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. VI. A small bird without name like to the Stopparola of Aldrovand, perchance the Moucherolle of Bellonius.

FOr bigness and colour it is very like to a Hen-Sparrow, but of a longer and slen∣derer body. The Head, Neck, Back, and generally the whole upper side is of a dark cinereous or Mouse-dun: Yet the Wings and Tail darker than the mid∣dle of the Back: And on the top of the Head, to one who heedfully views it, appear certain black spots. All the nether side is white: But the shafts of the feathers in the Breast are black, and the Throat and Sides somewhat red. The Tail is two inches and a quarter long, all dusky, as are also the greater quil-feathers of the Wings, for the edges of the interiour are of a yellowish white. The outmost feather of the Wing is very short and little. [In some birds of this kind the tips of the interiour fea∣thers of the second row, as also of the bastard-wing feathers are of a yellowish white.]

The Bill is streight, black, broad, and depressed, or flat near the Head. The up∣per Chap rises up in an angle or ridge all along the middle, (whence the Bill seems to be triangular) and is a little longer than the nether, and sharp-pointed. The mouth gapes wide; and is yellow withinside. The Tongue cloven with a deep incision, rough on the sides. The Legs short and black: The Feet also small and short. The outer toe below sticks fast to the middle one, as in the rest of this kind.

The Gall is yellow: The Testicles small and black. In the Gizzard we found Bees, Flies, and other Insects. In summer-time it frequents gardens with us in England. In the young birds of this kind the Back is spotted with black and white.

This bird differs from the White-throat, in that its Tail is all of one colour; from the Beccafigo in the colour of its body, being of a dusky cinereous or Mouse-dun, whereas that is paler coloured, and tinctured with green; from both, in magnitude and in the figure of its Bill, which (as we said before) is broad, depressed, and triangular.

We have before in the Chapter of Larks presented the Reader with the descripti∣ons of the Stopparola and Stopparolae similis of Aldrovand. As for the Moucherolle, Bellonius describes it thus:

It is of the bigness of the Curruca, lives in woods, and feeds chiefly upon flies, whence also it is called * Moucherolle (Mouche in French signifying a fly.) It is so like a Sparrow, that unless by its conditions while it is living, and its Bill when dead, it can hardly be distinguished from it. It hath strong legs and feet: The feet also black. The Bill is slender and oblong, like a Robin-red-breasts: The Tail also long. In brief it is in all points like to the small Field-Sparrow that haunts Oaks, excepting the Bill, and its pleasant note. It lies much in Woods and Thickets, flying and hiding it self there. This description of Bellonius seems rather to agree to our Hedg-Sparrow than to the bird described in this Chapter.

* The Brasilian Tijeguacu of Marrgrave.

For the figure of its Bill alike depressed and triangular we have subjoyned this bird to the precedent, though otherwise not much resembling it. It is (saith Marg∣grave) of the bigness of a Sparrow, or a little bigger; hath a short, triangular, and somewhat broad, black Bill: Its Eyes of a Sapphire colour; its Legs and Feet of a waxen, with duskish Claws. Its Toes are disposed after the ordinary manner. The whole bird is as black as a Raven: But on the top of the Head it hath a shining san∣guine spot of the figure of a buckler. The feathers covering the whole back almost, and part of each Wing above, from black incline to blue. The Tail is short and black.

Notes

• Hedge-Sparrow.