifth and in some also the second feathers have a spot of white on their tips Of this kind also are those birds which yearly build and breed at Norbury in Staffordshire in an Island in the middle of a great Pool in the Grounds of Mr. Skrimshew distant at least thirty miles from the Sea About the beginning of March hither they come about the end of April they build They lay three four or five Eggs of a dirty green colour spotted with dark brown two inches long of an ounce and half weight blunter at one end The first Down of the Young is ash-coloured and spotted with black The first feathers on the Back after they are fledg'd are black When the Young are almost come to their full growth those entrusted by the Lord of the soil drive them from off the Island through the Pool into Nets set on the banks to take them When they have taken them they feed them with the entrails of beasts and when they are fat sell them for four pence or five pence apiece They take yearly about a thousand two hundred young ones Whence may be computed what profit the Lord makes of them About the end of July they all fly away and leave the Island Some say that the crowns of those Birds are black only in Spring and Summer A certain friend of mine saith Aldrovand did sometime write to me from Comachio that the feathers on their Heads grow black in March and that that blackness continues for three months viz. so long as they are breeding and rearing their Young and that the other nine months of the year they are white Which thing if it be true for to me indeed it seems not probable no wonder that of one and the same Species of Bird described at several times of the year there should be three or four made Aldrovandus writes that the description of Gesner agrees in other things to his ash-coloured Gull disagreeing only in the colour of its Bill and Feet But perhaps saith he the colour of the Bill and Feet may vary in birds of the same species which I will not easily grant unless they differ in Age or Sex §. VII * The greater white Gull of Bellonius which we judge not to be specifically different from our Pewit IT is saith he lesser than the ash-coloured Mew and a veryhandsom bird as fair to see to as a white Pigcon though it seem to be bigger-bodied and yet being stript of its feathers it hath far less flesh It is as white as snow yet under the Wings it hath somewhat of ash-colour The Eyes are great and encompassed with a black circle Near the region of the Ears on both sides is a black spot It is well winged for the Wings exceed the Tail in length Its Legs and Bill are red which they are not in the ash-coloured Gull It stands streight upon its Legs carrying the hinder part of the body more elevated so that the lower parts seem to be bent like a bow The Bill is round and sharp-pointed the ends of the Wings black This Bird in most things approachòs to our Pewit last described it differs in the colour of the crown and in the black spots about the Ears Aldrovandus makes the lesser white Larus of Bellonius to be the same with the Cepphus of Turner that is our Pewit I rather think it to be the Sea-Swallow because he writes that it frequents fenny places and thò banks of Rivers CHAP. II. Great brown and grey Gulls §. I. Our Catarracta I suppose the Cornish Gannet Skua Hoier Clus THe skin of this stuft was sent us by our learned and worthy friend Dr. Walter Needham who found it hung up in a certain Gentlemans Hall The Bird it self living or newly

not from experience viz. That though a Hen hath no Seed-eggs prepared in the Vitellarium yet being after coition made foecund she will shortly breed and lay new ones and those also fruitful For not only those Eggs which are as yet Yolks and want Whites or whose smallest seeds and rudiments are already in the Ovarium but those also which are not yet begun but shall be conceived a long time after are by the same virtue made fecund The same sense he repeats in other words about the end of Exercit. 40. If from under a Hen once rendred prolific and sitting upon Eggs after she hath laid all her Eggs none remaining in the Ovarium you take away all her Eggs she will anew breed and lay more and those also prolific I suppose this great Naturalist was mistaken in that he affirms that a Hen after she hath laid all her Eggs and there be none remaining in the Ovarium will breed new ones For I do not see how he could make any experiment hereof Seeing that if he had opened a sitting Hen and had found no Eggs within her how could he certainly know that she would have bred new ones had she lived If he thought that all Clock-hens do lay all their Eggs and quite empty the Vitellarium before they begin to clock and betake themselves to sitting he was therein surely mistaken For I see no reason why that should be true in Hens which I have by experience found false in other birds especially seeing himself confesses that there are in Hens as well as other Birds an almost infinite number of Yolks in the Ovarium of divers growths from an almost invisible quantity to the consummate magnitude To these we shall add that observation of Dr. Harvey in Exercit. 59. de generat Animal Nature hath for the most part given numerous young to those Animals which being of little strength or courage can hardly defend themselves from the injuries of others and so compensates the brevity of their lives with a plentiful off-spring Nature saith Pliny hath given this to the Bird-kind that those of them should be most fruitful which are most cowardly or fugacious For whereas generation in all Creatures is instituted by Nature for perpetuities sake it is more frequent in those that are of shorter life and obnoxious to external injuries lest the Species should fail And therefore Birds that excel in strength and live by ravine and so enjoy a longer and more secure life do seldom lay more than two Eggs at once It is true indeed that Pigeons Turtles and Ring-doves do sit only upon two Eggs at once but then they compensate the defect of number by the frequency of laying they breeding ten times a year Therefore they breed much though not many at a time CHAP. IV. Of the Age of Birds OF all sanguineous and hot Animals Birds are the longest lived for the proportion of their bodies much more vivacious than Quadrupeds Swans are said to attain to the age even of three hundred years We have been assured by a friend of ours a person of very good credit that his Father kept a Goose known to be fourscore years of age and as yet sound and lusty and like enough to have lived many years longer had he not been forced to kill her for her mischievousness worrying and destroying the young Geese and Goslings Moreover the Pelican that was kept at Mechlin in Brabant in the Emperour Maximilians time was certainly believed to be fourscore years old What is reported of the age of Eagles and Ravens although it exceeds all belief yet doth it evince that those birds are very long-lived Our people saith Albertus as he is quoted by Aldrovandus have found by experience that a Pigeon lives twenty years And as for tame Pigeons saith Aldrovandus a certain Person worthy to be believed and not unskilful in Natural History related to me that he had been told by his Father who was much delighted in keeping and observing Pigeons and other birds That he had kept a Pigeon two and twenty years and that it bred all the while except the last six months in which leaving its Mate it made choice of a single life But to let pass great birds even the very smallest birds live a great while We our selves knew a Linnet kept at least fourteen years in a Cage which as yet shewed no signs of decay or old age Gesner tells us that a certain Kinsman of his wrote to him concerning a Goldfinch to this purpose The Goldfinch lives above twenty years For at Mentz when I was a child I saw one more than twenty three years old whose Bill and Claws were cut every Week that so it might take its meat and drink and stand in its place And there is no doubt but birds that enjoy their liberty living at large in the open air and using their natural and proper food in gathering of which they also exercise their bodies live much longer than those that are imprisoned in houses and Cages What Pliny observes of Animals to wit that those that live longest are born longest in the womb is to be understood of Animals of the same kind For if Animals of different kinds be compared together as for example Birds with Beasts those will sometimes be found to be most vivacious which are born the least while in the womb If it be objected that Birds and Beasts cannot in this respect be compared together because Birds are not at all born in the womb We answer that incubation in Birds is equivalent to gestation in Quadrupeds For in both the Eggs are cherished alike in this inwardly in the Womb in that outwardly under the Wings as we have formerly shewn CHAP. V. Of some Proprieties and Accidents of Birds viz. Shape Bigness Colour natural Instincts Manners c. THE trunk of the body is shorter broader and thicker in Birds than in Quadrupeds the head for the proportion of the body much less For whereas Birds pass through the air almost after the same manner that Ships swim upon the water the Trunk of their body answers to the Hull of the Ship their head to the Prow which also for its similitude is called in Latine Rostrum the beak of a Ship their tail to the Rudder their breast to the Keel their wings to the Sails and Oars whence the Poet elegantly hath it Remigium alarum the rowing of the wings All winged Fowl in general are lesser than Quadrupeds that is the greatest in that kind than the greatest in this Whence I esteem what is reported of the bird called Ruk and also of the Cuntur to be false viz. That its Wings spread reach fifteen or sixteen feet that its Bill is so hard and strong that it will pierce an Oxes Hide It is said to be covered with black and white feathers mixt to have an even Comb or crest like a Rasor not serrate like a Cocks Two of

body between the very Lobes of the Lungs The Wind-pipe enters the breast-bone and comes out again below the Merry-thought The stomach is very fleshy and furnished with thick muscles Above the Stomach the Gullet is dilated into a bag thick-set and as it were granulated within with many papillary glandules excerning a kind of Saliva which serves as a menstruum to macerate the meat The Wind-pipe reflected in form of a Trumpet seems to be so contrived and formed by nature for modulating the voice Hence what the Ancients have delivered concerning the singing of Swans if it be true which I much doubt seems chiefly to agree to this bird and not to the tame Swan For my part those stories of the Ancients concerning the singing of Swans viz. that those Birds at other times but especially when their death approaches do with a most sweet and melodious modulation of their voice sing their own Naenia or funeral song seemed to me always very unlikely and fabulous and to have been therefore not undeservedly exploded by Scaliger and others Howbeit Aldrovandus weighing on both sides the Arguments and Authorities of learned men hath he saith observed them to be equal wherefore to cast the scale and establish the affirmative he thinks that wonderful structure of the Wind-pipe by him first observed is of weight sufficient But this Argument though it be very specious and plausible yet doth it not conclude the controversie For we have observed in the Wind-pipe of the Crane the like ingress into the cavity of the Breast-bone and reflection therein or a more remarkable one yet no man that I know of ever commended the Crane for singing or musical modulation of its voice But if you ask me to what purpose then doth the Wind-pipe enter into the breast-bone and is in that manner reflected there I must ingenuously confess I do not certainly and fully know Yet may there be other reasons assigned thereof as that which Aldrovand alledges in the first place 1. That whereas sometimes for almost half an hours space the Swan continues with her heels up and her head under water seeking and gathering up her food from the bottom of the Pool or River she swims in that part of the Wind-pipe enclosed in the breast-bone may supply her with air enough to serve her all that while So the use of it will be to be a store-house of air for the advantage of diving and continuing long under water 2. This kind of structure doth undoubtedly conduce much to the increasing the strength and force of the voice For that the wild Swan hath a very loud and shrill cry and which may be heard a long way off the English name Hooper imposed upon it as I suppose from its hooping and hollowing noise doth import Hence it appears how uncertain and fallacious a way of arguing it is from the final cause For though Nature Gods ordinary Minister always acts for some end yet what that is we are often ignorant and it doth not rarely fall out to be far different from what we fancy Nay we may be deceived when we think we are most sure and imagine it can be no other than what we have presumed Wherefore I make more account of the testimonies he alledges as of Frederick Pendasius that affirmed he had often heard Swans singing sweetly in the Lake of Mantua as he was rowed up and down in a Boat But as for the testimony of George Braun concerning flocks of Swans in the Sea near London meeting and as it were welcoming the Fleets of Ships returning home with loud and chearful singing is without doubt most false We having never heard of any such thing Olaus Wormius of late confirms the opinion of Aldrovand and the reports of the Ancients concerning the singing of Swans producing the Testimonies of some of his familiars and Scholars who professed themselves to have heard their music There was saith he in my Family a very honest young man one Mr. John Rostorph Student in Divinity a Norwegian by Nation This man did upon his credit and with the interposition of an Oath solemnly affirm that himself in the Territory of Dronten did once by the Sea-shore early in the Morning hear an unusual and most sweet murmur composed of most pleasant whistlings and sounds Which when as he knew not whence it came or how it was made for that he saw no man near which might be the author of it looking round about him and climbing up the top of a certain Promontory he espied an infinite number of Swans gathered together in a Bay of the Sea near hand making that harmony a sweeter than which in all his lives time he had never heard By some Islanders my Scholars I have been told that nothing is more frequent with them than this harmony in those places where there are Swans This I therefore alledge that it may appear that the report of those famous ancient Authors concerning the singing of Swans is not altogether vain but attested and proved by modern experiments Thus far Wormius Let the Readers judge whether his witnesses be sufficient This Bird hath not as yet that I know of been described by any Author CHAP. II. Of the Goose §. I. Of the tame Goose IT is less than a Swan bigger than a Duck weighing sometimes when fatted ten pounds It s length from the tip of the Bill to the end of the Tail in that we measured was thirty five inches and an half to the end of the Feet thirty seven and an half The Wings extended were sixty inches and an half over The length of the Neck from the tip of the Bill to the setting on of the Wings seventeen inches The Bill it self from the tip to the angles of the Mouth was two inches three quarters long to the Eyes three and an half The Tail was six inches and an half long compounded of eighteen feathers the outmost the shortest the rest by degrees longer to the middlemost which are the longest The colour in these as in other tame Birds is various in some brown in some grey in some white in some flecked or particoloured of white and brown The Bill and Legs in young ones are yellow in old ones for the most part red The Bill is thick at the head and slenderer by degrees to the point Each Wing hath twenty seven quils or feathers in the first row When it is angry it hisses like a Serpent It is very long-lived A certain friend of ours of undoubted fidelity told us that his Father had once a Goose that was known to be eighty years old which for ought he knew might have lived the other eighty years had he not been constrained to kill it for its mischievousness in beating and destroying the younger Geese But of the Goose a Bird so well known in all Nations more than enough §. II. The common wild Goose Anser ferus IN bigness it equals a tame Goose is for the shape of its