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 ...

CHAP. XVIII. Birds of the Thrush-kind, that are black of colour.

§. I. The common Blackbird, Merula vulgaris.

IT is little, or nothing less than a Fieldfare; of four ounces weight; nine inches and an half long from the tip of the Bill to the Claws, to the end of the Tail ten and an half, and the Cock eleven.

The Bill is an inch long, in the Cock of a deep yellow; in the Hen the tip and upper part is black. The Mouth in both Sexes is yellow within. The Bill in young Cock∣birds is black, and turns not perfectly yellow till they be near a year old. The cir∣cumference of the Eye-lids is also yellow. The Cock, after he hath mewed his chicken feathers, becomes cole-black; the Hen and young Cock-birds are rather brown, or of a dark russet than black: Their Breasts have something of reddish, and their Bellies of ash-colour. The Cocks while young cannot be distinguished from the Hens by their colour.

The number of quill-feathers in each Wing is eighteen, of which the fourth is the longest. The Tail is four inches and an half long, made up of twelve feathers of equal length save the two outmost, which are somewhat shorter than the rest.

The Feet are black: The outmost fore-toe and the back-toe are equal: And the outmost Toe joyned to the middlemost at bottom, as in the rest of this kind.

The Liver is divided into two Lobes, and hath its Gall-bladder annexed. The Giz∣zard not very fleshy nor thick, as in the rest. It feeds promiscuously upon Berries and Insects. I could not find any remainder of the Yolk-channel in the Guts.

The Cocks in this kind are very canorous, whistling and singing very pleasantly all the Spring and Summer-time, only their note is too loud and shrill near hand.

The Hen lays four or five Eggs, seldom more at once, of a bluish green colour, full of dusky spots and lines.

On the Alps, the Appennine, and other high Mountains are sometime found birds of this kind all over white. We our selves saw one in a Poulterers Shop at Rome parti∣coloured of black and white. But this we look upon as accidental: Either the cold∣ness of the Region, or the constant intuition of Snow effecting this alteration of co∣lour, as in Crows, Ravens, &c. So that we do not think a white Blackbird (pardon the seeming contradiction in adjecto) to differ specifically from a black one.

The Blackbird builds her Nest very artificially withoutside of Moss, slender twigs, bents, and fibres of roots, cemented and joyned together with Clay instead of Glue, dawbing it also all over withinside with Clay: Yet doth she not lay her Eggs upon the bare Clay, like the Mavis, but lines it with a covering of small straws, bents, hair, or other soft matter, upon which she lays her Eggs, both that they might be more secure, and in less danger of breaking, and also that her Young might lie softer and warmer.

The Blackbird loves to wash it self, and prune its feathers with its Bill. It flies also singly for the most part: Whence it took the name Merula in Latine, being (as Fe∣stus and Varro tell us) so called because it flies and feeds Mera, that is, solitary or singly.

The flesh of Blackbirds is accounted good meat, yea, some prefer it before that of the Thrush. But Palate-men, and such as are critical in discerning of tastes, are of ano∣ther opinion.

§. II. The solitary Sparrow.

MEeting with a Female of this kind at Florence in Italy, I thus described it. It is of the bigness of a Blackbird, and for shape of body very like it, nor much different in colour.

The Head and Neck were thicker than to answer the proportion of the body. The top of the Head was of a dark ash-colour. The Back was of a deep blue, al∣most black, only the extreme edges of the feathers were whitish. The Shoulders and covert-feathers of the Wings were of the same colour. Each Wing had eighteen quill-feathers, besides a little short one outmost, all dusky, but some had white tips. The second row of Wing-feathers had also white tips. The Tail was about four inches long, and composed of twelve black feathers. The underside of the Body Breast, Belly, and Thighs, was all variegated with black, cinereous, and whitish transverse waved lines, so that in colour it resembled a Cuckow. Under the Throat, and in the upper part of the Breast no ash-colour appeared, and the white lines had something of red mingled with them. The Bill was streight, blackish, rather longer than a Thrushes Bill, as also a little thicker and stronger. The Legs short and black: The Feet and Claws black. The Legs, Feet, and Claws in this sort seemed to me les∣ser than in the rest of the Thrush-kind. The Mouth within was yellow, the stomach filled with Grapes.

The Cocks are much more beautiful, all over of a shining blue, or bluish purple colour, as Aldrovandus witnesseth, and as we also observed in a Cock we saw at Rome, whose Back especially was of a most lovely glistering dark purple colour.

It is wont to sit alone on the tops of ancient Edifices and Roofs of Churches, sing∣ing most sweetly, especially in the Morning, whence it took its name, being supposed to be the bird spoken of, Psalm 102. 7. It builds also in the like places, for which Olina is my Author. For the excellency of its singing it is highly prized in Italy, specially, at Genua and Milan. It hath a whistling note like a Pipe, and may easily be taught to imitate mans voice.

§. III. * The Blue-bird of Bellonius, Passeri solitario congener, † 1.1 Aldrov.

THere is also (saith Gesner) another bird akin to the solitary Sparrow, of the Blackbird kind, frequenting rocky places, whence by the Grecians it is called, Petrocossyphus, [that is, the Rock-Ouzel or Blackbird] by our Country-men Steinrotele, esteemed in like manner for its singing. In another place he thus discourses concern∣ing the same bird: This (viz. which * 1.2 Bellonius, whose words he had cited, calls Merula torquata, i. e. Ring-Ouzel) seems to be the very same with that bird of which Raphael Seillerius of Augsburg lately wrote to me in these words. The bird which from its blue colour the Germans call Blauvogel is of the bigness of a Stare, hath his Breast, Loins, and Neck of a lovely blue, yet darker than the Kingfisher. The Back and Wings are somewhat black, yet shewing something of blue. The Bill is an inch and half long, under the Nosthrils dusky, the upper Chap being hooked, and co∣vering the nether, for the most part. The Feet are divided, as in other birds. It lives in the highest parts of the Alps, neither is it contented to abide in the tops of the Mountains, but chuses the most rocky and craggy places, and such as are covered with Snow, neither do we know certainly that it is found in any other place than the Mountains about the River Athesis, especially near the City of Inspruck. For this cause it is had in great account even by the Inhabitants themselves of those places, and is fed with such meat as men usually eat, and such as is usually given to Blackbirds and Thrushes designed for fowling. It speaks with an articulate voice very pleasant and various; and is it self so docile, and observes things so diligently, that it will express most things by some articulate sound. Being awakened at Midnight, and called up∣on by a by-stander, as if it were bidden, it will sing with a clear and loud note. Like other birds, it aims at mens Eyes, because seeing in them, as in a Looking-glass, its own image, it is affected with a desire of its like, and thinks to joyn it self in compa∣ny with it. Before the Autumn, at what time other birds sit, and are busie in bring∣ing up their Young, together with its colour it changeth also its voice. Its colour about the beginning of Winter of blue becomes black, which about the beginning of next Spring it changes again into its own natural blue. Being fully fledg'd, and once got out of the Nest, and a little accustomed to flying, it cannot any more (as all the Fowlers affirm) by any allurement or deceit be enticed and taken, so naturally crafty it is. It makes its Nest in deep holes in very high and unaccessible solitudes, having found a secure place, to which it may safely commit it self and its Young. And by its cunning doth not only remove it from the access of men by placing it on the highest ridges of the Mountains, but also hide it in deep Caverns from the Chamois, and other wild beasts, and there it feeds three or four Young with worms, till it brings them out of the Nest, and turns them loose to shift for themselves. Now the Fowlers having either by chance, or by lying in wait, found out the place, taking with them a long, round, smooth stilt or stake, made of a singular piece of wood, hard to be found (such as the climbers of Rocks and hunters of Chamois are wont to make use of to assist them in getting up the crags and cliffs of Rocks) mount up there where you would not think it possible for them to find room to set one foot. And to omit no∣nothing, they wrap their heads with cloth, covering their faces so far that they may see side-ways, to avoid dizziness; and this they do partly to fence them against the old birds, partly, and chiefly (this being the true cause of their so doing) to hin∣der 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.

* 1.3 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 Moun∣tains, 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. Its 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 arti∣culately. * 1.4 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, * 1.5 Merlo biavo, others who speak Greek, Petrocossypho, others who speak Dalmatic call it simply, Merle. Kept in a Cage it sings more sweet∣ly 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 com∣posing 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 com∣mon 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 Indi∣an 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. Where∣fore seeing he speaks nothing concerning the nature of the Bird, and it is alike un∣known 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; especi∣ally 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 Ar∣ticle 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 or Carnati∣on colour, its Head tufted, its Wings and Tail black, the prime feathers being near a Chesnut colour: The Bill next the Head black, else of a flesh colour: The Feet of a deep yellow or Saffron-colour. The Cock in this kind is of a more lively and lovely colour. The head of the Hen is in colour like to the Cocks, but the Neck, Wings, and Tail not so black as his. They become very fat, and are accounted good meat.

We have not as yet seen this bird, neither do we remember to have elsewhere read or heard any thing of it.

§. VII. The red-breasted Indian Blackbird, perchance the Jacapu of Marggrave.

WE saw the Case of this bird in Tradescants Cabinet. It was of the bigness and shape of a Blackbird, as far as I could judge by the dried skin. The colour of the whole upper side was black; only the edges of the feathers about the Rump were ash-coloured. The Breast was of a scarlet colour: The Bill like a Blackbirds: The Tail also long, and like a Blackbirds.

I take this to be the same bird, which Marggrave describes under the title of Jacapu of the Brasilians, though he attribute to it only the bigness of a Lark. It hath (saith he) a long Tail, shorter Wings, short and black Legs, with sharp Claws on the four toes: A Bill a little crooked and black, half an inch long. The whole body is cove∣red with shining black feathers; yet under the Throat spots of a Vermilion colour are mingled with the black. This bird differs from ours in its smalness, and the shortness of its Bill.

§. VIII. The Ring-Ouzel, Merula torquata.

IT is like, and equal to, or somewhat bigger than the common Blackbird: From Bill to Tail eleven inches long, to the end of the Feet ten and a quarter; the Wings extended were by measure seventeen inches. The Bill more than an inch long, of a dark dusky or blackish colour. The mouth yellow withinside: The Tongue rough. The Irides of the Eyes are of a dark hazel colour: The Legs and Feet dusky. The outer Toe is joyned to the middle as far as to the first joynt. The colour of the up∣per side of the body is a dark brown, or russet, inclining to black. The feathers co∣vering the Breast and Belly are marked with a long whitish spot down the shaft,

having also white edges. The Ring or Collar is below the Throat, just above the Breast, of a white colour, an inch broad, of the form of a Crescent, the horns end∣ing at the sides of the Neck.

It hath eighteen quil-feathers in each Wing; twelve in the Tail, the outmost being a little shorter than the rest; four inches long. The exteriour feathers of the Tail are blacker than the middlemost. The small feathers under the Wings whitish.

[In a bird that I described at Rome the edges of the prime feathers of the Wings, as also of the covert-feathers of the Head and Wings were cinereous. The ring also was not white, but ash-coloured. I suppose this was either a young bird, or a Hen.]

It hath a large Gall, and a round Spleen: In the Stomach we found Insects, and Berries like to Currans. These Birds are common in the Alps in Rhoetia and Switzerland: They are also found in the mountainous parts of Derbyshire, Yorkshire, and elsewhere in the North of England.

They say that the Female of this kind hath no ring: Whence I perswade my self that the bird which I sometimes described for the Merula Saxatilis or Montana, that is, the Rock-Ouzel of Gesner, p. 584. was no other than a Hen Ring-Ouzel.

It nearly resembles the common Blackbird in bigness, figure, and colour; yet is in some things manifestly different; viz. it is a thought bigger, hath a longer body, and not so dark a colour. Its length from the tip of the Bill to the end of the Tail was ten inches and an half, to the end of the Claws nine and an half: Its breadth one foot and five inches: Its weight three ounces and two drachms. The top of the Head, the Shoulders, Back, Wings, and Tail, in a word, the whole upper side was of a dark brown or dusky colour, The number of quill-feathers in each Wing eighteen. The Tail was four inches and an half long, not forked, black, made up of twelve fea∣thers. The underside, viz. the Breast, Belly, Sides, Thighs, and under-coverts of the Wings, particoloured of brown and white, or rather cinereous; the middle part of each feather being brown, and the borders round about cinereous.

Its Bill is every way like the common Blackbirds, excepting the colour which in this is of a dark brown, or blackish. The inside of the mouth, as in that, yellow. The Legs are of a moderate length, and dusky colour, as also the Feet and Claws.

The Guts indifferent large, but not very long, and consequently not having many revolutions: The blind Guts small, white, and very short, as in the rest of this kind. The Stomach or Gizzard was of a moderate bigness, filled partly with Insects, partly with the purple juyce of Bill-berries, which had also tinctured all the excrements of the Guts.

It is usually conversant about the Rocks and steep Cliffs of high mountains. This we described was shot by Fr. Jessop Esq on a Cliff or Scar, called Rive-edge, where they dig Mill-stones, not far from a Village called Hathers-edge in the Mountains of the Peak of Derbyshire, where the Inhabitants call it Rock-Ouzel.

§. IX. * The Rock Ouzel, or Mountain Ouzel of Gesner, called in High Dutch, Berg-Amzel, Merula Saxatilis seu Montana.

IT differs from the Ring-Ouzel, 1. In that it wants a Ring. 2. In that the Throat is * 1.6 red, with black spots, the Belly is cinereous, with black spots. 3. That the ex∣treme edges of the great Wing-feathers are whitish, and the lesser rows have some∣times white spots in their middle about their shafts. But these differences are not to me so considerable, as to induce me to believe that this bird is a Species different from the Ring-Ouzel; at least if it be true, that the Hen in that kind wants a ring, and differs other ways in colour from the Cock, as we have been informed. Yet will we not be very confident or positive, but refer it to further inquiry and observation.

To these may be added Aldrovandus his 1. * 1.7 MERULA BICOLOR, described lib. 16. cap. 12. varied with two colours especially, viz. dusky or blackish, and reddish yellow. 2. * 1.8 MERULAE CONGENER, Aldrov. lib. 16. cap. 13. having a red line near the Bill. 3. * 1.9 MERULAE CONGENER ALIA, in Chap. 14. of the same Book, like to the ash-coloured Butcher-bird. Which, because we have not seen, nor read of elsewhere, we omit: Whosoever pleases may look out their figures and descriptions in the places cited. The second of these Aldrovandus saw only painted, neither did he see the first alive.

Notes

• † 1.1

  Ornithol. l. 16. c. 8.
• * 1.2

  Cap. de Cae∣ruleo.
• * 1.3

  Lib. 1. Observ. cap. 11.
• * 1.4

  Lib. 6. de Avibus, cap. 26
• * 1.5

  The blue Ouzel.
• * 1.6

  Ruffa, it may be ren∣dred russet.
• * 1.7

  Ouzel of two colours.
• * 1.8

  Of kin to the Ouzel.
• * 1.9

  Another bird of kin to the Ouzel.