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. 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.

Its 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 com∣mon 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. Its 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 particular∣ly, the outer Webs of the * 1.1 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 fea∣thers 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 under∣neath whitish, the three next on each side differ not from these. Of the two out∣most (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 ob∣long, and bent almost into a circle, which lest any one should think accidental, I ob∣served in three several birds. It hath no blind Guts, but in their stead the streight Gut is dilated in that place. Its Crop was full of Ants and Ants Eggs. It feeds also upon Caterpillars and Cossi. It sits more upon the ground than other Woodpeckers, and seeks its food there.

Its Tongue is round, ending in a stiff, sharp, bony tip, dented on both sides. This Tongue the Bird can dart out to a great length, viz. some three or four inches, and draw up again, by the help of two small round Cartilages, fastned into the fore∣mentioned bony tip, and running along the length of the Tongue: These Cartilages from the root of the Tongue take a circuit beyond the Ears, and being reflected back∣wards to the crown of the Head, (where they both meet again, and are kept down down by a Ligament going over them) make a large bow. Below the Ligament they run down the Sagittal Suture, and then declining a little to the right side, pass just above the orbit of the right Eye, and along the right side of the Bill into a hole excavated there, whence they have their rise or original. The musculous spongy flesh of the Tongue encloses these Cartilages like a sheath, and is so made that it may be extended or contracted like a Worm. That part also of these Cartilages, reaching from the hind part of the Head to the end of the Bill, is covered with the like muscu∣lous flesh that may be contracted or extended like the Tongue, only both Cartilages are not enclosed in one muscle, but have each its several distinct musculous sheath, like two small strings or worms. On the ends of these Cartilages (for I could without much force draw them out of their socket in the Bill) there was a white glutinous or mu∣cous matter. On the inside the flexure of these Cartilages reaching from the root of the Tongue to the top of the Head, was a broad thin muscle, which served to move the Cartilages to and fro. For by contracting it self it streightens the bow of the Carti∣lages (almost after the manner as the Tunica Uvea dilates the Pupil) and so necessarily forces the Cartilages forward through the Tongue, and thrusts out the Tongue: But we leave these things to be more curiously weighed and examined by others.

The tips of the shafts of the Tail-feathers in this and other Woodpeckers seem to be broken or worn off by their resting upon them in climbing.

This kind lays five or six Eggs at once. I have seen six young ones together in a Nest.

* Bellonius his greatest green Woodpecker.

Bellonius makes this Bird (which he would have to be Aristotles third kind of Woodpecker) far greater than the common green Woodspite now described. He gives him a crooked Bill, contrary to the manner of the rest of this Tribe: Feet after the fashion of others: Divers spots in the Wings, such as are seen in the Wings of the rest, but different in colour.

§. III. The greater spotted Woodpecker or Witwall, Picus varius major; 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Arist.

IT is as big or bigger than a Blackbird. The Female weighed two ounces three quarters. Its length from the Bill to the Claws was eight inches, to the end of the Tail nine and an half: the distance between the tips of the Wings extended six∣teen inches.

The Bill in the Cock was an inch and a quarter long, measuring from the tip to the corner of the slit of the mouth, streight, black, thicker at the head, and slenderer by degrees, ending in a sharp point, being of a triangular Pyramidal figure, and channel'd with a furrow or two. The Nosthrils round and covered with black bristles. The Irides of the Eyes red. The Tongue made like that of the green Woodpecker.

On the hind part of the Head is a line of Crimson or Vermilion red, reaching from white to white in each cheek; [in the Cock, not in the Hen.] In the Hen the Throat and Breast were of a dirty yellowish white: The lower Belly under the Tail of a * 1.2 lovely red or Crimson colour. Hence the Italians call it Cul rosso, the Welsh by a name signifying Fire-tail. the feathers encompassing the Base of the upper Chap, and those about the Eyes and Ears are white. The Head is black, with a dash of shining green, the Back also black. At the insertion of the Wings on each side is a great white spot. From the corners of the mouth a broad, black stroak reaches own to the Back: just below the Head another black stroak crosses this.

The flag-feathers of the Wing are in number twenty (of which the first or out∣most is the shortest) black, and marked with semicircular white spots. The interiour covert feathers of the Wings are white, and make up part of those white spots we mentioned on the shoulders; the middlemost are wholly black, the exteriour have one or two white spots. The ridge or Base of the Wing is white.

The Tail is three inches and an half long, made up of ten feathers; of which the two middlemost are the longest, being strong, stiff, sharp-pointed, and bending in∣wards: The shaft, as in others, is not produced to the utmost tip (perchance worn or broken off with climbing) by reason whereof the feathers appear forked. The outmost Tail-feather on each side is small, black, and having a white spot in the exte∣riour Web. In the two next the lower part is black, and the rest white, with two transverse black spots or stroaks, of which the upper cuts both Webs of the feather, the lower only the interiour. In the third the black reacheth higher, and the white part hath only one transverse black stroak. The fourth pair are all black, having only a semicircular spot of white toward the top, the very tip being of a reddish white: The two middlemost are wholly black.

Annot. I think it is not needful so scrupulously to describe every particular spot in each feather: for that nature takes a latitude, sporting her self, as they call it, in these lesser things, not observing always the same number, figure, and situation of spots. In the Bird I described, the flag-feathers of the Wings were spotted on both sides the shaft with white spots, which when the Wing was extended stood in rows crossing the feathers: The four middle feathers of the Tail wholly black, the rest variegated with white and black transverse spots. The feathers stand so that the Tail, when shut, seems a little forked.

The Feet are of a lead colour. It hath the Toes so situate as the others of this kind, viz. two forward, two backward: The two fore-toes likewise connected from the divarication place to the first joynt.

It hath a small Liver with a Gall annexed. The Breast-bone is very long, produced almost to the vent: A small Gizzard or stomach, in that we dissected full of * 1.3 Cossi, Spondyli, and Beetles. The Guts lie deep within the body, that they be not hurt when the Bird turns her head downward, and strikes trees with her Bill. It is common to this, with the rest of its kind, to want the blind Guts.

§. IV. The lesser spotted Woodpecker or Hickwall, Picus varius minor.

THis is for shape and colour like to the last described, but much less, weighing scarce an ounce; being in length from Bill to Tail not more than six inches; though the Wings extended were no less than eleven inches broad from tip to tip.

The Tail consisted of ten feathers, from the exteriour to the middlemost gradu∣ally longer each than other, the two middlemost being the longest. Of these the four middlemost are wholly black, strong, sharp, and bending inward, as in the rest of this kind, so made to sustain the body when she climbs trees: The three exteriour are less sharp, of which the outmost and least hath the bottom black, and the upper part white, with two transverse black spots. In the next the black part is extended in the inner Web as far as the second transverse black spot; in the outer the white reacheth lower, yet hath it only one transverse black spot toward the top. The third is black, having only the tip white.

The Throat, Breast, and Belly are of a sordid white, above the Nosthrils it is of a dusky colour, and on the head it hath a white spot. The hinder part of the head is black. From the Eyes to the middle of the Neck two broad lines of white feathers terminated on both sides with black are produced, concurring about the middle of the Neck [only the feathers that cover the Ears are of the same colour with the Breast.] The upper part of the Back, and upper covert feathers of the Wings are black. The prime feathers and rest of the covert feathers are elegantly spotted with white semicircular spots. The middle part of the Back is white with cross lines of black. The Bill, Tongue, Irides, Feet and Toes like those of the last described. The Legs feathered, but not down to the Toes: The Claws black and crooked. The same number of prime feathers in Wings and Tail. The Stomach dissected was full of Insects.

It wants the Appendices or blind Guts, like the rest of this kind.

The Cock differs from the Hen in that instead of a white spot on the head is hath one of a lovely red or Crimson.

Aldrovandus writes, that this kind wants those red spots on the Head and Rump; which is true of the Female, but not of the Male, for his Head, as we said, is marked with a red spot.

§. V. * The Brasilian parti-coloured Woodpecker, called Ipecu, Marggrave.

THis Bird is about the bigness of a Dove. The length of the Neck was two inches, of the body four, of the Tail also four, of the Legs almost an inch and half. It hath four Toes in its Feet, two standing forwards, and two backwards, as in Parrots. The Head is covered with feathers of a Vermilion colour, on which also it hath a Crest like a Dove. The Neck underneath is black to the very Bill, as also above: But in both sides there is a broad white line produced toward the Back [divisim.] The Wings are outwardly all over black, inwardly white: The Tail black. In the Belly and upper part of the Legs the feathers are black and white. Its Bill is streight, sharp-pointed, an inch and half long, wherewith it pierces the barks of trees, as the Woodpecker.

§. VI. The Wryneck: Iynx sive Torquilla.

THis Bird is of the bigness of the common Lark, or somewhat less: It weighs more than an ounce. Its length from the tip of the Bill to the end of the Tail seven inches and an half: The breadth of the Wings spread eleven inches. The Bill is short, smaller, and less triangular than in the rest of this kind, of a lead-colour. The Tongue round, ending in a sharp bony thorn, which it can dart out to a great length, and withdraw again, like the rest of this kind. The Irides of the Eyes of a yellow hazel colour. The Feet and Legs short, of a pale lead colour [or, as I described them of a flesh colour.]

It could ruffle up the feathers of its Head, so as to make them appear like a Crest, as doth the Jay. The Plumage is so elegantly and curiously coloured, that it is very difficult in words to describe it; the upper part of the body being variegated with white, black, reddish, dusky, and grey or ash-colour. From the crown of the Head all along the middle of the Back runs a list of black. The Head is cinereous, with transverse white, black, and red lines: The Throat and lower Belly yellow with transverse black lines; the middle of the Breast is whiter, with fewer lines. The feathers covering the bottom of the prime Wing-feathers are yellow, with transverse black lines. The Rump is more ash-coloured than the Head, with white spots and transverse black lines.

The prime Wing-feathers are in number nineteen, the first or outmost being some∣thing shorter than the second, black, but spotted with great red spots; which spots, especially in the feathers next the body, are powdered with small, black specks. The tips of the second row of Wing-feathers are white. The Tail-feathers are ten, not sharp-pointed, nor stiff, nor bending inwards, as in the above described Woodpeckers; two inches and an half long, of a cinereous colour, crossed at large intervals with bars of black: To speak exactly, the part next the cross bars is of a dark ash-colour, the rest of the intermediate spaces of a paler cinereous, sprinkled, and as it were be∣dewed with black specks.

The Toes are so disposed as in the rest of this kind, two forward, two backward: The outmost Toes in each Foot are equal, and twice so long as the inmost.

It wants the blind Guts like the rest of this kind. The length of the Guts was nine inches.

It strangely and ridiculously turns its head back to its shoulders, whence it is by Gaza called Torquilla. It feeds upon Ants, which darting out its Tongue it stabs through with great celerity, with the thorny point we mentioned (as Children are wont to catch Frogs with an Iron Dart, shot out of a Bow, and drawn back again) and so swallows them, never touching them with its Bill, as other birds are wont to do their meat: Witness Gesner, who tells us, that himself kept one five days in a Cage, and affirms upon his own experience that it feeds upon no other food but Ants.

The Hen is paler and more cinereous than the Cock. Aldrovandus observed a long black spot behind the Eyes in the Cock.

Annot.] I described this Bird thus. The Quils or prime feathers in each Wing were eighteen, of a dusky colour, marked in their exteriour Webs with red spots, in their interiour with pale ones: so situate as in the pied Woodpecker. The Throat and upper part of the Breast were yellow, and the Belly white, from Bill to Tail varie∣gated with thick-set, cross black lines. At each corner of the mouth grew white fea∣thers, varied with the like transverse lines.

§. VII. * The Brasilian Jacamaciri of Marggrave.

FOr the conformity of its Feet we have subjoyned it to the Woodpeckers. It is of the bigness of a Lark. It hath a streight, sharp-pointed, black Bill, almost two inches long: A short Tongue, [wherein it differs from Woodpeckers] blue Eyes; short Wings; which end a little beneath the rise of the Tail. The Tail is almost three inches and an half long, streight, composed of seven or eight feathers. The upper Legs are feathered, the lower bare, the skin being of a colour mingled of yellow and green; of which colour are also the Feet. In each foot it hath four Toes, two standing forwards, and two backwards; both the inner Toes in each Foot, as well the fore as the back one, are but half so long as the outer. The Claws are black. The whole Head, upper part of the Neck, Back, Wings, and Tail above are of a green colour mingled with golden or igneous, so that they shine wonderfully. A ring of the same colour doth also encompass the Neck. Under the Throat, on the Breast, the lower Belly, and under the Tail it is of a dark yellow colour, like yellow Way.

§. VIII. * The Brasilian Curucui of Marggrave.

IT is a very elegant and beautiful bird, almost of the bigness of a Pie: Hath a short broadish Bill, of a brimston colour: A wide mouth, and, when open, or a trian∣gular figure: Fair blue eyes with a golden circle [I suppose he means encompassing the Pupil] and under each Eye a spot of white skin, like a Hen: In the Eye-lids above and beneath black, stiff hairs: The Neck not long: The Legs short and fea∣thered almost to the Feet, with black feathers. It hath a Tail five inches and an half long, of a good breadth. Under the lower Bill, in the middle, and at both sides, is as it were a beard, made up of black bristles, yet shining with a gloss of blue as in the Necks of Mallards. Under the Throat the feathers are only black. The whole Breast and lower Belly are of an excellent Vermilion colour: The whole Back and upper side of the Tail are of a shining green, with a gloss of blue, and golden, or igneous colour, The end of the Tail hath a black border. Underneath the Tail it hath white feathers elegantly straked with cross black lines. The beginning of the Wings is of that shining green we mentioned: The middle part is hoary, the black feathers being poudered with very little grey specks, as Mallards use to be: The ut∣most part, that is, the longest feathers, are of a dark dusky or blackish colour. The Legs, as I said, are almost wholly cloathed with black feathers: What is bare, toge∣ther with the Feet, is of a dusky ash-colour. The Toes are so disposed as the Par∣rots. The feathers under the Wings are grey.

§. IX. * Guira acangatara of the Brasilians, Marggrav.

THis Bird is about the bigness of a Magpie. It hath a Bill an inch long, the up∣per Chap whereof is a little hooked, the whole of a dark yellow: The Eyes Crystalline, with a dusky circle: The Neck two inches long, the body three. The Tail very long, viz. eight inches, consisting of eight streight feathers. The upper Legs are an inch and half long, as also the lower. The Toes in each foot four, standing as in Parrots, the two inward in each foot being shorter, the two outward longer. The whole Head is cloathed with feathers, which in their middles longways near the shaft are dusky, in their sides yellow, as is the Crest. The Neck and Wings (on the other side) have their feathers yellow in the middle, and dusky in the sides. The ends of the Wings are almost wholly dusky. The whole Belly, Back, excepting the Wings, upper Legs, and rise or base of the Wings to three inches and an half length, are covered with feathers of a pale yellow. The end of the Tail hath white feathers, the rest of the Tail is dusky. The lower Legs and Feet are of a * 1.4 Sea-water-colour. On the Head are long feathers erected like a Crest. It makes a great cry in the Woods.

§. X. * The Brasilian Aracari of Marggrav. the other Xochitenacatl of Nieremberg.

IT is of the bigness of a Woodpecker [I suppose he means the common green one] hath a Bill four inches long, an inch and half broad or deep, three inches and an half thick where thickest, [I suppose he means so much by measure round] a little bending downward like a Turkish Scymitar, and sharp-pointed like a Parrots; the upper Chap being a little longer than the lower: Both upper and lower are for above half way reckoning from the end, serrate or toothed. The upper part of the Bill is greater than the lower. The Bill is hollow, very light, [lighter than a Spunge:] The upper Chap white, distinguished by a black line running along the middle or ridge from head to point, the lower Chap wholly black. The whole Bill is inserted into the Head triangle-wise, and where the insertion is, compassed about with a triangu∣lar white line. It hath a Tongue four inches long, very light, and plainly resembling a feather to see to: Or else is feathered and black, (if the Tongue may be said to have a feather.) It hath a Head not very big, broad, and compressed; great Eyes,

with a black Pupil, yellow Irides, and the * 1.5 rest of the outsides of the Eyes black. The Neck is not longer than a Parrots. The body from the rise of the Neck to the Tail is about five inches long. The Tail is broad like a Woodpeckers, and six inches long, or somewhat more. The Legs and Feet are of a dark green or black, like to those of Parrots, having two fore-toes, whereof the one longer than the other, and two back-toes likewise of unequal length. The Claws crooked, and dusky or black. The length of the upper Legs is two inches, of the lower one and an half. The whole Head and Neck as far as the beginning of the Breast are covered with black feathers, which where they end are terminated in a circle. The Breast, and all the lower Belly elegantly cloathed with yellow feathers mingled with pavonine. Cross the Breast from the one side to the other is a broad line drawn, of a sanguine colour. The whole Back, Wings, Tail, and upper Legs are covered with dark green feathers, [or black with a gloss of green] like the colour usual in our Magpies. The end of the Back above the beginning of the Tail is of a sanguine colour to more than the Circumfe∣rence of a Crown piece. The Wings end at the rise of the Tail, and within side are of a dark ash-colour. The Bill is black within. This Bird doth, as it were, pro∣nounce its own name, crying with a sharp voice, but not very shril, Aracari.

This Bird is very like the Toucan or Brasilian Pie. The conformation of its Feet argues it to belong to the Woodpecker-kind. We saw the Bill of this Bird in the Re∣pository of the Royal Society, London, our selves also have one of them: It is much less than the Toucans Bill, not so compressed side-ways, but rounder. The upper Chap wholly white, without any line of black in the top, (wherein it differs from the Ara∣cari's Bill described by Marggrave) the lower black.

§. XI. * The yellow blue-footed Persian Woodpecker of Aldrovandus.

THis Bird communicated to me by Tartaglinus the Venetian, (who shewed me many exotic Animals painted) at first sight, from the constitution of the Bill and Feet I judged to be of the Woodpecker-kind. In bigness it differs little or nothing from the green Woodspite; only it hath a thicker Head and Neck, and a longer Bill. The feathers from the middle of the Crown to the end of the Tail have something of ferrugineous: But the Bill is altogether ferrugineous. The Feet are of a pale blue. The Claws are black: The rest of the body is yellow, save that all the Wing-feathers ends or tips incline somewhat to ferrugineous; and that a spot of the same colour en∣compasses the Eyes. He said it was an exotic Bird, and bred in Persia.

§. XII. * The American Hang-nest, called by the Brasilians Guira tangeima. Marggr.

IT is a Bird somewhat bigger than a Lark, equal to the spotted Woodpecker. Its body is about three inches long; Its Neck an inch and half: The Head is small, the Bill streight, sharp-pointed, an inch long. Its Legs and Feet are like those of other birds, its Tail streight, four inches long. The colour of its Bill is black, except the lower part, where it is inserted, which hath something of dusky: The Head and Neck, as low as the beginning of the Breast, very black. The upper part of the Neck from the Head almost to the beginning of the Back is of a * 1.6 Sky-colour. Through the begin∣ning of the Back it hath a transverse black spot, reaching as far as the Wings: But the Wings themselves are of a deep black, only in the middle they have a white spot situate longways the feathers, of an inch and half long. The Tail also is wholly black: The rest of the body is of a Sky-colour. The Legs are bluish: The Pupil of the Eyes black, with a yellowish white Iris. These Birds build admirable Nests of a Cylindrical figure, and hand them in great numbers on the ends of the boughs and twigs of trees. These Nests are made of the small Fibres of roots and twigs of trees and herbs, curi∣ously platted and interwoven.

§. XIII. The Brasilian Jupujuba or Japu of Marggrave.

THis is of the same figure with the precedent, and builds after the same manner, in the same tree [one of these is a Male, the other a Female] but hath some∣what a shorter Tail. The whole body is invested with very black feathers. In the middle of each Wing it hath a yellow spot, an inch long: In the end of the Back, and near the vent it is all yellow. [I have seen also that were wholly black, with their Backs of a sanguine colour.] The Tail below from its rise half way is yellow, the other half being black; above it is wholly black, only it hath on both sides a feather half yellow. The Legs and Feet are black: The Bill of a Brimstone∣colour. The Eyes of a Sapphire colour, with a black Pupil. It hath a blue Tongue, cleft or doubled at the top. Near the house of the Owner of the Engine Tapucurai is planted the tree Uti, in which hang more thau four hundred Nests of these Birds; of which there are there a very great number, which hatch and bring up three broods of young in a year. Each Nest is made of dry grass and horse-hair, or hogs bristles mingled, of a dusky colour, of the figure of a narrow Cucurbite with its Alembick, long, in the whole about a foot and half, and from the bottom for one foot upwards hollow like a Purse, the remaining or upper part of it for half a foot being solid, and hanging by its tip on the tip of a little branch of the tree. All these Nests hang down on this fashion from the tips of the twigs of trees.

We have often seen the Nest of this Bird artificially built kept among other rarities in the Cabinets of the curious. I persuade my self that this was the very Bird, which the Ancients understood by the name of Picus nidum suspendens, i. e. the Hang-nest-Woodpecker. I am sure there is a great deal more reason why this should be so called, than the Oriolus, which Aldrovandus takes to be the Picus nidum suspendens, Antonius Pigafeta writes, that Parrots do on this fashion hang their Nests on the ex∣tremities of the branches of trees; falsly imagining that the Nests which he saw hanging on the twigs of trees were Parrots Nests.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Those next the body.
• * 1.2

  Phoenic••o colore. Crimson co∣lour.
• * 1.3

  A great In∣sect with six feet, resem∣bling a Cater∣pillar found in rotten wood.
• * 1.4

  Sea-green we call it.
• * 1.5

  Reliquas ex∣tremitates.
• * 1.6

  Uranici coloris.