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. I.

§. I. The Woodcock: Scolopax Aldrov. tom. 3. pag. 472.

IT is somewhat lesser than a Partridge: The upper side of the body particoloured of red, black and grey, very beautiful to behold. From the Bill almost to the middle of the Head it is of a reddish ash-colour. The Breast and Belly are grey, with transverse brown lines. Under the Tail it is somewhat yellowish. The Chin is white, with a tincture of yellow. A black line on each side between the Eye and Bill. The back of the Head is most black, with two or three cross bars of a testaceous colour.

The prime feathers in each Wing are about twenty three, black, crossed with red bars. The feathers under the Wings are curiously variegated with grey and brown lines. The Tail is 3 ⅜ inches long, consisting of twelve feathers, the tips whereof are cinereous above, and white underneath; their borders or outsides as it were inden∣ted with red; the remaining part black.

The Bill is three inches long, or more, dark brown toward the end, near the Head paler or flesh coloured: The upper Mandible a very little longer than the nether: The Tongue nervous: The Palaterough: The Ears very great and open. The Eyes

stand higher or nearer to the top of the Head than in other birds, that they be not hurt when she thrusts her Bill deep into the ground. The Legs, Feet, and Toes are of a pale brown or dusky colour: The Claws black: The back-toe very little, having also but a little Claw.

The Liver divided into two Lobes, having a Gall-bladder annexed: The Guts long, slender, and having many revolutions. The blind Guts very short, not half so long as that single blind gut the remnant of the Yolk-funnel.

These are Birds of passage coming over into England in Autumn, and departing again in the beginning of the Spring; yet they pair before they go, flying two together, a Male and a Female. They frequent especially moist Woods, and Rivu∣lets near hedges. They are said both to come and to fly away in a Mist. At Nuren∣berg in Germany I saw of them to be sold in August, whence I suppose they abide thereabout all the year. On the Alps and other high Mountains they continue all Summer. I my self have flushed Woodcocks on the top of the Mountain Jura in June and July. Some straglers by some accident left behind when their fellows depart re∣main also in England all Summer, and breed here. Mr. Jessop saw young Woodcocks to be sold at Sheffield, and others have seen them elsewhere. Their Eggs are long, of a pale red colour, stained with deeper spots and clouds.

Of two that I described, one was a Male, and the other a Female; the Female was heavier than the Male by an ounce and half; the Female weighing eleven ounces and an half, the Male but ten: The Female also was of a darker colour.

The flesh of this Bird for the delicacy of its taste is in high esteem. The Leg espe∣cially is commended, in respect whereof the Woodcock is preferred before the Par∣tridge it self, according to that English Rhythm before recited in the Chapter of the Partridge.

If the Partridge had the Woodcocks thigh, 'Twould be the best bird that ever did fly.

The length of this Bird, measured from the tip of the Bill to the end of the Tail, was thirteen inches and an half: The breadth between the tips of the Wings extended twenty six inches.

Among us in England this Bird is infamous for its simplicity or folly; so that a Wood∣cock is Proverbially used for a simple, foolish person.

§. II. The Snipe or Snite: Gallinago minor.

THis weighs about four ounces. Its length from the tip of the Bill to the end of the Toes is thirteen inches; to the end of the Tail eleven and an half. The Wings spread were seven inches and an half wide.

A pale red line divides the Head in the middle longways, and on each side parallel thereto a list of black, and without the black over the Eyes another line of the same colour with that drawn along the middle of the Head. Between the Eyes and the Bill is a dusky brown line. The Chin under the Bill is white: The Neck is mingled of brown and red. The Breast and Belly are almost wholly white. The long fea∣thers springing from the shoulders reach almost to the Tail, having their outward halfs from the shaft of a pale red, the inner black and glistering, their tips red; which colours succeeding one another make two lines down the Back. The covert-feathers of the Back are dusky, with transverse white lines: Those incumbent on the Tail are red, crossed with black lines. The greater covert-feathers of the Wings are dusky, with white tips, the lesser are particoloured with black, red, and grey. The inside co∣verts are curiously variegated with brown and white lines.

The Quil-feathers are in each Wing about twenty four in number; of which the outer edge of outmost is white almost to the tip: of the succeeding the tips are some∣thing white, but more clearly from the eleventh to the twenty first; else they are all brown. But the last five are variegated with transverse black and pale-red lines. The Tail is composed of twelve feathers, two inches and an half long. It seems to be shorter than it is, because it is wholly covered and hid by the incumbent feathers. The tips of its outmost feathers are white, the rest of the feather varied with cross bars or lines of brown, and grey, or pale red colour. The following to the two

middlemost are of like colour with these outmost, save that their tips are less white, their bottoms more black, and the uppermost cross bar reddish. Of the two middle feathers the tips are white, next beneath the white is a brown bar, under the brown a red one, with some dusky spots in the middle. The rest of the feather is black, save that in the outer Webs are sometimes seen one or two reddish spots. [I suppose the colours of the Tail vary, and are not exactly alike in all birds.]

The Bill is almost three inches long, black at the tip, and somewhat broad and chamferd: The Tongue sharp: The Irides of the Eyes hazel-coloured. The Legs are of a pale green, the Talons black. The Toes long, and separated from the first rise, without any connection or cohesion. The back-toe is very small.

The Liver is divided into two Lobes, with a large Gall appendant. The Stomach not very fleshy. Its flesh is tender, sweet, and of an excellent rellish.

It lives especially on the fatty unctuous humour it sucks out of the earth; but feeds also upon Worms and other Insects.

Some of these Birds abide with us all the Summer and build in our Moors and Marshes; laying four or five Eggs at a breeding time. The greatest part leave us, and fly into other Countries. It seeks its food in moist and fenny places, and in Rivu∣lets and Gills of water, where also it hides it self, so that it is very hard to find or espy it.

§. III. The Gid or Jack-Snipe or Judcock: Gallinago minima seu tertia Bellonii.

IT weighed two ounces: Its length from the tip of the Bill to the end of the Claws was ten inches and a quarter, to the end of the Tail eight and a half. It is about half so big as a Snipe; whence it is called by the French, * 1.1 Deux pour un, as Bellonius witnesses. The colour of the Rump is a shining bluish purple, like the feathers on a Stares back; the tips of the feathers being white. The scapular feathers covering the Back have their outward border yellow, the middle part brown, with red spots, their inner border of a shining blue, yet without any mixture of purple. The Neck is particoloured of brown, white, and pale red. The top of the Head black, with a red tincture: Above either Eye passes a broad line of a pale yellow. The Throat is of a pale red, painted with white and brown spots. The Breast and Belly white. Be∣tween the Eyes and Bill is drawn a black line or border. The Males in this kind differ from the Females neither in colour, nor in magnitude. The prime feathers of the Wings were in number twenty four, of which the first or outmost ten were brown or dusky: The tips of the next ten white. The three last or inmost on the outside the shaft were straked with red and black. The tips of the greater covert-feathers are white: The lesser rows of Wing-feathers are black, but partly tipt with red.

The Bill is almost two inches long: The upper Chap a little longer than the nether, toward the end broad and rough with * 1.2 points, [chamfered] yet the very utmost tip smooth. The Legs bare somewhat higher than the Knees, pale-coloured, with a dash of green. The Toes divided to the bottom: The back-toe small: The Claws black. It hath a Gall-bladder, a musculous Stomach: The single blind Gut or Appen∣diz being the remainder of the Umbilical funnel conveying the Yolk into the guts, shrunk up. It feeds upon Beetles, and other Insects.

It hides it self among Rushes, not rising sometimes till you are just ready to set your foot upon it: It is a simpler bird than the Snipe, and less frequent with us. I sometimes following the vulgar error, thought it not to differ from the Snipe in kind, but only in Sex, taking it to be the Cock-Snipe. But afterward being advised by Mr. M. Lister, I found it to differ specifically: For dissecting several of these small ones some proved to be Males, some Females.

§. IV. * The Brasilian Guarauna of Marggrave. Rusticula aquatica Brasiliensis.

IT is of the bigness of the Jacu; hath a streight Bill, a little inclining downward, yellow, but dusky at the tip, four inches and an half long. Its body is also of the same length. The upper Legs are feathered down half way, six inches long. Each Foot hath four Toes so disposed as is usual, the middle of which is three inches long, the rest shorter. The whole bird is covered with brown feathers, mingled with much shade. The Head and all the Neck are indeed of the same colour, but besides, speck∣led with white, as in the Jacu. It is pretty good meat.

Notes

• * 1.1

  i. e. Two for one.
• * 1.2

  As if it were carved or graven.