likewise incident unto very many Birds whereof without diligent care observation theyare seldom or never cured for I could never find any other Remedy for it but this To keep the Birds which you bring up and especially Bull-Finches from the heat of the Sun all the Summer long and at the fall of the Leafe cut all the Nails of his Feet to the very quick and pull 5 or 6 of his Tail-Feathers and when he mouts besprinkle him with a little White-Wine and Water and set him not in the Sun but let him dry himself all times in the Shade and give once in a Week something to purge him The 7th Disease that Birds are subject to is the Pip which may be known by the hardness of the end of their Tongue and also by the sides of their Bills Your small-Birds that feed upon Seeds are very seldom subject to this Disease but most commonly your Throstles Black-Birds and Staires which feed upon soft Meat I have also known your Nightingales to be troubled with it that have been fed too much with Eggs boild hard For the Remedy of this for the Bird will never eat his Meat kindly nor sing with any Stomach so long as he hath it take the Bird in your Hand and having opened his Bill with a Needle take that hardness off from the top of his Tongue and the sides of his Bill also then give him the Seeds of Mellons being bruised and steeped in pure Water let him drink thereof three or four days then when you perceive him to grow better and to take delight to prune and peck himself give him a little fine loaf-Loaf-Sugar and put into his Water also To keep your Black-Bird and Throstle from this Distemper give them once in a week a little painted fine-Coloured Snaile and lay him a Stone in his Cage and he will break him to peeces and eat him and this will preserve those two Birds from having a Fit The 8th is the Disease of the Rump which is hard to be known and no other way that I could ever find to be a better sign than the Bird growing Melancholy as by surceasing and abstaining from singing And the best Remedy is to cut off that sharp part which lyes upon the top of the Rump and give him some cleansing thing in his Meat and refreshing thing in his Water and he shall find great good by it This is a grief which all Birds are subject to which are kept in Cages for if they have their liberty and are abroad every Bird hath his certain Medicine for every Distemper he is subject to for I have observed it many times when Linnets feed most upon Chick-weed and plantain-Seeds that they have come as duely to a Chalk-pit every morning as they have gone to bed at night and picked Chalk to bind them The last Disease Birds are subject to is the Flux of the Belly which is known by their making of their Dung thinner and more liquid than ordinary and by often shaking and beating of their Tail and keeping of it close together The Remedy is to cut the Feathers of his Tail and also those which are about the Fundament anointing it with a little Capons-grease and instead of Hemp-seeds or Rape-Seeds give him Mellon-Seeds and Red Beets-Seeds bruised for the space of three or four days till you perceive his Dung altered And you must do this at first otherwise it will not help when the bird is wasted and poor But for those Birds which eat not Seeds but Sheeps-heart or paste give them a very hard roasted Egg in such sort as you have been before directed The several Diseases which happen to every particular sort of Bird. FIrst The Old Nightingales that are kept long in a Cage are very subject if not kept very clean to the Gout and if their Meat be not chopped very well to the Convulsion of the Breast with the Falling-Sickness and Giddiness in their Heads The Wood-Lark is very subject to be Lousie and to be Melancholy and troubled with the straitness of the Breast which causes them to pine away in a short time if not helped and then a Flux of the Belly which if not immediately helped it consumes them to nothing The Skie-Lark is also subject to all the same Infirmities of the Wood-lark except it be Lousiness The Robin is subject to the Cramp to a great Giddiness in his Head and to have the ends of his Nails perish if he be not kept clean in his Cage and will be very subject to the Falling-Sickness if it be not prevented Almost all your Birds that feed upon Flesh have almost all the same Distempers except the Black-Bird and Throstle which seldom almost die without it be for want of Meat or Water The Canary-Bird hath many Diseases that he is subject to as to the Giddiness in his Head Falling-Sickness Convulsion and Oppression of Stomach and Breast by reason of her excessive heat and also very subject to a Flux in the Belly which if not timely prevented causes present death The Linnet and all other Seed-Birds are subject almost to the foregoing Distempers but none so apt to the Falling-Sickness as the Bull-Finch I think these Rules and Descriptions for Diseases are sufficient for any ordinary understanding To know how long Birds shall live IF any Man be desirous to know how long these Singing-Birds may live let him understand that amongst Nightingales some live but one year some three some five others unto eight and till twelve and sing very well rather better and better for the first eighth years but after that they do a little decline by degrees and from that time forward are not in such a hight of perfection but decline by little and little They must have very good Masters and Keepers that do prolong their Lives three or four years and where one is kept in a Cage till that Age a hundred die so it 's the carefulness of the Keeper preserves the Life of Birds It hath been known that Nightingales have been kept and lived till fifteen years old and have continued singing little or much for the most part of all the years so that you may plainly perceive their Life depends much according to the good or ill management or else according to the good Complexion of the Bird. The Wood-Lark seldom lives in a Cage above five years by reason he is a tender Bird and subject to many Casualties and we are ignorant of what they eat abroad to preserve themselves The Robin seldom lives above seven years by reason he is so subject to the Falling-sickness and Cramp and oppression of the Stomach The Skie-Lark is a very long-lived Bird and hardy also and there is not much fear of his Death if you provide him a Turf once in a Week and give him Meat and Water plentifully All sorts of Seed-Birds live longer than any soft-beaked Birds especially the Canary and Linnet some having been Master of a Canary
1500 Stores Now the best way to take this grand Enemy to Fish is thus Having found out his haunt get three or four small Roches or Dace and have a strong Hook with a Wire to it draw the Wire just within-side the Skin of the Fish beginning without-side of the Guills running of it to the Tail and then the Fish will lie five or six days alive for if the Fish be dead the Hern will not touch him let not your Hook be too rank then having a strong Line with Silk and Wire about two yards and a half long if you twist not Wire with your Silk his sharp Bill will bite it in two immediately and tie a round Stone about a pound weight to the Line and lay three or four Hooks and in two or three nights you shall not fail to have him if he comes to your Pond lay not your Hooks in the deep Water where the Hern cannot wade to them for if you do they may lie long enough before you see the effect of your pains colour your Line of a dark green for a Hern is a very subtle Bird. There are several other Devourers as your Otter Water-Rat Kings-fisher More-Hens Balcoots and your Cormorant but none like the Hern for your Ponds and small Rivers An excellent way to take all manner of small Bird with Bird-Lime IN Winter and especially in a Snow all sorts of small Birds will begin to flock together as Larks Chafinches Lennets and Yellow-hammers which when you see about the House or Field adjacent having your Bird-lime provided of the best sort and not too old order it thus Take an Earthen Dish and put your Bird-lime with some Capon's-grease or fresh Lard put to a quarter of a pound of Bird-lime half an ounce of Capon's-grease or Lard then set it over the fire and let it melt gently together for if it boil you take away the strength of the Bird-lime Having thus ordered it and made it fit for use Then go into the Barn and chuse out an hundred of large Wheat-ears and cut the Straw about a foot long besides the Ears then from the bottom of the Ears to the middle of the Straw lime it about six or seven inches let your Lime he warm when you lime the Straw that so it may run thin upon the Straw and less discernable to the Birds When you have so done go into your Field hard by your House and carry a little Bag of Chaff and threshed Ears and scatter these fourteen or fifteen yards wide it is best in a Snow Then take Ears that are limed and stick them up and down in the Snow with the Ears leaning or at the end touching the ground then retire from the place and drive them from any other haunt and you will presently see great flocks of Birds come to the place and begin to peck the Ears of Corn and fly away with them which as soon as he mounts the Straw that is Bird-limb'd laps under his Wing and down he falls not perceiving himself to be hanged for I have seen many eat their Ears when they have been fast limed under the Wing therefore you must not go when three or four or more are taken but let them alone till a dozen or two are hampered here in the Field you take most upon Larks I have taken six dozen in a morning You may lay some near home to take all manner of Finches and especially Sparrows which is the Farmers Enemy of all small Birds for they will not come into the Field so far from the House let me tell you Every dozen of Sparrows you take in Winter shall save you a quarter of Wheat before Harvest therefore stick your Ears about the House-tops and though you never have the Birds yet the destruction of them will be a great advantage Having had this morning-Recreation go and bait the place with a Bag or two of more Ears and Chaff and let them rest till next morning then take some fresh Wheat-Ears again and stick them as you did before When you bait in the afternoon take away all your limed Ears that so the Birds may feed boldly and not be frighted against next morning A true and exact way to make your best Water Bird-lime to take Snipes or any other that delighteth in the Water BUY a pound of the strongest Bird-lime you can get and being washed nine times in clear spring Water till you find it very plyable and the hardness quite extinguished then beat out the Water extraordinary well till you cannot perceive a drop to appear then cause it to be well dryed having so done put it into an earthen Pot and add thereto as much of the best Capon-Grease without Salt as will make it run then add two spoonfuls of strong Vinegar and a Spoonful of the best Sallet-Oil and a small quantity of Venice Turpentine and boil them all gently together upon a soft fire stirring it continually then take it from the fire and let it cool and when at any time you have occasion to use it warm it and then anoint your Twigs or Straws or any other small things and no Water will take away the strength This sort of Bird-lime is the best and especially for Snipes and Felfares How to take Snipes and Felfares with this Water Bird-lime WIth this Bird-lime so ordered take two or three hundred of Birch-twigs and lime forty or fifty of them together very well then finding out the haunt of the Snipes which you shall perceive by their Dung and in very hard Weather where the Water lies open they will lie very thick then observing the place where they most feed set two or three hundred of your Twigs at a yard distance let them stand sloping some one way and some another then retire two or three hundred paces from the place and you shall find there shall not one Snipe in ten miss your Twigs by reason they spread their Wings and fetch a round close to the ground before they light when you see any taken stir not at first for he will feed with the Twigs under his Wings and as others come over the place he will be a cause to intice them But when you see the Coast clear and but few that be not taken go and take up your Birds and fasten one or two that the other flying over may come to the same place if there be any other open place there by put them off from those Haunts they will lie where it is open and a Spring very much for they can feed in no hard place by reason of their Bills in a Snow you shall have them extraordinary thick in such a place How to take Felfares WHen time is which is about Michaelmas take your Gun and kill a Felfare or two and then lay them or set them in such order that they may seem to sit alive upon a Tree then having prepared your Twigs about two or three hundred or more take a great
Belly when it shews it self more puffed up than ordinary full of reddish veins and his Breast very lean and sharp and seeing him spill and cast his Seeds about the Cage not caring to eat at all This Disease comes to the Linnet many times for want of Water and having your Charlack-Seeds mingled amongst your Rape-Seeds and for want of giving him a little green meat at the Spring of the Year when you perceive the Bird to begin to be troubled with this Disease first to cut the end of his Rump and to give him some white Sugar-candy in his Water with two or three slices of Liquorish for want of Sugar-candy let him put in fine Sugar And for his Meat you shall give him Beets Lettice to feed upon or some of the Herb called Mercurie which is a very good Herb for this Distemper for any Seed-Bird you may likewise give her Mellon-Seeds chopped small and at the bottom of the Cage put some fine Gravel with a little Powder-Sugar and a little ground Oat-Meal you may put also some Loom that the Country-People do daub their Walls withal instead of Morter and Sand every one almost knows bruise this small and it will bring him to a Stomach if he be not too far gone and past cure The Linnet is also subject unto the Streins or Convulsions of the Breast wherefore being oppressed with this Disease you shall feed him with Lettice-Seeds Beet-Seeds and Mellon-Seeds bruised and in his Water you shall dissiolve some Sugar-candy and some of the Nightingal's Paste with a little Liquorish so much that the Water may have a taste of it and so continue it for the space of four or five days now and then taking of it away and giving her Plantain-Water be sure to give her a Beet-Leaf or Lettice-Leaf upon the day that you give her Plantain-Water The Linnet is also subject unto a Hoarsness in his Voice which many times comes through straining her Voice in singing and many times she gets a Husk in her Throat which is seldom helped to come so clear off at first many times also if it be a strong-metled Bird he will break something within him that he will never come to sing again for the hoarsness which is very often taken in his Mouth which is thus to keep him very hot and upon a sudden to open his Cage to the Air which immediately strikes a cold to his Breast and Throat and oftentimes kills him for if you have a Bird in the Moult you must not carry him to the Air but keep him at a stay till he is moulted off and then open him by degrees that so he may not take cold and give him after his Moult something to clean se him your Beet-leaves and some Liquorish in his Water There is no better Remedy in the World for a hoarsness than to put into his Water some Liquorish and a few Annise-Seeds and then set him in a warm place The Linnet is also subject to a great Scouring I gave you an account of several sorts of them in the foregoing Chapter where I treated of the Canary-Bird Concerning the Gold-Finch THe next to the Linnet of Seed-Birds is the Golden-Finch which is a very rare and curious-coloured Bird and were they not so plenty they would be of very great esteem amongst us here but plenty of any thing makes it slighted and not regarded This Bird is taken in great plenty about Michaelmass time and will very soon become tame the Beautifulness with the pretty melodious Song that this Bird hath causes very many to keep them They were formerly carried beyond Sea to several places for a very great Rarity These Gold-Finches differ very much in their Tunes for some of them sing after one fashion and some after another which needed not further be proved but by them that have kept them for it is in this Bird as in all others variety one Bird surpassing another both in goodness variety and lavishness of Song They breed commonly in your Apple-Trees and Plum-Trees and to my knowledg I never saw a Nest in a quickset-Hedge They make their Nest of Moss that grows upon Apple-Trees and Wool and Quilt the inside with all sorts of Hair they find upon the Ground they breed three times in a year You must take young ones with the Nest about ten days old and they must be fed thus Take some of your best Hemp-seed and beat it in a Morter very fine then sift it through a Sieve and put as much white-Bread as Hemp-Seed and put also a little flower of Canary-Seeds to it so with a small stick or quill take up as much as the bignes of a white Pea and give them three or four bits at a time you must make it fresh every day it is soon done when the Hemp-Seeds are bruised and sifted if it be sower it will immediately spoil their Stomachs and cause them to cast up their Meat and then it is ten to one if they live You must be sure to keep these Birds very warm till they can feed themselves for they are very tender Birds you may almost bring them up to any thing being a very tame Bird be sure that in feeding of this Bird you make clean his Bill and Mouth and if any of the Meat fall upon his Feathers take it off otherwise they will not thrive This Bird that eats Hemp-Seeds shall take for a Purge the Seeds of Mellons Succory and Mercurie which is a principal Herb for the Linnet but this Bird you may give Lettice and Plantain which are excellent Herbs for this Bird to purge him and when they have no need of purging you must give them two or three times a week a little Sugar or some Loom in their Meat or at the bottom of their Cage to this end they may eat some to scour their Stomachs which for want thereof is the great destruction of our Birds that feed upon Seeds For nothing can be more wholesome for them than Wall or Loom-Earth and some fine Sand and a lump or knob or two of Sugar always in their Cage for all Seeds have a great oiliness in them and if they have not something to dry up that Oiliness in the Stomach in length of time it fouls their Stomachs and puts them into a Flux and nothing is worse than unsound and damaged Seeds which in a short time destroyes them Concerning the Chaff-Finch THis Bird is a very plentiful Bird and of some is much admired for his Song but I have no great fancy for him by reason he seldom varies in his Song like unto other Birds and hath no pleasingness nor sweetness in his Song like unto the aforementioned Birds At flight-time this Bird is very plentifully caught but their Nests are very scanty found as of the Gold-Finch also This Bird breeds in hedges Trees of all sorts and makes his Nest of Moss and Wool or any thing almost that he can gather up where she breeds They
Burchen Bough and cut off all the small Twigs make little Holes and Clefts in all places about the Bough and there place in your Twigs then set the Felfare upon the top of the Bough making of him fast that he may seem to be alive let this Bough of Bird-lime Twigs be set near where they come in a morning to feed for they keep a constant place till their Food is gone that so others flying but near will quickly espie the top-Bird and fall in whole flocks to him I have seen at one fall almost two dozen taken How to take Pidgeons with Lime-twigs WHen you find any Ground much used with Pigeons which is a very great devourer of Corn get a couple of Pigeons dead or alive if they be dead order them to stand stiff as if they were living and a-feeding then at Sun-rise take your twigs what quantity you please let them be very small Wheaten Straws are as good or better and place them up and down where your two Pigeons are set and you shall find that sport at every fall that is made that you may quickly be rid of them without offending the Statute two or three dozen is nothing to take in a morning if there comes good flights How to take Crows Pyes and Gleads with Lime-twigs WHen you have a Horse or any other Cartion that is dead and stripped and when you have found that Crows Pyes and Kites have found out their Prey over-night set your Lime-twigs up and down the Carrion let them be very small and not set too thick for they are very subtle Birds when you perceive one to be fast stir not for many times they have been caught and have not been sensible of it Likewise you may join to a Packthread several Nooses of Hair up and down the Packthread and peg it down about a yard from the Carrion for many times when they have gotten a piece they will be apt to run away to feed by themselves and if your Nooses be thick it is two to one but some of the Nooses catch him by the Legs How to take Crows and Rooks when they pull up the Corn by the Roots TAke some thick brown Paper and divide a sheet into eight parts and make them up like Sugar-Loaves then lime the inside of the Paper a very little let them be limed three or four days before you set them then put some Corn in them and lay fifty or sixty of them up and down the Ground lay them as much as you can under some clod of Earth and early in the morning before they come to feed and then stand at a distance and you will see excellent sport for as soon as Rook Crow or Pigeon comes to peck out any of the Corn it will hang upon his Head and he will immediately fly bolt up-right so high that he shall seem like a small Bird and when he is spent come tumbling as if he was shot in the Air You may take them at plowing-time when the Rooks and Crows follow the Plow but then you must put in Worms and great Maggots How to make Hogs Thrive IT is always observed among Country-Men that a Hog never thrives when his Hair stares and looks rugged like a Bear therefore observe this Rule once a month and you shall have the best Hogs in the Country Take half a peck of Ashes or a Peck and boil them into a Lie then having an old Curry-Comb ready lay the Hog upon a fourm then wet him well with the Lye then Curry him with your Comb till you find all his Scurff wasted from his Skin then with Water wash him as clean as a Porket and strew him full of dry Ashes and this will kill all the Lice and make them thrive extraordinary If you do not believe what I write try one or two and you shall easily perceive a very great difference in a months time the greatest thing that I know which hinders the thriving of Hogs is to let them lie too long in Straw for if they have but a dry house and a dry place to lie upon never trouble your self for Straw for it makes them Lousie and full of a dry Scurf which hinders their growth How to make Cabbage-Plants grow great Cabbages in very Barren Ground THere be several poor People in this Kingdom which are ready to be starved which live near Heaths were it not for the convenience of Firing which they have at a cheap rate by reason the ground is so barren that they know not which way to make any thing grow or thrive for having planted the best sort of your Cabbage-Plants they turn all into pittiful Coleworts and so reap little benefit or none at all though they lay a load of Dung upon every Pole the Ground is so dryed and so barren Now I shall direct you how with half a load of Dung allowed to every Pole to have as large and big Cabbages as if you laid six load upon a Pole Having got two or three hundred of good short-knotted and well-stocked Plants for otherwise they will turn to Coleworts in the best of Grounds then consider how many Plants a Pole of Ground will take up to set them at a convenient distance then set them out and dig as many holes about half a yard wide as you intend to set Plants then fill up the Holes with Dung and put some Earth into every Hole and mix it well together with the Dung let three quarters of it be Dung then plant the Cabbage in the midst of the Hole let there be half a foot of Dung and Mold below the Root of the Plant and then water it very well three or four times in a week if need require that so the Plant may take good root upon any dry time you must give him water that so the Cabbage may not be at a stand and when you see him begin to turn in his Leaves for leafing heave up the Earth to the Cabbage set them not too thick that so they may have room to spread thirty in a Pole will be sufficient for the richest Ground if the stand too close produce little thing else but Coleworts In setting of these thirty Plants half a load of good Dung will do it to every Pole so every year the Ground will be inriched with little or no charge considering the Crop it will bear I have my self Dung being scarce as always it is in barren places with two load planted four Pole of ground which was very barren being upon a gravelly Heath and several of my Neighbours coming by in the interim laughed to see me plant Cabbage-Plants in so barren gravelly Soil for they not seeing the Dung put into the Holes never imagined that I had set my Cabbage-plants in almost all Dung and fine Mold but when they came towards Winter to see the fruits of my Labour they stood like Men amazed and would not believe their own eyes but thought the Plants enchanted