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 ...

THE THIRD BOOK OF THE ORNITHOLOGY OF FRANCIS WILLUGHBY Esq (Book 3)

Of Water-Fowl. (Book 3)

WAter-fowl are either Cloven-footed, which are much conversant in or about waters, and for the most part seek their Food in watery places. [Almost all these have long Legs, naked or bare of feathers for a good way above the Knees, that they may more conveniently wade in waters] or Whole-footed, which swim in the water, and are for the most part short-leg'd.

Those that live much about waters are either, first, of great size, the biggest of this kind, having each something singular, and being not reducible to any other tribe, which therefore as straglers and anomalous birds we have placed by themselves, though they agree in nothing but their bigness: Or secondly, of lesser size. These lesser are either * 1.1 Pisci∣vorous, or such as suck a nourishing fat juice or moisture out of muddy and boggy ground, or † 1.2 Insectivorous. The Piscivorous are Herons, Storks, &c. The Limosugae or Mud-suckers may be distinguished by their Bills into such as have very long Bills, either crooked, as the Curlew, or streight, as the Woodcock. The Insectivorous Water∣birds have either Bills of a middle size for length, as the Himantopus; or short Bills, as the Plover, Lapwing, &c.

We call those Birds Mudsuckers, which suck out of the Mud or Channels some oyly slime or juice, wherewith they are nourished: Whence they have delicate flesh, and their very guts not emptied or cleansed from the Excrements are usually eaten. These have very long Bills for this purpose, broad near the tip, and finely chamfered or wrought with lines: Speckled bodies; two toes somewhat joyned; all broad, that they may not easily sink as they walk upon muddy and boggy grounds.

But because we are not so skilful, as that we can certainly determine what Birds belong to each of these kinds, we shall chuse rather to distinguish Cloven-footed Water-fowl, not Piscivorous by the different length of their Bills, into three kinds. The first shall be of those that have the longest Bills, whether streight, as the Wood∣cock, &c. or crooked, as the Curlew, &c. The second of such whose Bills are of a middle length, as the Himantopus, &c. The third of short-bill'd birds, as the Plover, Lapwing, &c. Those we call long-bill'd, whose Bills exceed two inches and an half length: those middle-sized, whose Bills are of any length between two inches and an half, and one and an half: Those short-bill'd, whose Bills exceed not an inch and half.

Most Water-fowl have a short Tail; none of them have their Feet so disposed as Woodpeckers and Parrots, that is two forward, and two backward; none having more than one back toe. Among Water-fowl of all kinds those that feed upon fish have the ranker and stronger-sented flesh.

THE FIRST PART. Of Cloven-footed Water-fowl, wading in Waters, or frequenting watery places.

THE FIRST SECTION. The greatest Cloven-footed Water-fowl of a singular kind.

CHAP. I.

§ I. The Crane: Grus, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Graecis.

THis is a large-bodied Fowl, weighing sometimes ten pounds. Measuring from the beginning of the Bill to the end of the Tail it is well nigh five foot long. That it hath a very long Neck is so well known that it is needless to write it: Its Legs also are very long.

Its Bill is streight, sharp-pointed, of a dark greenish colour, near four inches long, compressed side-ways: Its Tongue broad and horny at the tip. The top of the Head black; from the Bill to the hinder part covered with black hairs or bristles rather than feathers. On the back of the Head it hath a space or bed of the figure of a Crescent, bare, or thin set with hairs, and of a red colour: Below which, on the up∣per part of the Neck is a triangular spot of ash-coloured feathers. Two white lines or stroaks, one from each Eye, are produced backwards, and meeting behind the Vertex of the now mentioned triangular spot, are thence continued as far as the Breast. The Throat and sides of the Neck are of black hue. The Back, Shoulders, covert∣feathers of the Wings * 1.3, Breast, and all the Belly and Thighs are ash-coloured; only the quil-feathers of the Wings, and those on the utmost Pinion are black.

The Wings are very large: The quil-feathers are in number twenty four, and (as we said) black, yet the lesser of them from black incline to red or russet, as do also the primary covert-feathers which are on the utmost joynt or Pinion. The Tail for the bigness of the bird is small and short, round when spread, consisting of twelve feathers, all cinereous, with black tips.

The Legs are black, bare of feathers for an hand breadth above the Knees: The Toes black, and very long. The lower joynt of the outmost and middle Toe con∣nected by a thick membrane.

But that which is most rare, and especially remarkable, yea, wonderful in this bird, is the conformation of the Wind-pipe. For entring far into the Breast bone, which hath a great cavity within to receive it, and being there thrice reflected (as the figure adjoyning to the sculp of the Crane represents) goes out again at the same hole, and so turns down to the Lungs,

The blind guts are five inches long. The Stomach or Gizzard musculous as in gra∣nivorous birds. The flesh is very savoury and well-tasted, not to say delicate.

We saw many Cranes to be sold in the Poulterers shops at Rome in the Winter time, which I suppose had been shot on the Sea-coast.

They come often to us in England: And in the Fen-Countries in Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire there are great flocks of them, but whether or no they breed in Eng∣land (as Aldrovandus writes, he was told by a certain English man, who said he had often seen their young ones) I cannot certainly determine either of my own know∣ledge, or from the relation of any credible person. The delicate taste of the flesh and the musculous Stomach are sufficient arguments to evince, that this bird feeds not at all upon fish, but only upon herbs, grain, and seeds of divers sorts, and it is likely up∣on Insects too: As the Authors also that have written of it unanimously report.

Cranes differ from Herons, 1. In that the Claw of the middle toe is not serrate as in Herons: 2. In bigness, wherein they exceed them: 3. In having a shorter Bill: And 4. a musculous stomach or Gizzard: 5. Two Appendices or blind guts, whereas Herons have but one: 6. In the strange revolution of the Wind-pipe within the Breast-bone.

§. II. The Indian Crane.

THis is lesser than our common Crane, but of the same ash-colour, Its Tail is short, and scarce conspicuous, being hidden by the Wings. Its Bill is streight, nar∣row, and longer in proportion than the Bill of the common Crane: Its Nosthrils ob∣long. The chief difference is, that in this the top of the Head from the Bill to the Crown is bare of feathers [only set with thin hairs] rough-skin'd, and of a red co∣lour. This we saw among his Majesties rare Birds kept in St. James's Park near West∣minster.

§. III. The Balearic Crane: Grus Balearica Aldrov. Pavo marinus * 1.4 Clus.

FOr the shape of its body it is like to a Stork: Yet its Bill is shorter not only than a Storks, but than a Cranes. It hath upon its Head a thick, round Crest, made up of Bristles spread every way, like to Hogs Bristles, of the colour of the prickles of a common Hedghog: By which note it may at first sight be easily known and distingui∣shed from all other birds. In both Cheeks it hath a white spot terminated above with a red line. The lesser quil-feathers of the Wings are white: the whole Bird besides is black, of the colour of a Coot, the Tail not excepted. Under the Bill hangs down a red * 1.5 excrescence on each side like a Gill or Wattle. The Legs are long, bare of feathers from the knees upward almost to the second joynt. We saw a bird of this kind in the Royal Aviary in St. James's Park near Westminster.

Aldrovandus his description, which he took from a Picture he saw of this Bird, differs in some particulars from ours: For 1. He makes the bristles of the Crest of a * 1.6 Gold colour: 2. All the underside of a dusky ash-colour, the Back of a dark green, as in Lapwings: 3. He mentions some ferrugineous feathers in the Wings.

These Birds are found in the Country near CapoVerde. For bigness they may match our Country Cranes. As they run they stretch out their Wings, and so run very swiftly, otherwise they walk softly. They never roost in houses, but about night when they have a mind to go to their rest, they search out high Walls whereon to pearch, after the manner of Peacocks, whose voice and conditions they also imitate. They feed upon green herbs, and together with Hens and Peacocks devour Barley and other grain. This out of Aldrovandus.

In the Tables of Birds, engraven by Vischer, it is figured by the title of Struthio ex China, i. e. A China Ostrich.

CHAP. II. Marggraves Jabiru of the Brasilians, called by the Low Dutch, Negro.

THis Bird in bigness exceeds a Swan. Its body is fourteen inches long; its Neck as many, and of the thickness of a mans arm. Its Head sufficiently great; its Eyes black; its Bill also blackish, extended streight forward, and above to∣ward the point a little bending, eleven inches long, two and an half broad, edged * 1.7 versus exteriora: The upper Chap of the Bill is a little higher [or deeper] and big∣ger than the nether. It hath no Tongue: under the Throat is a Crop of a moderate bigness. The Legs are very long, viz. two foot. For the upper Legs [or Thighs] are one foot and an inch long, and half way bare of feathers; the lower eleven inches: These are streight, black, and as it were scaled, half an inch thick. In each foot are four toes, three standing forward, and one backward, as is usual in most birds. The whole bird all over is covered with white feathers like a Swan or Goose. The whole Neck almost, viz. for eight inches length, counting from the Head, is destitute of feathers; and one half of this bare part, together with the Head, is co∣vered with a black skin, the other half with a white. But I suppose the feathers had been pluckt off, and that the white down stuck in the skin. The Tail is broad, ending with the end of the Wings.

CHAP. III. *Jabiru guacu of the Petiguares, Nhandu apoa of the Tupinambi, Scurvogel of the Low Dutch.

IT hath a great Bill, seven inches and an half long, round at the end, and bending downward. It wants the Tongue, and the lower Bill is grey. On the top of the Head it hath a bony Miter or Crown, of a colour mixt of white and cinereous. The Eyes are black, and behind them large Ear-holes. The Neck is ten inches long, the upper half whereof, together with the Head, is not covered with feathers, but with a scaly ash-coloured skin, whose scales are white. In bulk of body it equals a Stork: It hath a short, black Tail, reaching no further than the ends of the Wings. The upper Legs [or Thighs] are covered partly with white feathers, else the whole Legs are ash-coloured; the upper being eight inches long, the lower six, or a little more. There are four Toes in each foot, so disposed as in the former. The whole Body and Neck are covered with white feathers. Long feathers hang down from the Neck and about it. The Wings are white; their quil-feathers black, with a gloss of a Ruby colour. They flay the skin off this bird, and eat the flesh boiled or roasted. It is fat, dry, and well-tasted, especially if it be fried with butter. I have eaten of it often.

CHAP. IV. The Brasilian Cariama of Marggrave.

THis is a Water-fowl of the bigness of the greater Heron. On its Head above the rise of its Bill it carries a crest or tuft of feathers, standing upright, of a black mingled with an ash-colour. The Bill is short, the upper part a little hooked, brown, with a tincture of dark yellow. It hath elegant golden Eyes, with a black Pupil, and long, black Eye-brows. The Wings end a little behind the rise of the Tail. It hath long Legs, above covered half way with feathers, else naked, and of a dark yellow colour: Three Toes in each foot, the middlemost the longest, the outer shorter than that, and the inner the shortest; connected partly by a skin inter∣vening. Behind, or on the backside the foot it hath a small Toe, set higher than is usual, and a round heel like an Ostrich. The Claws are short, hooked, dusky. The whole Body is covered with grey or ash-coloured feathers, waved with brown, as in Falcons, and a dark yellow intermingled. The ends of the Wings and Tail are brown, waved with a dark yellow and grey. In the Breast and lower Belly it hath more grey. It carries its Tail low, its Neck high. Its cry is like a Hen-Turkeys, and is heard afar off. It is very good meat.

CHAP. V. The Brasilian Anhima of Marggrave.

IT is a Water-fowl of the rapacious kind, bigger than a Swan. Its Head is not great, like a Hens; its Bill black; the upper Chap whereof is something longer than the nether, and turning downward at the tip. It hath fair, golden Eyes, with a black Pupil, and a black circle without. On the Head near the rise of the Beak it carries an erect horn, bending forward at point, a little more than two inches long, of the bigness of the greater string in a base Viol; round as though it were turned, of a white or bone colour. About the horn stand up very fine, short, black and white feathers. Its Neck is seven inches long, the rest of its Body to the rise of its Tail al∣most a foot and half. It hath very large Wings; the greater feathers being above a foot and half long. In the forepart of each Wing are two streight triangular * 1.8 horns, springing from the very bone of the Wing, as thick as the tip of ones little finger,

and of a Conical [more properly Pyramidal] triangulate figure. The foremost of these goads or spurs are an inch long; the hindmost a little shorter, and of a dusky colour. It hath a Tail ten inches long, and broad like that of a Goose. The upper Legs [Thighs] are four inches long, and for the lower half bare of feathers. The lower Legs are five inches long, and almost two thick. In each foot it hath four toes so situate as in Hens: The middle of the three fore-toes is four inches and an half long; the other two three and an half; the back-toe almost two. Each hath a crooked, black Claw an inch long, but the back toes a little longer. Both Feet and Legs, as far as they be naked, are covered with a brown scaly skin. The crown of the Head is variegated with black and white feathers. The sides of the Throat and up∣per half of the Neck are black. The lower half of the Neck and Breast are varie∣gated with white, cinereous, and black feathers. The lower Belly is all white. On the sides under the Wings, and on the Back the Plumage is black, white feathers being here and there intermingled. The Tail is black: The Wings also are black, excepting the outmost borders (near the bones) where they are covered with yellowish white fea∣thers. It hath a terrible cry, sounding something like Vyhu, Vyhu. It is never found alone, but always a pair, Cock and Hen, walk together, and when one is dead, the other never departs from its carkass. The horn that grows on its Head is held to be a remedy against poyson, being infused a whole night in Wine. The same is reputed a remedy against the suffocation of the Womb, and in hard travel. This that I de∣scribed was a Hen: The Cock is of twice the bigness. It makes its Nest of clay by the bodies of trees upon the ground, of the shape of an Oven. Thus far Marggravius. This is a bird of a singular kind, none like it: Perchance it may be the Cuntur, so much talked of. Here we may note by the by, that these spurs in the Wings are found only in some American birds, but in none of our Continent.

BOOK III. PART I. SECTION II. Of Cloven-footed Piscivorous Water-fowl.

THese have very long Necks: Their Bills also are long, strong, ending in a sharp point, to strike fish, and fetch them from under stones or brinks: Long Legs to wade in Rivers and Pools of water: Very long Toes, espe∣cially the hind-toe, to stand more firmly in Rivers: Large, crooked Ta∣lons, and the middle serrate on the inside, to hold Eels and other slippery fishes the faster, or because they sit on trees; lean and carrion bodies, because of their great fear and watchfulness.

The Heron-kind is distinguished from all other tribes of birds by this most certain note, that they have but one single blind gut a-piece, after the manner of Quadru∣peds; whereas all other birds known to us have twain.

CHAP. I. Of Herons.

§. I. The common Heron or Heronshaw: Ardea cinerea major sive Pella.

THe Female (which I described) weighed almost four pounds: Being from the tip of the Bill to the end of the Claws four foot long, to the end of the Tail thirty eight inches and an half.

The foremost feathers on the crown of the Head were white, then succeeded a black crest four inches and an half high. The Chin was white. The Neck being white and ash∣coloured was tinctured with red. The Throat white, being delicately painted with black spots; and on its lower part grew small, long, narrow, sharp, white feathers. The Back (on which grows nothing but down) is covered with those long feathers that spring

from the Shoulders, and are variegated with whitish strakes or lines tending down∣wards. The middle part of the Breast, and lower part of the Rump, viz. that under∣neath the Tail inclines to yellow. Under the Shoulders is a great black spot, from which a black line is drawn to the Vent.

The prime feathers of the Wings are about twenty seven in number, the last of which are ash-coloured, all the rest black, excepting the outer edges of the eleventh and twelfth, which are somewhat cinereous. The undersides of all of them is cine∣reous. The feathers of the bastard Wing are black. Under the bastard-wing is a great white spot. Also white feathers cover the root of the bastard wing above. Then a white line is continued all along the basis or ridge of the Wing as far as its set∣ting on. Ten of the second row of Wing-feathers are black, then four or five have their exteriour borders white: All the rest are ash-coloured. The Tail also is ash-co∣loured, seven inches long, and made up of twelve feathers.

Its Bill is great, strong, streight, from a thick base gently lessening into a sharp point; from the tip to the angles of the Mouth five inches and an half long, of a yel∣lowish green colour. The upper Mandible is a thought longer than the nether, and therein a furrow or groove impressed, reaching from the Nosthrils to the utmost tip. Its sides towards the point are something rough, and as it were serrate, for the faster holding of slippery fishes. The lower Mandible is more yellow: The sides of both are thinned into very sharp edges. The Mouth gapes wide. The Tongue is sharp, long, but not hard. The eye-lids, and that naked space between the Eyes and Bill, are green. The Nosthrils are oblong narrow chinks.

The Legs and Feet are green: The hind-part of the Legs and soals of the Feet greener. The Toes very long. The outmost foretoes are joyned to the middle by a membrane below. The inner edge of the middle claw is serrate, which is worthy the notice taking.

Its Stomach is large and flaggy, rather membranous than musculous, as in carnivo∣rous birds, in which dissected we found * 1.9 Ivy-leaved Duckmeat. The Guts towards the Vent, where the blind guts are situate, are larger than in other birds. It hath not two blind guts, one on each side, like other birds, but only one, like Quadrupeds, but that bigger and thicker than ordinary. The Gullet under the Chin is dilated into a great wideness. In the middle of the Merry-thought is an Appendix. It hath a long Gall-bladder. Gesner counts but eleven Vertebres in the Neck; I observed fifteen, of which the fifth hath a contrary position, viz. is * 1.10 reflected upward. It feeds upon Fishes, Frogs, &c. Oftentimes also it strikes and wounds greater fishes than it can draw out and carry away. Young Herons may be fatted with fish guts and entrails, flesh, &c. It sits sometimes with its Neck so bent up, that its Head is drawn down to stand be∣tween its shoulders.

These Birds build sometimes on the tops of great trees, and for the most part many together. But whether they are wont to build in old Rooks Nests, as Aldrovandus out of Polydore relates, I leave to further enquiry.

We have Heronries in England such as they have in France, however Bellonius de∣nies it: In which Herons are so well instructed and accustomed to breed, that the owners make yearly a good profit of the young.

§. II. Aldrovandus his third sort of ash-coloured Heron.

THis Heron which I make congenerous to the common cinereous, from the tip of the Bill to the end of the Feet was thirty six inches, or four foot long: Had a Bill an inch thick, of the length of a * 1.11 Palm; near the Nosthrils of the breadth of ones little finger, channel'd within; beneath of a horn and rose colour. The Iris of the Eye yellow, the Pupil black. The Neck was a full span long. The feathers of the Head, Neck, Back, and upper side of the Wings of a dusky ash-colour: All their ends marked with a red spot: But the great Wing-feathers are variegated with white at their tips; and also those which make up the Tail, which is a Palm and half long. Those which cover the Breast are sprinkled with longer marks of black, red, and white. The Belly is of a pale ash-colour, almost white. The Hips or Thighs are somewhat red; and for the space of an inch above the * 1.12 knees bare of feathers. From these to the ends of the Claws remains the measure of two Palms. The Legs are greenish, and the Feet cloven into Toes, which yet at the beginning of the

divarication are joyned together by a short membrane, because it must needs be con∣versant about waters. The Claw of the back-toe is greater than the rest. Upon the tips of the feathers of the Head stuck certain small, tender, white capillaments; which argued this to be a young bird.

§. III. The lesser ash-coloured Heron, called by the Germans, The Night-raven.

IT is much lesser than the precedent, and hath a shorter Neck. Its Back and the crown of its Head are black; its Neck ash-coloured. Its Throat and Belly tin∣ctured with yellow. A white line is extended from the Eyes to the Bill. From the hinder part of the Head it hath a Crest of three feathers five inches long hanging down over the Back, whereby it is differenced from all other birds. Its Wings and Tail are cinereous: Its Bill black: Its Legs and Feet of a yellowish green.

At Sevenhuys, a Village in Holland in a fenny Country, not far from Leyden, we described a young bird of this kind (as I suppose) taken out of the Nest, thus. Its Legs and Feet were green; and those bare of feathers for about an inch above the knees. The outmost Toe connected with the middle one by an intervening mem∣brane from the divarication to the first joynt: The Claw of the middle Toe serrate on the inner side, as in the common Heron. The Eyes of a lovely yellow. In the colour of its body it comes nearer to a Bittour than to the common Heron-shaw. Two rows of the greater Wing-feathers are black, with white tips. The Tail is of a dusky ash-colour, the tips of its component feathers being also white. The Back and Neck∣feathers are black, with red shafts, or red lines in the middle. In the Neck the red lines are broader. The tips of the lesser covert feathers of the Wings decline from white to red. The Belly is white, with black spots: The Chin white: The fea∣thers on the Throat on one side white, on the other black. After it hath mew'd its first feathers without doubt it changes its colour, as most other birds do. It hath a great Gall; a large Stomach, glandulous within, but not fleshy or musculous (which kind we in English call a Gizzard) in it were the shells of Beetles. In the middle of the bone called the Merry-thought is an Appendix. This Bird lays white Eggs.

The Germans call it, Nacht rab, that is, Night-raven, and under that title it is figu∣red and described by Gesner, whence * 1.13 Aldrovandus propounds it under the title of Night-raven for a distinct species of bird, subjoyning it to the Corvus Sylvaticus of Ges∣ner. It is called Night-Raven, because in the night time it cries with an uncouth voice, like one that were straining to vomit.

§. IV. The great white Heron. Ardea alba major.

IT weighed forty ounces. Its length from the tip of the Bill to the end of the Feet was fifty three inches and an half; to the end of the Tail no more than forty. Its breadth, as we reckon it, between the tips of the Wings extended sixty inches and an half.

Its colour was all over as white as snow. The number of the main feathers of its Wings was about twenty seven; of its Tail twelve: The length of its tail six inches and an half. It had no Crest. Its Bill, as in the common Heron, was yellowish. The edges of its Eye-lids, and that naked space between the Eyes and Bill green. The Eyes of a pale yellow. The Legs for some space above the knees bare of feathers. The Feet and Talons black: The outer fore-toe connected with the middle one from the divarication to the first joynt by an intervening membrane. The Claw of the middle toe had its interiour edge * 1.14 serrate.

The figure of the Breast-bone was arcuate [bending like a Bow] as in other He∣rons. The vertebres of the Back were six or seven: Those of the Neck to the fourth were bent downwards, all the rest upwards. It had a great Gall: A triangu∣lar Appendix on the Merry-thought. Of its fat is made Oil good for the wind, &c.

This differs from the common Heron, 1. In magnitude, as being lesser than that. 2. In the length of its Tail. 3. In that it wants a Crest. A certain English man (saith Aldrovand) affirmed, that he had seen white Herons, though but rarely, which nei∣ther in bigness of body nor shape differed at all from the common Heron, but only in

colour. I suspect this Relator whosoever he was, was mistaken, accounting the bird in this article described by us not to differ from the common Heron-shaw but only in colour. For Mr. Johnson, who hath seen the white Heron in England, puts it down for a distinct kind in his Method of Birds communicated to us.

§. V. The lesser white Heron: Ardea alba minor.

BEing weighed it scarce amounted to one pound. From the tip of the Bill to the end of the Tail it was twenty four inches and an half long, to the end of the Legs thirty two and an half. It is all over of a pure white colour, like the bigger. From the hinder part of the Head hangs down backward a short Crest. About the Eyes the skin is bare of feathers, and of a green colour. The Bill is four inches and an half long, and black. The Eyes are of a pale yellow. The Tongue short: The Feet green; but sometime covered with a black, scaly bark, which may easily be rubbed or scraped off. The Legs are bare of feathers something above the knees, and up higher than in the former kind. The outer fore-toe is connected with the middle from its rise to the first joynt by an intervening membrane. The middle Talon is toothed, as in the rest of this kind. It hath also but one blind gut, like them; and a great Gall.

It differs from the precedent white Heron in being much lesser, and in having a crest, which that wants.

We take this to be the same with the small white Heron or Garzetta of Gesner and Aldrovand, and with Bellonius his Aigretta of the French, although the descriptions differ in some particulars.

Gesner saith, that the feathers of the Crest are long, and sold at a great rate. But Bellonius and Aldrovandus write, that these feathers, which Noblemen and great Com∣manders are wont to stick in their Caps and Head-pieces for ornament, and which are fold very dear in the Cities subject to the Turk, do not grow on the Head, but on the Back, at the ridge of each Wing. Our Bird, which we bought in the Market at Ve∣nice, had no such feathers; perchance they had been before pluckt off, and concealed by the Fowler that sold us the bird.

The second lesser white Heron of Aldrovandus is the very same with this, called also Garzetta in the Valleys of Malalbergo, as will manifestly appear to him that will but take the pains to compare the descriptions. Aldrovand. tom. 3. pag. 93. describes it thus. It is a bird all over white, excepting the Legs and Bill, which are black. Its Bill is long, slender, very sharp-pointed, all of one colour. Between the Eyes and Bill is a certain spot of green. The Pupil of the Eyes is black, encompassed with a yellow or golden circle, and that again with a black. The Neck and Legs, as in other Herons, are long; so are also the Toes, but yellow. The back-toe is the least of all: The middlemost of the fore-toes longest, and that on the right side of it next in length. The Claws black and sharp. The Wings very great; the Tail short; the Body slender and little.

This, I say, is without all doubt the same with our small white Heron; neither (as I judge) doth it differ from the Garzetta of Aldrovand, before described, in any thing but in age, for that was a young bird. In this there is no mention made either of the Crest, or of those rare feathers growing on the Back. Perchance they were by the Fowlers, (who knew well enough their value) plucked off from both Aldrovands bird and ours.

§. VI. * The third small white Heron of Aldrovand.

IT is lesser than the precedent, but more fleshy. Its Bill small, thick, sharp-pointed, all yellow. The top of the Head and Neck are almost of a Saffron colour; which, though more remiss, is seen also in the Breast. The Neck is shorter than in other Herons. The Eyes are situate as it were in a certain yellow spot: Their Irides are yellow, encompassed with a black circle. The Thighs and Legs are long, of a yellow colour, inclining to Saffron. The Toes are, in proportion to the body, bigger than in other Herons, very long, dusky, encompassed also with whitish annulary scales.

Two of the fore-toes are joyned together by a small membrane, as in the rest. Its Claws are long, very sharp, and hooked: That of the middle toe, longer than the rest, is serrate, as in the Bittour. The Tail is not very short.

Besides this Aldrovand figures another with a short, thick, sharp Bill, very long toes, the fore ones dusky: The head inclining to Saffron-colour: The Bill and Legs yellow. Else the whole bird is white.

§. VII. * The red-leg'd Heron, or Cirris of Virgil according to Scaliger. Aldrov. tom. 3. p. 398.

THis is lesser than all other Herons, and hath also a very short Neck: The whole bird almost from Saffron inclining to a Chesnut colour; on the underside deeper, on the upper side and Wings paler. The Tail is so little that it seems altogether to want one. The Pupil of the Eye is encompassed with a yellow circle, that with a * 1.15 scarlet one, and this again with a black. Very beautiful feathers, partly yellow, and partly black, arising from the forehead hang down all over the upper part of the Head and Neck. The Bill is strong, long, sharp, of two colours, where it joyns to the head green, or from green inclining to blue; and this colour reaches as far or farther than the middle of the Bill, the remaining part being black. The Legs and Feet are of a deep red colour as in many Pigeons: The Talons black. The Toes very long, and joyned with a small membrane, or some rudiment of it.

Besides, he sets forth the figure of another in all things like this, save that the same colour in the body is more remiss, the Feet yellowish, the Neck on the sides besprink∣led with many black spots; which are not in the other.

§. VIII. * The Heron which they call Sguacco in the Valleys of Malalbergo. * 1.16 Aldrov.

IT hath tufts of feathers on the head almost of the same colour with the immediately precedent; to which also it is in bigness almost equal, or a little less. Its Bill is shorter than in that, but strong, of the same colour with the whole Back, viz. of a yellow ferrugineous. The Iris of the Eye is of a golden colour, encompassed with a black circle. The whole Head and Neck are particoloured of yellow, white, and black. Underneath on the belly it is white, as is also the Tail, and better part of the Wings. The Thighs are yellow: The Legs and Toes are greenish, as in some Water-hens. They say it is a bold and couragiousbird.

§. IX. The Heron called Squaiotta at Malalbergo. Aldrovand.

IT hath a yellow Bill, black at point, a short Tail, green feet. The tuft on the Head consists of thirty feathers, the middlemost of which are white, and the outermost black. There grow also on its Back of that sort of elegant feathers before mentioned, of a red colour, and black at their roots. * 1.17 Both perchance have their names from their cry.

§. X. * Another small Heron with a bow-bill, Aldrovand.

THe Bill of this is more * 1.18 arcuate than in any of the precedent. On the nether side the Neck and Breast (which is spirinkled with black spots tending down∣wards) are white. Else the whole bird is of an ash-colour, underneath paler, above deeper. The Thighs in this Bird, contrary to what they are in others of this kind, are covered with feathers.

§. XI. * The Bird of kin to the Heron described by Aldrovand, t. 3. p. 412.

THis sort of Bird, though it hath a much shorter Bill, I have made * 1.19 congenerous rather to the Herons than other birds, and am wont to call it the black Heron, because in its meen, and the fashion of the rest of its body, it resembles the Heron-kind. For it hath a long Neck, long Legs, very long Toes, sharp Talons, and finally, a short Tail. Its colour is all over uniform, viz. blackish, except the Neck, which is com∣passed with a white ring, and the Bill which is yellow, in the middle, and at the end, as well above as below, marked with a black spot.

It hath not as yet been our hap to see these six last birds, and so we have nothing to add to their descriptions, which we have borrowed of Aldrovandus.

§. XII. The Bittour or Bittern or Mire-drum: Ardea stellaris, Taurus of Pliny, called by later Writers Butorius and Botaurus, and by Aristotle also Ocnus.

IN bigness it falls not much short of the common Heron-shaw. Its length from the tip of the Bill to the end of the Claws is thirty eight inches, to the end of the Tail twenty nine. Its Head is small, narrow, or compressed at sides: The crown black: At the angles of the mouth on each side is a black spot. The Throat and sides of the Neck are red, with narrow transverse black lines. The Neck being cloathed with very long feathers, seems to be both shorter, and much greater than indeed it is. The long feathers on the Breast are black in their middles. The inner part of the Thighs and the lower Belly are white, with a light tincture of red. The outsides of the Thighs are variegated with black spots. The Back is particoloured, of pale red, or feuille mort and black, [with cinereous also mingled,] the black spots being greater there than in the rest of the body. The bottoms of the feathers on the Throat are white. The great or quill-feathers of the Wings are shorter than in the common Heron. The tips of the greater feathers are black, else they are all variegated with transverse red and black lines. The lesser rows of Wing-feathers are of a paler red. The Tail is very short and little, made up of ten feathers of the same colour with the Wing-feathers.

The black stroaks or marks between the shoulders are broader, and tend down∣wards; but the red colour is paler, languishing into a yellow. Its Bill is streight, strong, thick at the Head, and growing slenderer by degrees to the point, of a greenish colour, and having sharp sides or edges. The sides of the lower Mandible fall within the upper, when the Mouth is shut. The upper Chap hath a long cranny, or furrow, or channel excavated on each side, wherein are the Nosthrils. The Tongue is sharp, not cloven, reaching scarce to the middle of the Bill. The Irides of the Eyes from hazel incline to yellow. [In another bird they were red.] The slit of the Mouth is very wide, running out beyond the Eyes toward the hinder part of the Head, so that the Eyes seem to be situate as it were in the very Bill. Under the Eyes the skin is bare of feathers, and of a green colour. The Ears are great, and wide open.

The Shanks are bare a little above the knees: The Feet green: The Toes great, and very long, armed also with long and strong Talons; that of the middle Toe ser∣rate on the interiour edge, in like manner, and for the same purposes, viz. of holding fast Eels, and other slippery fish, as in the rest of this kind. The back-claw, which is remarkably thick and long above the rest, is wont to be set in Silver for a Pick-tooth, and is thought to have a singular property of preserving the teeth. The outmost fore∣toe is joyned to the middlemost at bottom by a membrane.

They say, that it gives always an odd number of bombs at a time, viz. three or five: Which in my own observation I have found to be false. It begins to bellow about the beginning of February, and ceases when breeding time is over. The com∣mon people are of opinion that it thrusts its Bill into a Reed, by the help whereof it makes that lowing or drumming noise. Others say, that it thrusts its Bill into the wa∣ter, or mud, or earth, and by that means imitates the lowings of an Ox. It hides it self commonly among reeds and rushes, and sometimes lies in hedges with its Neck and Head erect.

In the Autumn after Sun-set these birds are wont to soar aloft in the air with a spiral ascent so high till they get quite out of sight: In the mean time making a singular kind of noise, nothing like to lowing.

As for the interiour parts, The annulary cartilages of the Wind-pipe after its diva∣rication, are not entire [or perfectly round] but only semicircular: The other part of the circle being supplied by a thin, loose membrane: They stand also at a greater distance one from another than before. The Liver is divided into two Lobes, and hath its Gall-bladder annexed. The interiour membrane of the Stomach is wrinkled, and full of papillary glandules. Beneath the lower Orifice of the Stomach was as is were a secondary stomach, of a singular structure, and of the figure of the Letter ∽, having a thick coat, and being rugged and uneven with folds or wrinkles within. The first stomach was lax and membranous rather than musculous, like a Dogs stomach, as Bellonius rightly compares it. It hath no Craw: Only one blind gut, like the rest of this kind, half an inch long. The Gullet just below the Bill may be vastly dilated, so as to admit a mans fist. In the stomach dissected we found the fur and bones of Mice. Instead of the transverse ribs are only small Appendices. The Vertebres next the Head are bent downwards, all the rest up wards. The Breast-bone is * 1.20 arcuate. The angle or aperture of the Breast-bone is filled up with a thin, loose, pellucid membrane. The Gullet and Windpipe descend down the right side of the Neck. It hath also a bony Appendix in the angle of the Merry-thought, but less than the common Heron.

It is called by later Writers, Butorius and Botaurus, because it seems to imitate boa∣tum tauri, the bellowing of a Bull. The Author of Philomela calls it Butio: But his mistakes are so many, that no account is to be made of his authority. Some have made it to be the Onocrotalus, because of its voice; which, to say the truth, seems to me much more to imitate the braying of an Ass than the lowing of a Bull: But Pliny hath so exactly described the Onocrotalus, that no man that shall compare the notes with the bird, can possibly doubt that it is that we commonly call the Pelecan: Though those that have seen and observed it, never heard it make any such braying noise when kept tame: Which is something strange; unless perhaps being discontented with its captivity, it delights not to make that noise it doth when at liberty. The Bittern is said above all other birds to strike at mens eyes. It builds upon the ground, com∣monly in a tuft of Rushes, lays four or five Eggs, of a round figure, and whitish colour, inclining to cinereous or green, not spotted at all.

This without doubt is that bird our common people call the Night-raven, and have such a dread of, imagining it cry portends no less than their death, or the death of some of their near Relations: For it flies in the night, answers their description of be∣ing like a flagging Collar, and hath such a kind of hooping cry as they talk of.

§. XIII. * Aldrovandus his third sort of speckled Heron.

THis Bird, sent from Epidaurus, was all over of one and the same colour, to wit, reddish, deeper above, lighter underneath. This same, or at least one very like to it, taken in our Fens, had a Bill a palm long, of a horny colour, streight, and sharp∣pointed. The upper Mandible was a little hooked at the end, and longer than the ne∣ther, with some blackness. The crown was black: The Neck ferrugineous, two palms long: The Back was black, and so was the Tail, which was very short; the Rump be∣neath white: The Wings partly ferrugineous, partly white. The Legs nine inches long. The Iris of the Eyes was yellow. This seemed as yet to be a young bird, that had not mewed its first feathers.

§. XIV. The greater speckled or red Heron of Aldrovand.

THis seems to be a bastard kind between the Bittour and the common Heron, but to partake more of the common Heron, whence it would be more rightly inti∣tuled, The ash-coloured or blue Heron with red breast and sides.

In its bigness, shape, and serrate Claw it agrees with the common Heron. The crown of its Head is black, adorned with a long Crest: Its Back ash-coloured, but darker than the common Herons. On the shoulders grow long, red, bristly hairs.

The lesser covert-feathers of the inner side of the Leg are red. The Thighs are white, dashed with red. Near the Breast on both sides is a broad red stroke. The middle of the Throat is particoloured, with black and pale red spots. Down the sides of the Neck is a black line in the middle of two red ones. The lower part of the Neck under the long feathers was of a deep red. In other particulars it agreed with the common Heron. It had but one single blind-gut: A huge Gall-bladder. The Ribs tend streight downwards from the vertebres of the back, like those of Quadrupeds. The Guts are small and slender. The remnant of the passage convey∣ing the Yolk into the Guts is plainly to be seen in the form of a blind gut, about the middle of the intestines, the Pipe conveying Gall from the Gall-bladder to the gut, and the * 1.21 porus bilarius do not concur in one common passage, but continue their channels several and distinct, and perforate the Gut in two places, but near one to the other.

§. XV. * The Brasilian Soco of Marggrave.

IT is a Water-fowl, of which here [in Brasil] many sorts may be observed. It is of the bigness of the lesser Heron: Hath a streight, black, and sharp-pointed Bill, two inches and an half thick where it is thickest. Its Head is like a Herons, as is also its Neck, being a foot long: Its Eyes black with a * 1.22 golden circle. The Wings and Tail are equally extended, ending together. For the Tail is short, being not of above five inches length. The Legs are sufficiently long, above the knees four inches, and as many below. Each foot hath four Toes, three standing forwards, and one back∣wards. The Thighs above the Knees are above half way bare of feathers, covered with a dusky skin. The Head and Neck are cloathed with brown feathers, varie∣gated with small specks. Along the lower side of the Neck down as low as the Breast is a line drawn of white feathers, mixt with black and brown ones. The Back and Wings are indeed black, but variegated or powdred with very small yellow specks or points. The Belly is of the same colour with the Back. Under the Wings are black feathers, spotted with white.

§. XVI. * The Brasilian Heron called Cocoi of Marggrave.

IT is an elegant bird, of almost the bigness of a Stork: Hath a streight, sharp Bill, about six inches long, which is of a yellowish green at its rise: Crystal Eyes, with a golden circle; the skin about the Eyes bare, and ash-coloured. The length of the Neck is fifteen inches, of the Body ten, of the Tail five. The Tail and Wings equally extended. The upper Legs are feathered half down, being eight inches long; the lower are but six and an half, covered with an ash-coloured skin. The Feet have four Toes, disposed in the usual manner; the middle the longest, the rest shorter, all armed with crooked dusky Claws. The Throat and all the Neck are white: The top of the Head and sides of a black colour, mixt with cinereous. It carries [on the Head] an elegant, erect crest of the same colour, from which two neat feathers hang down backwards, of a black colour, inclining to cinereous, each five inches and an half long. The foreside of the Neck is spotted longways [or down its length] with feathers mixt of black and cinereous. In the lower part of the Neck before, it hath long, white, fine delicate feathers hanging down, which we were wont to wear in our Caps. The whole Back, Wings, and Tail are of a pale ash-colour, mingled with a little white. The upper half of the Legs upper is inve∣sted with white feathers. Along the length of the Back are extended fine elegant, ash-coloured feathers, for their figure and structure like those on the Neck. It is good meat.

§. XVII. * The Brasilian Heron, with a serrate Bill, of Marggrave.

IT is of the bigness of a tame Duck, or a little bigger: Hath a streight, sharp Bill, the fore-half, as well above as beneath, doubly serrate, four inches and an half long. It hath the Head and Neck of a Heron; a black Pupil, with a golden circle: Its Neck is a foot long; its body five inches and an half; its Tail four, wherewith the Wings end. The whole Legs are nine inches and an half long: The upper, to the middle part only, covered with feathers, the lower half being bare. In each Foot four Toes, after the usual manner. The upper Bill is dusky, but toward the rise of a yellowish green. The whole Head, and upper side of the Neck are covered with long feathers, of a pale yellow colour, waved with black. Under the Throat it is White. The Neck beneath, the Breast and lower Belly have white feathers, waved with brown, which [brown] is round about edged with yellow. The whole Back and Wings are covered with dusky feathers, waved with yellow. The quil-feathers of the Wings are mixt of equal parts of black and green, their tips being white. The Tail consists of such feathers as the ends of the Wings, but crossed with white lines. The Legs and Feet are of a dark grey colour. The Claws dusky. Its flesh is eaten, and tastes like that of other Herons.

§. XVIII. * Guiratinga of the Brasilians, called by the Portugues Garza, that is, a Heron. Marggrave.

IT is of the bigness of the Spoon-bills or Pelecan of Gesner, and the same shape of body. It walks erect, with its long Neck and extended Bill, which is streight, sharp, yellow, four inches long, the upper part thereof black, the lower white. It hath long Legs like a Heron, of about six inches. The Toes are after the usual man∣ner. The Legs outwardly, as also the Feet, are yellow, inwardly mixt of green and dusky. The whole body is covered with milk-white feathers. On the neck are most elegant white feathers, more fine than Ostriches. It is a Water-fowl, and its upper Legs are [for some space] bare of feathers.

§. XIX. * A small Brasilian Heron of Marggrave.

IT is scarce so big as a common Pigeon: Hath a very long Neck; a streight, sharp Bill, dusky above, of a yellowish white beneath, two inches and an half long: A short, sharp Tongue: Eyes of a mean size, with a black Pupil, and a yellow circle: A small Head; a slender Neck, but seven inches long, whereas the length of the Body is scarce four: Long Legs, each five inches; the * 1.23 upper half bare of feathers half way: Four Toes in each Foot, placed the common way, with crooked and sharp Talons. As for its colour, near the Eyes, where the Bill is inserted the skin is of a yellow [melini.] The Head above is covered with feathers of a steel-colour, with pale brown ones intermingled. The whole Neck, with the Breast and lower Belly have a white Plumage, mixt with cinereous and pale feathers, so that they appear variegated. The Back is black, and partly of a Steel colour, with pale brown fea∣thers intermingled. The long Wing-feathers are greenish, having a white spot on their tips. The rest of the Wing is elegantly variegated of brown, steel-colour, wax-colour, and ash-colour. The Tail is two inches long, covered with the ends of the Wings, which are equally extended with it. The Legs above are mingled of ash and wax-colour. The naked part and the Feet are covered with a yellow skin. The Clawsbrown. This bird walks erect and stately.

CHAP. II. Of the Stork. De Ciconia.

§. 1. The common or white Stork: Ciconia alba.

IT is bigger than the common Heron: Its Neck thicker and shorter than the He∣rons: Its Head, Neck, and fore-part white: The Rump and outside of the Wings black: The Belly white. The quil-feathers of the Wings black: The Tail white: The Bill long, red, like a Herons Bill. The Legs long, red, bare almost to the Knees or second joynt from the Foot. The Toes from the divarication to the first joynt connected by an intervening membrane. The Vertebres of the Neck are four∣teen in number. Its Claws are broad, like the nails of a man; so that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. will not to be sufficient to difference a man from a Stork with its feathers pluckt off. N. B. Herodotus attributes such like Claws to the white Aegyptian Ibis. The Claw of the middle Toe is not serrate. It is seldom seen in England, and not unless driven overby a storm of wind, or some other accident. My honoured Friend Sir Thomas Brown of Norwich, a person deservedly famous, for his skill in all parts of learning, but especially in natural History, sent me a Picture of one of these birds taken on the Coast of Norfolk, drawn by the life, with a short description of it, as follows. It was about a yard high: It had * 1.24 red Bill and Legs; the Claws of the Feet like hu∣mane Nails. The lower parts of both Wings were black, so that when the Wings were closed or gathered up, the lower part of the Back appeared black. Yet the Tail, which was wholly covered and hid by the Wings (as being scarce an inch long) was white, as was also the upper part of the Body. The quills were equal in bigness to Swans quills. It made a snapping or clattering noise with its Bill, by the quick and frequent striking one Chap against the other. It readily eat Frogs and Land-snails which we offered it; but refused Toads. It is but rarely seen on our Coasts. So far Sir Thomas Brown: Whose description agrees exactly with ours in all points.

The white Stork, saith * 1.25 Joannes Faber, is very rare in Italy: All these twenty eight years that I have spent at Rome, I never but once saw a white Stork, and then but one, on the top of the Tower, called Torre de Conti, I know not by what wind driven thither. Aldrovandus also himself an Italian born, and then a very old man, confessed that he had never seen a white Stork, for that the Territory of Bologna did neither breed nor feed them. But sith it is most certain, that Storks before the ap∣proach of Winter fly out of Germany into more temperate and hot Countries, very strange it is, Italy being contiguous to Germany, and hotter than it, that they should not fly thither, at least pass over it in their flight Southward.

I know them (saith the same Faber) who have learned by ocular inspection, that Storks and Peacocks, when such Serpents as they swallow passed alive through their bodies, (as they will do several times, creeping out at their Fundaments) use to set up their Rumps, and clap their Tails against a wall so long, till they feel the Serpents dead within them.

§. II. The black Stork. Ciconia nigra.

IT is equal to the white Stork, or but little less than it. Its Head, Neck, Back, and Wings are black, with a certain gloss or mixture of green, not unlike the colour of a Cormorant: Its Breast, Belly, and sides are white. The Bill green: The Legs also green, and bare of feathers up to the Knees or second joynt from the Foot. The membrane connecting the Toes reaches on the outside as far as the first joynt of the middle Toe, not on the inside. The young ones when they want meat make a noise not unlike to Herons. We saw this Bird first near Frankefurt on the Main, after at Strasburgh: We suppose those we saw were young ones, for that their Bills and Legs were green, whereas in that which Faber described they were red.

Jo. Faber * 1.26 describes this Bird very diligently and exactly thus: Its length from the point of the Bill to the Feet was six † 1.27 spans and an half: The measure was the same of the Wings extended. The Bill alone (wherein was seen a short reddish Tongue) was a Roman foot long: The Legs two spans. The Gullet was of that capacity or wide∣ness, that the Bird being hanged up by the Feet, a great Frog dropt out of the mouth of its own accord, without any force, and four more were found entire in its sto∣mach. In which stomach, made of hard flesh, were many Frogs bones, and a certain dry lump not unlike dung. The Neck was a span and half long: The Legs and Feet meager. The colour of the Wings and all the Back blackish, as far as the lower Bel∣ly. This black is mixt with a dark bluish and purple, the dusky colour being predo∣minant, especially in the greater feathers of the Wings. The Neck recedes further from the colour of the Back, and doth wonderfully delight the Eyes with a most grateful mixture of blue, purple, and green; such as is observed in the necks of Pi∣geons and Mallards. And because only the lower region of the Belly, beginning far below the Breast, hath white and soft feathers; the whole Bird is rather to be deno∣minated black than white. The orbits of the Eyes, the whole Bill, Legs, and Feet are of a most pleasant scarlet red, or * 1.28 vermilion colour. All which things put toge∣ther, viz. the stately structure of the whole body, and that symmetry of various and pleasant colours, render this Bird very elegant and beautiful to behold. It is not al∣together whole-footed like a Duck, yet the three fore-toes are joyned together half∣way by a tough membrane; the back-toe or keel being pretty long, and armed with a strong Talon. These birds frequent Fens, Lakes, and Sea-shores; into these wa∣ters they run, intent upon their prey, sometimes also diving under water, maintain themselves by fishing, as I am assured by our Fowlers upon their credit. This Bird is not very frequent at Rome, yet is it sometimes exposed to sale among other Sea-fowl. Its flesh hath such a fishy taste and stench, that being thrown to our Cat, she refused it, and would not touch it. He endeavours to prove this Bird to be the Mergus of Ovid. See the Author.

All Storks make a clattering or snapping noise with their Bills, by clapping one Mandible nimbly against the other. They are said to live only in Republics and free-States; but this we found by experience to be false, observing them in the Territories of some Princes in Germany. There is a tradition also that they feed and nourish their Parents in their old age, when they are unable to seek their own food: Whence the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, signifying the duty of Children in requiting and maintaining their aged Parents.

§. III. * The American Stork, called by the Brasilians Maguari of Marggrave.

IT is a Bird lik to the Stork in figure, and bigness, and partly also in colour. It hath a Neck a foot long: A streight, sharp Bill, of nine inches length; long, naked Legs, like the Stork; a short Tail reaching no further than the Wings. Its Bill at bo∣tom half way up is of a yellowish green: The other half being of a bluish ash-co∣lour. It hath small, silver-coloured Eyes with a black Pupil, and about them a Ver∣milion-coloured skin, and the like also below, near the rise of the Bill, or between the Bill and the Throat, which when she is angry she lets hang down under the Throat after the manner of the Senembi. The whole Head, Neck, and all the body is co∣vered with pure white feathers; and on the lower part of the Neck those white fea∣feathers are of a good length. The Tail also is white, but above covered with cer∣tain black feathers. The Wings at setting on are covered with white feathers, but near the Back with black; which black hath a gloss of green. It Legs and Feet are red and like a Storks. It snaps also with its Bill like our Country Stork. Its flesh is esculent.

CHAP. III. * The Ibis of Bellonius.

FOrmerly (saith he) we took the black Ibis to be the Haematopus: But observing its manners and conditions, we found it not to be the Haematopus, but the black Ibis, which Herodotus first mentioned, and after him Aristotle. It is of the bulk of the * 1.29 Curlew, or a little less, all over black: Hath the Head of a Cormorant. The Bill where it is joyned to the Head is above an inch thick, but pointed toward the end, and a little crooked and arched, and wholly red, as are also the Legs, which are long, like the Legs of that Bird which Pliny calls Bos taurus, Aristotle names Ardea stellaris. It hath a long Neck like a Heron, so that when we first saw the black Ibis, it seemed to us in the manner and make [habitu] of its body like the Bittour.

This kind of Bird is said to be so proper to Egypt, that it cannot live out of that Country, and that if it be carried out it dies suddenly.

The Ibes are birds very useful to the Egyptians, for destroying Serpents, Locusts, and Caterpillars, with which that Country is greatly infested; and therefore divine honours were given them. The Ibes (saith Cicero) dispatch a power of Serpents. They turn away a great Plague from Egypt, when they kill and consume those flying Serpents that are brought in thither by the West wind out of the Deserts of Libya. Whence it comes to pass, that they do no harm either alive by their biting, or dead by their stench. For which cause the Ibes are invocated by the Egyptians. What else the Ancients have delivered concerning the Ibis, see in Aldrovandus.

CHAP. IV.

§. I. The Spoon-bill. Platea sive Pelecanus of Gesner. Leucorodius sive Albardeola of Aldrovand. Lepelaer of the Low Dutch.

THat which we described was a young one taken out of the Nest. It weighed forty five ounces and an half. Its length from the tip of the Bill to the end of the Claws was thirty four inches, to the end of the Tail twenty four. The colour of the whole body was Snow-white like a Swans. Beyond the Eyes to∣ward the Bill grow neither feathers nor down, as in the Heron and Cormorant. The angle also of the lower Chap is bare, which perchance is peculiar and proper to this Bird.

The first quil-feather of the Wing is black; of the second only the exteriour Web, or outer half from the shaft; and the tip of the interiour are black; of the third only the top, and of the fourth yet less. In like manner the tips and shafts of the inferiour feathers of the second row were black. The Tail is very short, viz. three inches and an half, made up of twelve feathers.

The Bill is of a singular and unusual figure, plain, depressed, and broad, near the end dilated into an almost circular figure, of the likeness of a Spoon, whence also the Bird it self is called by the Low Dutch, Lepelaer, that is, Spoon-bill. The broad part of the Bill is graven with twelve or fourteen lines or crevises; but its inward surface is smooth and even, without any such sculptures or gravings. The Bill in the young ones before they be grown up is white, or of a flesh-colour, in old ones black. The Tongue is sharp and little. The Legs half way up the second joynt are bare of fea∣thers; in the young ones of a whitish colour. The Feet strong: The fore-toes joyned together by a membrane; the outmost and middlemost to the second joynt, the middlemost and inmost no further than the first. The Toes and Claws black.

We did not observe in our Bird those reflections of the Wind-pipe, which Aldro∣vandus mentions, describes, and figures. It had a large Gall: The Guts had many re∣volutions. Above the Stomach the Gullet was dilated into a Bag, whose inward sur∣face was rough and uneven, with many papillary glandules.

Its Eggs are of the bigness of Hens Eggs, white, and powdered with a few san∣guine or pale-red spots.

In a certain Grove, at a Village called Sevenhuys, not far from Leyden in Holland, they build and breed yearly in great numbers, on the top of high trees; where also build Herons, Night-ravens, Shags, Cormorants, &c. In this Grove every sort of Bird (as they told us) hath its several quarter, where they build all together. When the young ones are ripe, those that farm the Grove with a hook on the top of a long pole catch hold of the bough on which the Nest is built and shake out the young ones, but sometimes Nest and all down to the ground.

§. II. * Tlauhquechul, or the Mexican Spoon-bill of Hernandez.

It is a Bird of a strange Palate: It feeds only on living fish, and will not touch dead ones. It delights in ravin: In shape of body is like to the Spoon-bill or Pe∣lecan, but almost all over of a most beautiful scarlet or pale red colour. Its Bill is broad, round toward the end, and of an ash-colour: The Pupil of its Eye black, the Iris red, and wrinkled: Its forehead like that of a Turkey or Aura: Its Head almost void of hairs or feathers, of a white colour, with near the whole Neck, and part of the Breast: A broad black ring, distinguishing the Head from the Neck. It lives about the Sea-shores and Rivers.

§. III. * The Brasilian Spoon-bill, called Aiaia, and by the Portughese, Colherado, Marggrav. the same I suspect with the precedent.

IN figure it agrees with the European Platea, differing only in colour. Of the big∣ness of a Goose: Its Bill broad like a Spoon, and white: Its Neck long: Its Feet broad. It is all white, save that the Back and Wings are of a pale carnation colour. Its flesh is edible. It is very common about the River of St. Francis, and elsewhere in Fenny places. Probably this Bird is the same with the precedent. We have a Bill of (I suppose) one of these American Plateas, which is almost twice as big and long as that of the common European.

BOOK III. PART I. SECTION III. Water-fowl not Piscivorous with very long slender streight Bills.

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, * 1.30 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 * 1.31 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.

CHAP. II.

§. I. The Godwit, called in some places the Yarwhelp, or Yarwip, in others, the Stone-Plover: The Barge or Aegocephalus of Bellonius, as I take it. An Fedoa Gesneri? An * 1.32 Rusticula Aldrov?

IT is like and equal to a Woodcock, or a little bigger: From point of Bill to the Claws seventeen inches and an half long: Between the tips of the Wings spread twenty eight and an half broad. The feathers of the Head are grey or cinereous, with some tincture of red, their middle parts being black; above the Eyes white. The Neck and Throat are reddish. The Breast of a sordid white. The Back is particoloured of red, black, and white; the middle parts of the feathers be∣ing black, the edges of a pale red. In the Cock the Throat and Breast are crossed with black lines: In the Hen the Throat and Neck are grey [or ash-coloured,] The whole rump almost is white, powdered with blackish specks. [In the Bird that I de∣scribed a triangular spot of white, took up the Rump or lower part of the Back, the vertex respecting the birds Head.] The great feathers of the Wings are black, with white shafts: The rest of the first row, as also those of the second row have reddish ash-coloured tips and edges. The lesser covert-feathers of the Wings are of like colour with the body. The Tail-feathers are in number twelve, all crossed alternate∣ly with black and white lines; the middlemost, which are the longest, of 3 ⅛ inches length: The rest on each side in order somewhat shorter, the exteriour than the interiour.

The Bill is white at the Base, black toward the point, longer for the bigness of the bird even than the Snipes or Woodcocks; the upper Mandible a little longer than the lower: The Tongue sharp: The Nosthrils oblong: The Ears great.

The Legs are not very long; naked to the middle of the second joynt: The Claws black. The Claw of the middle fore-toe on the inside is thinned into an edge. The outer Toe is joyned to the middle one from the rise to the first joynt by a pretty thick membrane of a dusky or dark green colour.

It lives and seeks it food on the sandy shores by the Sea-side, which for a great space are uncovered when the Tide is out, where it hides not it self like the Woodcock, but walks up and down the Sands in open view, like a Gull.

Barge of Bellonius, which he saith they in French call, * 1.33 Petit Corlieu.

It lives in Meadows like the Curlew, and in like manner frequents the Sea. It is a timorous bird, not abiding the approach of a man. It hath a cry like a Goat; whence we guess it was named by Aristotle, Aegocephalus, or Goathead. But lest perchance this my conjecture may seem rash and groundless, I will describe it. It is lesser than the Curlew, but for colour not much unlike it, hath also a shorter Bill, and streight. Ari∣stotle writes thus of it. It altogether wants a Spleen, and a little after, For in some birds the Gall sticks to the Stomach, in some to the Guts, as in the Dove, Raven, Quail, Swallow, Sparrow; in some to the Liver and the Stomach, as in the Aegocephalus, and lastly, in other to the Liver and the gut, as in the Hawk and Kite. But in our Barge dissected we found the Gall sticking both to the Liver and Stomach, as any one that

will be content to take the pains to cut it up, may observe. It is esteemed a delicate bird by the French, but seldom appears in places far remote from the Sea, seeking its food most willingly in salt Marshes. A good part of Marsh-birds are nocturnal, as this also is, intent upon feeding by night rather than by day. Wherefore we shall receive it for the Aegocephalus, till some other more fit name be found out for it. Thus far Bellonius.

I take this bird of Bellonius to be the same with our Godwit, which in Cambridge∣shire and the Isle of Ely they call Yarwhelp.

§. II. The second sort of Godwit, which seems to be the same with the Totanus of * 1.34 Aldrovand, called at Venice, Vetola.

IT weighs above nine ounces: Its length from Bill to Tail is full seventeen inches; to the feet twenty one: Its breadth from Wings-end to Wings-end twenty eight.

Its Bill is like a Woodcocks, three inches three quarters long, black at the end, else reddish: Its Legs long, and bare above the Knees: The outmost Toe joyned to the middle by a membrane as far as the first joynt: The middle Claw excavated on the inner side.

The Chin is white, with a tincture of red: The Neck * 1.35 cinereous: The Breast and Belly white: The Head of a dusky ash-colour, whitish about the Eyes: The Back brown: The Rump encompassed with a white ring, as in the Pygargus.

The quil-feathers in each Wing were twenty six: The first or outmost the longest, all black, as were also the six next. The rest to the nineteenth were half white: In the twentieth and twenty first the outer edges were also white. The tips of the fea∣thers of the second row were white, and together made a white line crossing the mid∣dle of the Wing. Its Tail was three inches long, made up of twelve feathers. The two middlemost of which were almost wholly black: The outmost, especially on the outside Web, white almost up to the tips: In the rest in order the white part was less and less to the middlemost.

This bird hath thick blind-guts, ⅛ of an inch long, and besides that single one about the middle of the guts. It differs from the precedent, 1. In the colour of the Tail: 2. In the colour of the Back and upper side, which in that is various, in this one and the same: 3. In bigness, being less than that.

§. III. The third sort of Godwit.

BEsides the two already described Mr. Willughby acknowledges a third sort of Godwit, which in Cornwall they call the * 1.36 Stone-Curlew, differing from the pre∣cedent in that it hath a much shorter and slenderer Bill than either of them.

BOOK III. PART I. SECTION IV. Water-fowl not piscivorous with very long, slender, crooked Bills.

CHAP. I.

§ I. The Curlew: Numenius sive Arquata.

THe Female weighed twenty eight ounces; the Male, which is somewhat less, and commonly called, The Jack Curlew, twenty five and a quarter. The length of the Female from the tip of the Bill to the end of the Claws was twenty nine inches: To the end of the Tail twenty three and an half. The distance of the tips of the Wings spread forty inches.

The middle parts of the feathers of the Head, Neck, and Back are black, the borders or outsides ash-coloured, with a mixture of red. In the Throat and Breast the middle parts or shafts of the feathers are black, the borders or edges, in the Breast white, in the Throat white, with a tincture of red. The Chin is not spotted. The Rump and Belly are white.

The feathers investing the underside of the Wing are all white: the first or outmost quil-feathers all over black, the rest spotted with white. The first feather of the se∣cond row is all black: the tips of the eighth or ninth next are white. This Bird hath a small, sharp-pointed, black feather at the end of the Wing, which whether or no it is to be reckoned among the quil-feathers one may justly doubt.

Its Bill is * 1.37 very long, narrow, bowed, of a dark brown or black colour: Its Tongue sharp, and very short, extending not further than the angle of the lower Chap: The Nosthrils long: The Legs long, of a dusky blue colour, bare of feathers half up the second joynt: The Claws small and black: That of the middle Toe thinned into an edge on the inside: All the Toes connected by a thick membrane from the divaricati∣on to the first joynt. It hath a great Gall-bladder, with a long neck extending to the gut, which concurs not in one common passage with the * 1.38 Gall-pore, but enters the gut at a distinct hole, though near to that.

It hath a musculous Stomach or Gizzard like granivorous birds: In the Stomach of one we found Periwinkle shells, small stones, and grit, &c. in anothers Frogs, &c. The single blind gut is very long: The common blind gut three or four inches long, and full of excrements. Above the Stomach the Gullet is dilated into a bag, granu∣lated within with thick-set papillary glandules.

This bird for the goodness and delicate taste of its flesh may justly challenge the principal place among Water-fowl: Of this our Fowlers are not ignorant, and therefore sell them dear. They have a Proverb among them in Suffolk:

A Curlew, be she white, be she black,

She carries twelve pence on her back.

It is a Sea-fowl, seeking its food on the Sands and Ouze, and in salt Marshes: It is found on the Sea-coasts on all sides of England.

§. II. The Whimbrel: Arquata minor, at Venice Taraniolo.

THis bird, the bigness excepted, is very like the Curlew. It weighs twelve ounces. The measure from Bill to Tail was seventeen inches, to the end of the Feet twenty: Of the Wings spread thirty three and an half. The Bill three inches long: The blind guts two: The guts twenty nine. Its Legs were greenish: The quil-feathers marked with great, semicircular, white spots. The lesser rows of covert-feathers had their edges white, their middle parts of a reddish black. The Belly and Thighs were white.

Mr. Johnson of Brignal, in his Papers communicated to us, describes this Bird by the name of a Whimbrel thus. It is less by half than the Curlew, hath a crooked Bill, but shorter by an inch and more: The Crown deep brown without speckles: The Back under the Wings white, which the Curlew hath not. Besides, the colour of the whole body is more duskish or dull. It is found upon the Sands in the Teez mouth.

The Gallinula Phaeopus of Gesner, which I suspect to be the same with the precedent.

This Bird about Strasburgh is called Brachvogel: It hath a black body, sprinkled with a few red and yellowish spots; a slender, long, black Bill, moderately bending; a whitish Neck, its underside about the middle and below tending to yellow or * 1.39 red: A white Belly; dusky or ash-coloured Legs, as the Picture represents. This description was taken from a Picture, and therefore the less to be credited.

The other Phaeopus or lesser Curlew of Gesner; the same with our Whimbrel.

This Bird some call (as they do the greater Curlew) Regenvogel, that is, Rain-fowl; and in Italy, Tarangolo. It is almost like the last described, hath ash-coloured Legs like that, and a white Belly and Chin: A like Bill also, save that it seems a little longer. The Wings are spotted with white, else of a dusky red; but their long feathers and the upper side of the Back are blackish. The Throat and Breast have something of an obscure and very faint red, and are speckled with many black spots.

I see no reason to doubt but this is our Whimbrel, sith the * 1.40 names agree, and the de∣scriptions differ not in any considerable note.

CHAP. II. * The Falcinellus of Gesner and Aldrovand, which we may English, The Sithe-Bill.

WE have thought fit (saith Aldrovand) to place this next after the Herons, because that both in magnitude and the whole shape of its body it resem∣bles a Heron, the Bill only excepted. This Gesner sometime saw alive at Ferraria in Italy. Its body was bigger that a Pigeons, of an elegant colour, almost green, with something of purple here and there mixt, as in the Back of the Lapwing, the colour varying, as it is variously exposed to the light: The Head and Neck brown: But the upper part whitish, spotted with black. Its Bill was slender, long, and bending downwards like that of the Curlew or Corvus Sylvaticus: Its Legs long, and Feet cloven. Some call it, * 1.41 The black Heron. But this that I saw was not grown up: They say it comes to be bigger, and perchance also may change something in co∣lour by age. Among all the Birds that I have hapned to see, none seems to me to come nearer the Ibis. Thus far Gesner. Now (proceeds Aldrovandus) whether this be that Bird which our Country-men call Falcinellus, I do not well know. For it differs not a little from Gesners description. But it may happen (as he well notes) that this kind of bird may vary, according to the difference of age, both in bigness and also in colour. Our Falcinellus comes well up to the bigness of the Herons, and resembles them in the whole fashion and shape of the body, excepting the Bill. Its Head, Neck, Back, Breast, Belly, Thighs, Rump are of a spadiceous colour, tend∣ing to dusky: But the Neck and Breast are sprinkled with certain oblong dusky spots. In the middle of the Back is a kind of spot, of a dark green colour: Which same co∣lour is also seen in the Wings and Tail. The Bill is blackish, very long, and falcate. The Thighs as far as they are naked, the Legs and Feet are of the same colour with the Bill. The Legs and Toes are extended to a conspicuous length.

CHAP. III. *Curicaca of the Brasilians, called by the Portughese Masarino.

IT is a Bird, in the judgment of Clusius like to the Curlew: Of the bigness of a hand∣som Goose: But its Head about as big as a Ducks. Its Neck six inches long, three thick, or a little more: Its Bill six inches long, crooked like an Hungarian Sword, of a dusky fire colour. The length of its body from Neck to Vent eleven inches, the thickness one foot. The length of the Wings sixteen inches, of the Tail (which ends with the Wings) nine: Its Legs are eight inches long: Its Feet

two and an half; red like a Ducks, but not flat, having four Toes with black Claws, three standing forward, and one backward. Its Head and Neck have a white Plu∣mage, mingled with yellow, in the upper side pretty long. Its Eyes are black, with a yellow circle. About the Eyes and the beginning of the Throat there is a black skin. The whole body is covered with black feathers, excepting the Back, Head, and Belly, where are some of a dark ash-colour, and in the middle of the Wings others white, mixt with grey, as in Storks. The rest of the feathers of the body, of the beginning and end of the Wings and of the whole Tail are black. The upper Legs to the middle are void of feathers; for it is a Water-fowl. Its flesh is good, which I have often eaten roasted and friend with butter.

There is found also another sort like to this, but much less, about the bigness of a Hen, which is called Matuitui.

It is common about the River of S. Francis, in Itapuama, and elsewhere.

CHAP. IV. * The Acacalotl or Water-Raven [Corvus aquaticus] of Hernandez.

THe Cock from the end of the Tail to the point of the Bill was almost four spans long; and of a moderate bigness. The Legs a span and half: The Bill bend∣ing like a Bow, two Palms long, and pretty slender: The Feet cloven into four Toes, armed with very black Claws. The Legs are not so black as the Claws: The Bill is blue, and the Head small. The lower feathers are dusky, with red inter∣mingled: But the upper promiscuously purple, black, green, and shining. The Neck is seven inches long. The Head and Neck are covered with dusky, white and green feathers, and some a little yellowish. The Eyes are black, but the Iris of a sanguine colour. From the outer angles of the Eyes as far as the Bill for the space of one inch the skin is bare of feathers and smooth, of a reddish colour. The Wings underneath are of a shining changeable colour, which varies according as it variously reflects the Sun-beams; but above near their setting on first then of a lovely * 1.42 green and Peacock colour. It is native of the Coast of Mexico: It lives about Lakes, and feeds upon Fishes. It breeds and brings up its Young in the Spring time in fenny places. It yields a good nourishment, and not very unpleasant, but gross, and (as other Marsh birds) of a fishy sent. This Bird doth not much differ from the Falcinel∣lus of Gesner and Aldrovand.

CHAP. V. * The Brasilian Guara of Marggrave: The Indian Curlew of Clusius, Exot.

IT is a Land and Water-fowl, of the bigness of the Spoon-bill; It hath a Bill of the figure of a Polonian Sword, long, of a whitish ash-colour; black Eyes; a Neck and Head like the Spoon-bill. The Wings end with the Tail, which is short, and car∣ried low. The Legs are long, the upper half whereof covered with feathers, the rest bare. In each footfour Toes, situate as is usual, long, with short Claws, at bottom joyned together by a skin. The Feet and Legs as far as naked are of a light grey, as is also the Bill. The whole Bird is covered with feathers of an elegant scarlet colour: Only the quil-feathers of the Wings have their ends black. This Bird, when first hatch'd, is of a blackish colour; next it becomes ash-coloured; then white: After by degrees it begins to grow red, and in the second year of its age is all over of that colour they call Columbin; and as it grows older it acquires that elegant scarlet co∣lour. It feeds upon fish and flesh, water always added.

That Bird which Clusius from a Picture sent him by the Duke of Areschot, described by the title of the * 1.43 Indian Curlew, is without all doubt the same with this. It ap∣proached well to the bigness of a Curlew: Had a long Neck, a long and sharp Bill, but crooked like a Sithe: Long and slender Legs, furnished with four Toes, of which the three foremost are longest, the hind-toe short: All armed with black Claws. The Thighs for half that part that is above the knee are destitute of feathers: Which

note is common to it with all other birds which are wont to frequent watery and fenny places. Its Tail was short, not exceeding the ends of the Wings. But the feathers investing the whole body were of another colour than those of our common Curlew, for they were wholly red like Vermilion, excepting the ends of the quil∣feathers of the Wings, which were black. Its Bill and Legs were yellow, almost like Oker.

SECTION V. Water-fowl not piscivorous, with slender Bills, of a middle length.

CHAP. I. * The Himantopus of Pliny, Aldrov. lib. 20. cap. 30.

THe whole Belly, Breast, and under-side of the Neck is white, as is also the Head beneath the Eyes: For above the Eyes it is black, and so is it too on the Back and Wings. The Bill is likewise black, a Palm and more long, slen∣der, and fit to strike Wood-lice, and other Insects. The Tail from white inclines to ash-colour, but underneath is white. On the upper side of the Neck are black spots tending downward. The Wings are very long. The Legs and Thighs are of a won∣derful length, very small and weak, and so much the more unfit to stand upon, be∣cause it wants a hind-toe, and the fore-toes for the length of the Legs are short; so that well and of right may it be called Himantopus, or Loripes, its Legs being soft and flexible like a thong or string. The Toes are of almost equal length, and of a san∣guine colour, yet is the middle toe a little the longest. The Claws are black, small, and a little crooked.

See Gesners description of this bird, and what else he hath concerning it in the Author himself, or in Aldrovandus, who repeats it out of him, Ornithol. lib. 20. cap. 30. To say the truth, it hath not been our hap as yet to see this bird.

CHAP. II. * The Crex of Bellonius.

IT hath long Legs like the Limosa, called by the French, Chevalier, but is bigger; yet lesser than the Curlew. It hath a long, black Bill like the Curlew; and also black legs and Head, the Neck, back, and Breast white. The rest of the upper parts of the body incline to ash-colour. The Wings are blackish, crossed on both sides by a white line near the * 1.44 ridge. It seeks its food on the ground, and in the air also pursues and preys upon flies, in like manner as the Lapwing. When it flies it makes a great noise.

This Bird Bellonius saw about the River Nile; and thence guessed it to be the Crex of Aristotle, because in its cry it often repeats this word Crex, Crex.

CHAP. III. The Sea-Pie: Haematopus Bellonii.

IT is of the bigness of a Magpie or Crow: of the weight of eighteen ounces: From Bill to Tail, or Claws (for it is all one) eighteen inches long.

Its Bill is streight, three inches long, narrow, or compressed sideways, end∣ing sharp, of a red colour, [In another bird, perchance a young one, the Bill was

half black from the tip.] By its figure the Bill seems to be framed by Nature, to thrust under * 1.45 Limpets, and to raise them from the Rocks, that so it may feed upon their meat. The upper Chap is a little longer than the nether. The Irides of the Eyes, and edges of the Eye-lids of a curious red colour, [in another bird they were from yellow hazel-coloured.] The Legs and Feet red. It wants the back-toe. The out∣most and middle toe are for a good way up joyned together by a membrane: So that this Bird seems to be of a middle nature between whole and cloven footed. [In some we observed the feet to be of a pale dusky colour, perhaps those also were young ones.] The Claws were black.

The Head, Neck, Back, and Throat to the middle of the Breast were black. The rest of the Breast and Belly white, as also the Rump. From this likeness in colour it took the name of Sea-pie. In one bird there was a great white spot under the Chin, and another lesser under each eye.

The Tail is made up of twelve equal feathers, of four inches long, the lower half white, the upper black. The prime feathers of each Wing are about twenty eight, of which the first is black, having only the interiour edge white: In the rest in order the white part is enlarged, till in the twentieth and three following it takes up the whole feather. The succeeding from the tweenty third grow gradually black again. The covert-feathers of the middle quils are white, and together make up a transverse bed of white in the Wing.

The Stomach is great, not musculous, but membranous, in which dissected we found Limpets entire, upon which it seems chiefly to feed and live; as from the make of its Bill we gathered before. It hath a great Liver, divided into two Lobes, with a Gall annexed: A small Spleen: Huge Ureters. The Cock differs not from the Hen in colour. Its flesh is very black, hard, having a rank taste, in a word very bad meat; which we cannot but wonder at, seeing it feeds chiefly upon Shel-fish; as do also the best rellish'd and most savoury of Water-fowl. On the Coast of Wales and elsewhere on the Western Shores of England we saw abundance of these birds.

Care is to be taken that the Haematopus be not confounded with the Himantopus or Loripes, so called from the weakness and flexibility of its long legs, as we said before.

CHAP. IV.

§. I. The greater Plover of * 1.46 Aldrovand: The Venetian Limosa of Gesner: As also the Glottis of the same Gesner and Baltner: Called at Venice Totano, a name it should seem common to this and the following bird.

IT weighs near seven ounces: In length from the tip of the Bill to the end of the Claws it exceeds seventeen inches; to the end of the Tail fourteen; in breadth from tip to tip of the Wings expanded it is about twenty four and an half. Its Bill is black, yet at the angle of the lower Mandible red, slender, streight, two inches and an half long. Its colour on the upper side of the Head, Neck, Wings, Shoul∣ders, and forepart of the Back is mixt of brown and whitish, we commonly call it grey. On the Head the outer borders of the feathers are white, the middle parts black. A white line passes above the Eyes. The under side of the body is all white and also the lower part of the Back or Rump.

The quil-feathers of the Wings are in number about twenty six, all dusky or dark brown. The five outmost darker than the rest, their interiour Webs being powdered with white specks: The inner quils are paler, speckled with white. The Tail is three inches long, composed of twelve feathers, waved with cross lines or bars of brown and white alternately placed.

Its Legs are very long, bare of feathers for two inches above the first joynt [or Knees] of a middle colour between green and livid, or * 1.47 plumbeous: The back∣toe small: The Claws black. The outmost Toe joyned to the middle at bottom. Its Stomach small, less fleshy than in granivorous birds.

This bird seemed to me in bigness to exceed the Redshank: Its Legs are also lon∣ger. Gesners description of the Limosa, which you have in Aldrovands Ornithology, lib. 20. cap. 28. answers in all points exactly to this bird. The description also of the

Glottis in Gesner and its figure in Baltner agree to it. I believe also that this is the bird which the French call Chevalier aux pieds verds, or the green-leg'd Horseman, from the length and colour of its Legs. At Venice in Italy we saw many of them.

§. II. The other Totano, perchance Gesners Totanus, Aldrov. lib. 20. cap. 24. An Callidrys rubra Bellonii?

WE saw and described at Venice another bird, we think different from the pre∣cedent: though the main difference were in the colour of its Legs, which were of a pale yellowish-red. Its Bill also seemed to be something shorter.

We take this to be the bird the French call Chevalier aux pieds rouges, the red-leg'd Horseman; the precedent (as we said before) that they denominate, Chevalier aux pieds verds. And perchance they may differ only in Sex; for this was a Male, that a Female. For in other birds also of this kind, as for example, the Erythra of Gesner, which he puts among the Water-hens, the Female differs from the Male both in bigness, and in the colour of the Legs. The red Callidrys of Bellonius is either the same with this or very like it: It differs in that the Neck and feathers under the Wings and Rump are ash-coloured, and that on the Temples on each side it hath two black spots, which give as it were a shadow to the Eye-brows, which themselves also are marked with a white spot. His figure of the red Callidrys doth not answer to the description, for the Bill and Legs are drawn too short.

CHAP. V.

§. I. The Redshank or Pool-Snipe: Gallinula Erythropus major Gesneri * 1.48 Aldrov. Totanus of the same Gesner, as it seems to us, Aldrov. tom. 3. pag. 439. An Bellonii Pardali congener longiore rostro?

IT is of a middle size for bigness between a Lapwing and a Snipe, approaching to the quantity of a Plover. The Head and Back are of a dusky ash-colour, spotted with black [In some I observed the Back to be of a dusky or brown colour, in lining to green.] The middle of the Neck is more cinereous. The Throat par∣ticoloured of black and white, the black being drawn down longways the feathers. The white colour seems to have something of red mingled with it. The Breast is whiter with fewer spots, and those transverse.

The Tail, and feathers next to it are variegated with transverse waved lines of white and black alternately. The number of Tail-feathers is twelve; the length of the Tail two inches three quarters. The quil-feathers in each Wing are twenty six, of which the first is brown, only its shaft white: The five next of a black brown; on the inner side white, and as it were sprinkled or powdered with white. The tip of the seventh is white, with one or two transverse black lines. In the following fea∣thers the white spreads it self further, till in the nineteenth it takes up the whole fea∣ther: The * 1.49 foremost covert-feathers are black; the middle varied with white lines. The other rows of covert-feathers are of the same colour with the Back, that is of a dark ash-colour.

The Bill is two inches long, slender, and like a Woodcocks, of a dark red at base, black toward the point. The Tongue is sharp, slender, and undivided; the upper Mandible longer, and something crooked at the very tip: The Eyes hazel-coloured: The Nosthrils oblong. The Legs of a fair, but pale red: The Claws small and black. The back-toe is very small, having a very little Claw. Of the fore-toes the inmost is the least: All are connected by a membrane below; but the outmost with a larger, extending to the second joynt.

It is common on the sandy shores about England every where.

It breeds in Marshes, and if any one comes near its Nest it flies about, making a great noise like the Lapwing.

It differs from the Totanus of Aldrovandus, 1. In that it is much less. 2. That it hath shorter Bill and Feet. 3. In the dusky colour of its Back. 4. In the red colour of its Legs and Feet.

The figure of the * 1.50 greater red-leg'd Water-hen in Gesner and Aldrovand doth not agree well to this bird: For the Bill is drawn too short and thick at the Head. Gesners description of his Totanus doth so well agree to it in almost all particulars that I doubt not but it is the same bird. Only in the length of the Bill and Legs, and in the bigness of the body is some diversity.

§. II. The Gambetta of * 1.51 Aldrovand.

THe Gambetta of Aldrovand is also near of kin to the Redshank, which he thus describes. Its Head, Neck, and Breast are cinereous, all over sprinkled with many * 1.52 brown spots, greater on the Back, lesser on the Neck and Breast, least of all on the Head. The master-feathers of the Wings are black: The body cinereous, on the Wings and Back inclining a little to red: The Belly white: The Bill black. The Irides of the Eyes of a yellowish green, encompassed with a black circle. The legs and feet from yellow incline to red.

This Bird we saw at Milan in Italy, and thus described. It is something less than a Lapwing. The upper surface of its body is grey, of such a kind of colour as is seen in the Backs of Hen Ducks and Teal, or of the Curlew. Its Legs and Feet are long and yellow, its Claws black. It hath the back toe. Its Bill is shorter than the Redshanks, longer than the Lapwings; near the Head of a flesh-colour, near the tip black. The prime feathers are twenty five in each Wing. The Tail half a hand-breadth long, not reach∣ing so far as the ends of the Wings closed. It hath the Head and Neck of a Tringa.

CHAP. VI. Of the Birds called Tringae.

§. I. The Tringa of * 1.53 Aldrovand: The Cinclus of Bellonius: The Gallinula rhodopus or phoenicopus, and also the Ochropus media of * 1.54 Gesner. The Steingallel of Leonard Baltner.

IN bigness it equals or exceeds a Blackbird. The colour of the upper side is of a * 1.55 dusky green, and shining like silk. The feathers growing on and between the Shoulders, as also the quil-feathers next the body, and most of the covert-feathers of the Wings are spotted on the edges with many white specks. Those on the top of the Head and upper side of the Neck want these spots. [N. B. That this Bird was a Female, for in the Males there are many and thick set spots on the Head, so that they make up certain lines or strakes.] The Circumference of the Eyes and the Chin are white. The Throat is white, and spotted with brown. The fea∣thers on the middle of the Back are blackish, with white edges: Those next the Tail milk-white. The colour also of the Breast and whole Belly is purely white.

The quil-feathers, twenty four in each Wing, are all dusky, save only the fore∣mentioned, three in number. The Tail is more than two inches long, consisting of twelve feathers of feathers of almost equal length. The outmost of these are wholly white; the next near their tips marked with a white spot. The third in order from the outmost have one broad transverse white line not far from the point; the fourth two; the fifth two and an half; the middlemost three or four. The covert-feathers of the underside of the Wing are brown, with white edges. The interiour bastard wing makes a lovely shew. For its feathers being of a dark brown, or black colour, are curiously varied with many white lines, drawn not directly cross each feather, but obliquely, yet parallel one to another in each Web of the feather, and by pairs con∣curring at the shaft in an obtuse angle all along the length of the feather.

[illustration]

The Bill is an inch and half long, streight, slender, compressed at the sides, of a dark green, black at the point: The upper Mandible a little longer than the nether: The Tongue sharp, not cloven. The Eyes of a greater size, with hazel-coloured Irides. The Legs are long, lead-coloured, with a tincture of green: The Toes also

long; the two outmost connected by a membrane almost to the first joynt: The back∣toe little: The Claws black.

This is a solitary bird; yet in breeding time they fly two together, Male and Fe∣male, about the banks of Pools, Lakes, and Rivers.

The Gallinula rhodopus or phoenicopus of Gesner, which he saith the Germans call Steingallel, differs from the Steingallel of Baltner in the colour of the Legs, which in Gesners Bird was like that of a Rose or Amethyst, in Baltners a dirty green. But see∣ing the other notes agree, I judge it to be the same Bird, different perchance in Sex: since (as Baltner hath observed) in some of these Birds the Sexes differ in the colour of their feet.

§. II. * The third Tringa of Aldrovand, called by the Italians, Giaroncello & Pinirolo.

THe Bill of this is much blacker than that of the precedent, and a little shorter; the upper Chap somewhat longer than the nether. It is the same for shape of body, only somewhat different in colours: For whereas both are chiefly of a dusky and chesnut-colour in the Head, Neck, Back, and Wings, that in all these parts hath more of dusky, this more of the other colour. The Tail in like manner, though it be something shorter, is white underneath, above approaches to the same chesnut co∣lour. In the Breast, Belly, Thighs, Legs and Feet it differs little or nothing.

§. III. The lesser Tringa or Sandpiper: An Cinclus secundus seu minor * 1.56 Aldrov? Gallinula hypoleucos Gesneri, Aldrov. tom. 3. pag. 469. Ein Psisterlein Leon. Baltner.

IT weighs near two ounces; and is from Bill to Feet eight inches three quarters in length.

The middle of the Neck is ash-coloured, else the whole upper surface of the body is of a dusky sordid green, elegantly variegated with darker transverse lines; only there is something of red mingled with the feathers on the middle of the Back, and those that spring out of the Shoulders. The Head is paler, not varied with cross lines, but black strokes drawn downward along the shafts of the feathers. The Sides, Breast, and Belly are white. Above the Eyes is a white line. The Throat is of a sordid white, the shafts of the feathers being darker. The three or four quil-feathers next to the body are of the same colour with the body: The outmost is dusky, [or dark brown] the inner edge of the second, about the middle of the feathers length, hath a spot of white: Of the rest to the tenth the inner Webs in order have larger white spots. After the tenth the white spreadeth beyond the shaft into the other Web of the feather. The tips also of the feathers, from the fourteenth to the twentieth, are white. The primary covert-feathers of the Wings, or those of the first row, as well the upper, as the nether, have white tips: Of the upper, those especially from the tenth to the twentieth: Of the nether, those next the body, which indeed are whol∣ly white, and not varied with lines. The ridge or base of the Wing is white. The feathers of the third row are white almost to the bottom. But between the third row and the basis of the Wing is a broad line of brown. The middle feathers of the Tail are of the same colour with the body: The third on each side from the two mid∣dlemost have their tips white: The fourth are more white: Of the fifth all the exte∣riour Web is white, and a little also of the interiour: In the outmost the white spreads further into the interiour Web.

The top of the Bill is of a dusky blackish colour, the bottom whitish: The tip a little bent downward: The Eyes hazel-coloured: The Ears great. The Feet of a pale green: The Claws black. The outmost fore-toe joyned at bottom to the middle one by a membrane; the back-toe small: The Stomach less musculous than in granivo∣rous birds, in which dissected we found water-insects.

These are also solitary birds, living singly, except in breeding time, when they fly together by pairs, the Male and his Female. I suppose this Bird is the same with that Gesner describes under the title of Pilvenckegen, especially for that he saith it makes a noise by night, like one crying or lamenting, which thing (as we have been informed) is true of our bird. Only it seems to be something lesser, and of a darker colour above. See Aldrovand. tom. 3. p. 485.

They frequent Rivers and Pools of water. I have seen of them about the River Tame in Warwickshire, the Lake of Geneva, &c.

CHAP. VII. The Knot: Canuti regis avis. An Bellonii Callidrys nigra?

IT weighed four ounces and an half; from the tip of the Bill to the end of the Feet was ten inches long; between the ends of the Wings stretcht out twenty inches broad.

As for the colour, the Head and Back were of a dusky ash-colour, or dark grey: The Rump varied with white and black lines: The Breast and Belly white: The sides under the Wings spotted with brown. [In some Birds we observed a white line between the Eyes and the Bill.]

The greater quil-feathers of the Wings were black, with white shafts: The outer edges of the next after the fifth white: Of the second row of Wing-feathers, the foremost were black, with white tips: From the fourth the white increased, or spread it self further down the feather. The lesser covert-feathers of the Wings were of the same colour with the back, only fringed as it were with white. The Tail was two inches and a quarter long, made up of twelve feathers, the outmost whereof on each side was white.

The Bill was near an inch and half long, black, as in the Woodcock; bigger and stronger than in the Snipe-kind: The Tongue extended to the very end of the Bill. [Some Birds have a knob or eminency under the Bill like Gulls.] The Eyes great, and hazel-coloured. The feet greenish: The back-toe small: The fore-toes divided from the very beginning of the divarication, no membrane intervening. The Liver divided into two Lobes, with a Gall appendant.

About the beginning of Winter they are said to come into Lincolnshire, where they continue two or three months about the Sea-shores, and away again. They fly in flocks. [In the month of February, in the year of our Lord 1671, on the Coast of Lancashire about Leverpool, I observed many of this sort of birds flying in company; so that they are not peculiar to Lincolnshire.] Being fed with white bread and milk they grow very fat, and are accounted excellent meat. King Knout is reported to have been so fond of them, that from him they got the name of Knots or Knouts.

They may at first sight be easily distinguished from the Tringae by the line of white cross their Wings, were other notes wanting.

CHAP. VIII. The Ruff, whose Female is called a Reeve. Avis pugnax * 1.57 Aldrov.

THat we described was a young one. It weighed five ounces: Its length from the tip of the Bill to the end of the Feet was fifteen inches. Its Neck was ash-coloured: Its Head of a dusky ash-colour, spotted with a dark brown. The Back and scapular feathers particoloured, of cinereous, black, and white: The Breast and Belly white: The Throat white and cinereous: The Chin white. The outmost ten Wing-feathers of the first row were black: Of the following the tips began to be white: From the fourteenth to the twentieth the edges were also white. The five next the body were of the same colour with it, having darker spots. The tips of the second row of Wing-feathers were white (of the foremost more obscure∣ly) the remaining part of the same colour with the Back. The covert-feathers of the under side of the Wing were white. Those of the exteriour bastard wing purely white. The Tail was two inches a quarter long, made up of twelve feathers, of a dusky colour, with whitish tips.

In the Cock birds a circle or collar of long feathers, something resembling a Ruff, encompasses the Neck under the Head, whence they took the name of Ruffs. This shaft in some is white, in some yellow, in some black, in some ash-coloured, in some of a deep blue, or black, with a gloss of blue shining like silk. For there is wonder∣ful

and almost infinite variety in the colours of the feathers of the Cocks, so that in the Spring-time there can scarce be found any two exactly like one to another. After Midsummer, when they have moulted their feathers they say they become all alike again.

The Hens are somewhat less than the Cocks; they change not their colours, and are like the Bird here described: They seldom or never fight.

Their Bills are like the Tringa's, black, but somewhat red about the Nosthrils. The upper Mandible a little longer than the nether. The Tongue reaches to the end of the Bill. The Eyes are hazel-coloured. The Legs from yellow incline to red: The back-toe small: The outmost fore-toe joyned to the middlemost below with a mem∣brane: The Claws black, pretty long, and almost streight. The Stomach within yellow: The Gall large.

They breed in Summer-time in the Fens of Lincolnshire about Crowland. They are fatted with white bread and milk, like Knots, being shut up in close dark rooms: For let in but the light upon them, presently they fall a fighting, never giving over till one hath killed the other, especially if any body stand by. The Fowlers when they see them intent upon fighting, spread their Nets over them, and catch them be∣fore they be aware.

In the Spring time they come over also to the Low Countries: And it is reported, that at their first coming in the beginning of the Spring there are many more Cocks than Hens, but that they never cease fighting till there be so many Cocks killed, as to make the number of both Sexes equal.

The Hens never have any Ruffs, the Cocks have none immediately after moulting time. When they begin to moult, white Tumours or Warts break out about their Eyes and Head.

CHAP. IX. The Sanderling, called also Curwillet about Pensance in Cornwal.

IT is somthing bigger than the Sand-piper, though both take their names from sand. It weighs almost two ounces. Its length from the Bill to the end of the Feet is eight inches and an half, to the end of the Tail eight. The breadth of the Wings spread sixteen. It is rather long than round-bodied.

Its Bill is streight, black, slender, an inch long; for its figure and make like to a Tringa's Bill: The upper Mandible a little longer than the nether. The Tongue ex∣tended to the end of the Bill: The Nosthrils oblong. The Ears great. The Legs, Feet, and Claws black: And, which is especially remarkable, it wants the back-toe: The fore-toes disjoyned from the very rise.

The Head is small, particoloured of cinereous and black. The Neck more cine∣reous. The middle of the Back, the Shoulders, and scapular feathers are of a lovely colour, in some various, of black and white; in others of black and ash-colour, each feather being black about the shaft, and cinereous about the edges. The rest of the Back to the Tail is of the same colour, but more faint and dilute. But the edges of the feathers have more of a reddish ash-colour.

Each Wing hath twenty two quil-feathers: The four outmost (excepting the shafts, which are white) all of a dark brown, or dusky colour. The rest have their upper halves, as far as they appear, above the second row brown, the lower white. How∣beit, these colours do not divide all the feathers equally, but from the fifth the white is gradually increased, so that in the twentieth it takes up almost the whole feather. The next following after the tenth have also their tips white. The first row of covert∣feathers [next the quils] have white tips, which when the Wing is spread make a long transverse white line, broader and broader by degrees from the beginning. The feathers near the ridge of the Wing, and on the outmost joynt, are all dusky, in the Cocks almost black, of the same colour with the middle of the Back. The Wings, when closed, reach as far or further than the Tail it self; which is short, of about an inch and half, or two inches, consisting of twelve feathers, of an ash-colour: The two middlemost darker than the rest, and almost black.

The whole Belly and underside of the Wings as white as Snow. The Breast in some spotted or clouded with brown; in others (perhaps these are the Males) no

spots appear, yet the Breast is darker than the Belly, and inclined to red. The blind guts are an inch and half long. The Stomach not very musculous. These birds live upon the sandy shores of the Sea, and fly in flocks. We saw many of them on the Sea-coasts of Cornwall.

CHAP. X. * The Rotknussel of Baltner, Rotkmillis or Gallinula Melampus of Gesner, * 1.58 Aldrov.

THe German name Rotkmillis (saith Gesner) seems to be compounded of the colour. For this Bird is of a red or russet colour, with dusky spots in the Neck and about the Eyes. But Kmillis (I know not whence derived) is a more common or general word; sith another Water-hen of this kind is also called Matkmillis. We from the colour of the Legs have imposed on it the name Melampus, which signifies Black-soot. For there is no bird I know of this kind that hath blacker feet. The body is dusky, with some spots of a sordid and dark colour. The Bill also is black: The Wings marked with black spots.

To this Bird (saith Aldrovand) that which I here give you, called by our Fowlers Giarola, a name common to many birds, is very like, if not the same. For on the Head, Neck, and Breast, down to the middle of the Belly it is red, sprinkled with brown, and sometimes also white spots. Its Feet [and Legs] are cole-black. The small Wing-feathers are distinguished with cinereous and black: The great ones are black. The Bill is long, and a little bending, sharp at point. The Belly is white, with a tincture of red, and curiously spotted with black spots. The Tail also is white, but black at the end.

CHAP. XI. * Matkneltzel of Baltner: Gallinula Erythra of Gesner.

THis Bird the Germans call Matkern, but for what reason (saith Gesner) I know not. I from the colour of its whole body have called it Erythra. But though almost the whole body (I except the Belly, which is whitish, with a faint tincture of red, and the Legs, which are ash-coloured) be red, yet is that redness darker on the Back, and intercepted with white spots: Brighter in some of the Wing-feathers; the longest whereof approach to the colour of red Oker. In the Neck be∣neath are some white specks. The Bill is black, not without somewhat of red, shor∣ter than in most others of this kind. It is taken among Reeds with snares. It hath a cry somewhat resembling the sound of Fullers striking of Wool.

Leonard Baltner describes his Matkneltzel (if at least it be the same bird with Ges∣ners Matkern) thus: It is a very fair beautiful bird. From the tip of the Bill to the end of the Claws it is a full Strasburgh Ell long. It weighs six Lots and an half, that is, three ounces a quarter: For a Lot is about half an ounce. It Guts are an Ell long. It frequents Waters, and seeks its meat in watery places. The Cocks are adorned with beautiful feathers, like those of Partridges, and have pale-red Feet. The feathers of the Hens are less beautiful, and their Feet grey. Some also weigh thirteen Lots, and are three quarters of a Ell long. These birds in figure, magnitude, and colour do very nearly resemble the Female RUFFS, which they call REEVES. Whether they be the same or not let the Virtuosi at Strasburgh, where they are found, examine.

CHAP. XII. The North-Country Dunlin of Mr. Johnson.

IT is about the bigness of the Jack-Snipe or Judcock, hath a streight, channell'd, black Bill, a little broader at the end; oblong Nosthrils; a blackish Tongue. The Throat and Breast white, spotted with black. The middle of the Belly is blackish, waved with white lines. The lower Belly, and feathers under the Tail white. All the upper side is red, every where spotted with pretty great black spots with a little white. Yet the Wings from a * 1.59 grey incline to a brown or dusky colour. The Legs and Feet are of a † 1.60 competent length, and black. The back-toe the shortest. The Tail consists of twelve feathers, of which the two middlemost are dusky [brown] with one or two red spots: the rest from brown incline to white. It gets its food out of the mud.

The Rotknussel or Gallinula melampus of Gesner and Aldrovand differs not much from this bird.

CHAP. XIII.

§. I. The Stint, which the French call the Sea-Lark: Schoeniclos seu Junco Bellonii: An Cinclus prior Aldrov?

IT is equal to the common Lark, or but very little less: For the shape of its bo∣dy like to a Snipe. From Bill to Feet eight inches and an half long. Its Bill is streight, slender, black, an inch and half long, and like to a Snipes bill. The Tongue extended to the end of the Bill. The Feet dusky or blackish, with a tincture of green. The toes not joyned by any membrane. The back-toe small. The colour of the upper side of the body, excepting the prime feathers of the Wings, and first row of coverts, is grey, or cinereous, with black spots, or lines in the middle of each single feather. The feathers in the middle of the Back and upper side of the Wings have a tincture of red. [Mr. Willughby describes it a little differently thus: The middle parts of the feathers on the Head are black, the edges red or russet. The Neck is more of an ash-colour. The Back-feathers of a * 1.61 dark purple, with reddish ash-coloured edges. Those on the Rump of a lighter red, with black lines or stroaks down their shafts.]

The Wings are long, and when folded up reaching to the end of the Tail. The quil-feathers of each Wing twenty four, of a dusky colour as far as they appear above the covert-feathers, for their bottoms are white, and the interiour in order gradually more than the exteriour to the nineteenth, which is almost wholly white. [Mr. Wil∣lughby in the bird he described observed the tips of the second row of Wing-feathers to have been also white, in the same proportion as in the Sanderling, making together a white line cross the Wing, yet narrower than in that. The exteriour edges of the fifth, counting from the outmost, and of the subsequent to the eleventh are white. The four next the body are wholly dusky, and by little and little streightned into sharp points, and when the Wing is closed reach almost to the end of the Tail. The Tail is scarce two inches long, not forked, made up of twelve feathers, of which the two middlemost are longer than the rest, sharper pointed also, and darker-coloured. All the rest are of a pale ash-colour, without any cross lines or bars, only their outmost edges whitish. All the under-side of the body is white, only the Throat and upper part of the Breast clouded a little with dark-coloured spots. Mr. Willughby observed small brown spots under the Wings, and the Throat to be of an ash-colour, thick-set with black spots, down sometimes to the Breast.

The Liver divided into two Lobes, of which the right is much the bigger. The Stomach musculous.

These Birds live about the Sea-shores, and fly together in flocks. At Westchester they call them Purres.

Bellonius his description of his Junco agrees in all points with this bird. His figure represents the Bill too short. The Bill of the Cinclus also in Aldrovands figure is drawn too short.

§. II. * The third Cinclus of * 1.62 Aldrovand.

IT is of the same colours with the precedent, save that it hath a white Tail, adorned with transverse black lines: It hath also the same shape and make of body. It differs in the Bill; for that hath it of almost an even bigness, this thicker where it is joyned to the Head, and by degrees slenderer to the tip. It seems also to differ in the Legs, they being somewhat longer and thicker. In bigness it agrees, and hath also a common name with it, being called by our [the Bolognese] Fowlers, Giaroncello.

CHAP. XIV. The Stone-Curlew: The Oedicnemus of Bellonius: Charadrius of Gesner, * 1.63 Aldrov. called at Rome, Curlotte.

ITs weight is eighteen ounces: Its length from Bill to Tail eighteen inches, to the points of the Claws twenty: Its breadth from tip to tip of the Wings extended thirty six inches. The length of the Bill, measuring from the tip to the angles of the mouth, two inches. The Bill is not much unlike a Gulls, but streight, sharp-pointed, black as far as the Nosthrils, then yellow. The Irides of the Eyes and edges of the Eye-lids are yellow. Under the Eyes is a bare space of a yellowish green colour. The Legs are long and yellow. The Claws small and black. It hath only three fore-toes, wanting the back-toe. The outmost Toe a little longer than the mid∣dlemost; All joyned together by a certain membrane, which on the inside the middle toe begins at the second joynt, on the outside at the first, and reaches almost to the Claws of the outer Toes. The Legs (as Bellonius observes) are very thick below the Knees, as if they were swoln, by reason of the bones, which are there great; wherefore that he might render the Bird more easie to be known, he named it, Oedic∣nemus. The upper Legs are above half way bare of feathers; which note alone, were there no other, argues this Bird to be a Water-fowl. The Chin, Breast, and Thighs are white: The Throat, Neck, Back, and Head covered with feathers, ha∣ving their middle parts black, their lateral or borders of a reddish ash-colour, like that of a Curlew: Whence they of Norfolk call it, The Stone-Curlew.

In each Wing are about twenty nine quil-feathers; the first and second of which have a transverse white spot, else their exteriour surface black: The four next to these black: The three following have their bottoms and tips white: Then succeed thir∣teen black ones; the last or next to the body are of the same colour with it. The first feathers of the second row are black: The rest have white tips, and under the tips a cross line or border of black. In the lesser rows of Wing-feathers is a transverse bed or bar of white. The coverts of the under-side of the Wings, especially those springing from the shoulders, are purely white. The outmost feathers of the Tail for the space of an inch are black, then white: The next to these, one on each side, are variegated, with one or two brown bars crossing the white part: The rest, the white by degrees fading and disappearing, become of the same colour with the body. The tips of the middlemost are a little black. The Tail is five inches long, consisting of twelve feathers. The guts great: The blind guts three inches long: The single um∣bilical blind gut half an inch. We bought this bird in the Market at Rome, and there described it.

It breeds very late in the year (saith Bellonius) for we found of the Young about the end of October, which could not yet fly. Bellonius when he travelled first in England, observed this Bird here; for the feathers and the Feet very like to a Bustard.

The learned and famous Sir Thomas Brown Knight, Physician in Norwich, informed us, that it is found about Thetford in Norfolk, where they call it the Stone-Curlew, and that its cry is something like that of a green Plover.

Another bird congenerous to this, wanting also the back-toe, (which Aldrovandus described from the intuition of a bare Picture) but different in that its Thighs are feathered, and its Toes without any intermediate membrane, see in his Ornithology,

Book 13. Chap. 15. I suspect it to be the same with the Oedicnemus, and those diffe∣rent notes to be but mistakes of the Painter.

The Charadrios of Gesner, which Aldrovand judges to be the same with our Oedic∣nemus, * 1.64 is a foolish and stupid bird. Being shut up in any room, it walks up and down, sometimes in a round about a Pillar or any other thing for a long time, and if any block or impediment be in its way it will rather leap over it, than decline from the right way. * 1.65 It shuts not its Eyes though you put your finger to them. It is ea∣sily made tame, for when it is at liberty in the fields it is not much afraid of a man. It is a Water-fowl, and lives in fenny Meadows, or about Marshes. In houses also it catches Mice in the night time. I hear that it abounds in the Low Countries, that it wanders up and down in the night, and makes a noise like a Whistle, or Pipe.

SECTION VI. Cloven-footed Water-fowl with short Bills, that feed upon Insects.

CHAP. I. The Lapwing or Bastard Plover: Capella sive Vannellus.

THis Bird is in all Countries very well known; and every where to be met with. In the North of England they call it the Tewit, from its cry. It is of the bigness of a common Pigeon, of eight ounces weight; thirteen inches and an half length, measuring from Bill to Claws, and not much less from Bill to Tail: Its breadth, taken between the tips of the Wings spread out, is twenty one inches.

The top of the Head above the Crest is of a shining black. The Crest springs from the hind part of the Head, and consists of about twenty feathers, of which the three or four foremost are longer than the rest, in some birds of near four inches length. The Cheeks are white; only a black line drawn under the Eyes through the Ears. The whole Throat or under side of the Neck, from the Bill to the Breast is black, which black part somewhat resembles a Crescent, ending in horns on each side the Neck. The Breast and Belly are white: As are also the covert feathers of the underside of the Wings. The feathers under the Tail are of a lovely * 1.66 bright bay: Those above the Tail are of a deeper bay: The feathers next them are dusky, with a certain splendour. The middle of the Back and the scapular feathers are of a deli∣cate shining green, adorned with a purple spot on each side next the Wings. The utmost edges of the tips of the middlemost of the long scapular feathers are whitish. The Neck also is of an ash-colour, with a mixture of red and some black lines near the Crest.

Of the master-feathers of the Wing the three or four outmost are black, with white tips: The following to the eleventh are black. From the eleventh they are white at bottom, the hindmost more and more in order than the foremost. Yet this white doth not appear in the upper side of the Wing, but is hid by the covert-fea∣thers. Those next the body from the twenty first are green. The lesser covert-fea∣thers are beautified with purple, blue, and green colours, variously commixt. The outmost feather of the Tail on each side is white, saving a black spot in the exteriour Web. The tips of all the rest are white, and beneath the tips the upper half black, and the lower white. The Bill is black, hard, roundish, of an inch length. The upper Mandible a little more produced: The Tongue not cloven; but its sides re∣flected upwards make a channel in the middle. The Nosthrils oblong, and furnished with a flexile bone. The Ears seem to be situate lower in this than other Birds: The Eyes are hazel-coloured.

The Feet are long, reddish [in some Birds brown.] The back-toe small. The out∣most of the fore-toes joyned to the middle one at the bottom.

The liver is large, divided into two Lobes, with a Gall annexed. The Gizzard not so thick and fleshy as in granivorous birds, therein we found Beetles like to Meal∣worms. It is infested with Lice like the Tetrao.

The Hen is a little lesser than the Cock: Her throat is all white as low as the * 1.67 col∣lar: The bay colour under the Tail paler. Moreover, the outmost feather of the Tail is wholly white, wanting that brown spot. The colours also in the Cocks do some∣what vary, not answering always exactly in all things to our description.

It lays four or five Eggs, of a dirty yellow, all over painted with great black spots and stroaks. It builds its Nest on the ground, in the middle of some field or heath, open, and exposed to view, laying only some few straws or bents under the Eggs, that the Nest be not seen. The Eyes being so like in colour to the ground on which they lie, it is not easie to find them though they lie so open. The Young so soon as they are hatcht instantly forsake the Nest, running away (as the common tradition is) with the shells upon their heads, for they are covered with a thick Down, and follow the old ones like Chickens. They say, that a Lapwing the further you are from her Nest, the more clamorous she is, and the greater coil she keeps, the nearer you are to it, the quieter she is, and less concerned she seems: That she may draw you away from the true place, and induce you to think it is where it is not.

These Birds are wont to be kept in Gardens in the Summer time, in which they do good service in gathering up and clearing the ground of Worms and other Insects. Their flesh is indifferent good meat. In Summer time they scatter themselves about the Country to breed: In Winter time they accompany together, and fly in flocks.

CHAP. II. Of the Plover: De Pluviali seu Pardale.

§. I. The green Plover. Pluvialis viridis.

IN bigness it equals or exceeds the Lapwing, weighing about nine ounces; being in length from Bill to Tail eleven inches, in breadth between the tips of the Wings extended twenty four.

Its colour on the top of the Head, Neck, Shoulders, Back, and in general the whole upper side is black, thick set with yellowish green spots. If you heed each single feather, you will find the middle part to be black, the borders or edges round about spotted with a yellowish green colour. The Head for the bulk of the body is grea∣ter than in the Fringae; the Bill streight, black, of an inch length, furrowed about the Nosthrils. The Neck short, equal to a Lapwings. The Breast brown, spotted with a yellowish green. The belly white, yet the feathers on the sides tipt with brown, and crossed also with brown lines.

Of the quil-feathers in each Wing the eleventh ends in a blunt point, those before it running out into sharp points on the outside the shaft, those behind it on the in∣side. All but the five next the body are brown. The shafts of the outmost eight or nine are half way white. The exteriour edges of the fifth, and those following it, are a little white toward their bottoms. The inmost five next the body are of the same colour with the Back. The second row of Wing-feathers are brown, [or dus∣ky] with white tips. The rest of the covert-feathers are on the upper side of the Wing of the same colour with the Back, on the under-side with the Belly. The Tail is short, made up of twelve feathers, of the same colour with the Back, when spread terminated in a circular circumference.

The Feet and Claws are black. It wants the back-toe: By which note alone it is abundantly distinguished from the other birds of its kind. Its Legs are long, as in all other birds which live about waters, and bare of feathers for some space above the knees. Its flesh is sweet and tender, and therefore highly esteemed, and accounted a choice dish, as well in England as beyond Seas.

This Bird from its spots, something resembling those of a Leopard, is called Pardalis.

§. II. The grey Plover: Pluvialis cinerea, called at Venice, Squatarola.

IT is from Bill to Tail twelve inches long, to the Claws fourteen: Between the tips of the Wings spread twenty four inches broad. Its Head, Back, and lesser co∣verts of the Wings are black, with tips of a greenish grey. The Chin is white; the Throat spotted with oblong, brown [or dusky) spots. The Breast, Belly, and Thighs white.

The quil-feathers in each Wing about twenty six: Of which the first or outmost are black: In the fourth the middle part of the outer edges is white, the white part in the five following being enlarged gradually. The outmost of the second row of Wing-feathers are also black. The tips of those next after the fourth are white, and the edges too after the tenth. Of the third row the foremost ten are black, with white tips. The Tail is three inches long, not forked, varied with transverse bars, or beds of black and white.

Its Bill is black, above an inch long, like to the rest of this kind: The Tongue not cloven: The back-toe very small: The fore-toes joyned by a membrane at the be∣ginning of their divarication; that between the middle and inmost lesser: The Feet of a sordid green: The Claws little and black. It hath a Gall.

The flesh also of this Bird is very tender, savoury, and delicate; and in no less esteem than that of the former.

CHAP. III. The Dottrel: Morinellus Anglorum.

THe Males in this kind are lesser than the Females, at least they were so in those we hapned to see: For it might fall out to be so among them by some acci∣dent. The Female was almost ten inches long, the Male but nine and an half; the Female nineteen inches and an half broad, the Male but eighteen three quarters: The Female weighed more than four ounces; the Male scarce three and an half. The Bill, measuring from the tip to the angles of the mouth, was an inch long: The Head elegantly variegated with white and black spots, the middle part of each single fea∣ther being black. Above the Eyes was a long whitish line: The Chin whitish. The Throat is of a pale cinereous or whitish colour, with oblong brown spots. The Breast and underside of the Wings of a dirty yellowish colour, the Belly white. Each Wing hath about twenty five prime feathers, of which the first or outmost is the longest, the tenth the shortest; from the tenth to the twentieth they are almost equal: The rest to the twenty fourth are again longer the foregoing than the following. The first or Pinion-quil hath a broad, strong, white shaft: The three outmost are blacker than the rest, which are of a dusky [or brown] colour, having the edges of their tips whitish. The lesser rows of the Wing-feathers are brown, with yellowish white tips, but those next the quils blackest. The middle of the Back between the Wings is almost of the same colour with them. The Rump and Neck are more * 1.68 cinereous. The Tail is composed of twelve feathers, two inches and an half long, but the mid∣dlemost something the longer: The bottoms of all are cinereous, the tips white, the remaining part black: In the outmost feather the white part is broader, in the middle ones narrower: The edges also of the outmost feathers are whitish. The Legs are bare for a little space above the Knees, of a sordid or greenish yellow; the Toes and Claws darker coloured than the Legs. The inner Toe joyned to the middle only at bottom, the outer by a thick membrane as far as its first joynt. It wants the back∣toe, wherein it agrees with the green Plover, from which yet it is sufficiently distin∣guished by its colour, magnitude, and other accidents. Its Bill is streight, black, and in figure like that of the Plover. It hath a fleshy stomach, in which dissected we found fragments of Beetles, &c. Its guts were fourteen inches and an half long. The Cock and Hen can scarce be known asunder, they are so like in shape, and colour.

It is a very foolish bird (saith Dr. Key in his Letter to Gesner) but excellent meat, and with us accounted a great delicacy. It is taken in the night time by the light of a

Candle, by imitating the gestures of the Fowler: For if he stretches out an Arm, that also stretches out a Wing; if he a Foot, that likewise a Foot: In brief, what∣ever the Fowler doth, the same doth the Bird; and so being intent upon mens ge∣stures it is deceived, and covered with the Net spread for it. I call it Morinellus for two reasons, first, because it is frequent among the * 1.69 Morini: And next, because it is a foolish bird, even to a Proverb, we calling a foolish dull person a Dotterel.

Of the catching of Dotterels, my very good Friend Mr. Peter Dent, an Apothe∣cary in Cambridge, a Person well skill'd in the History of Plants and Animals, whom I consulted concerning it, wrote thus to me. A Gentleman of Norfolk, where this kind of sport is very common, told me, that to catch Dotterels six or seven persons usually go in company. When they have found the Birds, they set their Net in an advantageous place; and each of them holding a stone in either hand get behind the Birds, and striking their stones often one against another rouse them, which are natu∣rally very sluggish; and so by degrees coup them, and drive them into the Net. The Birds being awakened do often stretch themselves, putting out a Wing or a Leg, and in imitation of them the men that drive them thrust out an Arm or a Leg for fashion sake, to comply with an old custom. But he thought that this imitation did not con∣duce to the taking of them, for that they seemed not to mind or regard it.

CHAP. IV. The Sea-Lark: Charadrius sive Hiaticula.

IN bigness it somewhat exceeds the common Lark: From the point of the Bill to the end of the Tail or Legs (for they are equally extended) being eight inches and an half long, a line of black compasses the base of the upper Bill. This black line from the corners of the mouth is produced through the Eyes as far as the Ears, and then turns up and passes cross the middle of the Head, encompassing a broad bed or fillet of white drawn from the inner corner of one Eye to the inner corner of the other. The hinder part of the Head is ash-coloured: The Chin white. The Neck encompassed by a double ring or collar, the upper white, which under∣neath reaches as far as the Bill, and under the Chin is dilated almost to the Eyes; the lower black, which is broader in the middle, and takes up part of the Breast, before also runs out toward the Bill. The Back and lesser covert feathers of the Wings are * 1.70 ash-coloured. The Breast and Belly white.

The outmost of the quil-feathers of the Wings is black, on the middle of the shaft only spotted with white, which colour spreads it self gradually and continually more and more in the following feathers, insomuch that the twentieth and twenty first are wholly white. Those next the body are of the same colour with the Back. The feathers of the second row have white tips, excepting the foremost or outmost. Hence, and from the white of the first row arises a long transverse white line in the Wings. The outmost feather of the Tail on each side is white, as also the tip and ex∣teriour half of the next; of the three following only the tips: The two middlemost are of the same colour with the Back, or a little darker. The Tail is two inches and an half long, made up of twelve feathers, of which the outmost are the longest, of the rest the interiour are a little shorter in order than the exteriour. [The Tail-fea∣thers in divers birds vary in colour, for in some the two outmost feathers are wholly white, and the tips also of the middlemost.]

The Bill is short, scarce an inch in length, of two colours: For beneath toward the Head it is of a deep yellow or gold-colour more than half way, toward the point black. The upper Mandible a little longer, and somewhat crooked. [In others (perhaps they were young ones) we observed the whole Bill to be black.] The Tongue is not divided: The Eyes are hazel-coloured: The Legs and Feet of a pale yellow: The Claws black. It wants the back-toe. The outmost of the fore-toes is joyned to the middlemost by a membrane reaching to the first joynt. The Stomach hath not very thick muscles, in it dissected we found Beetles. The Gall-bladder is large.

It builds on the Sea-rocks, making its Nest of grass, straws, and stalks of Plants: Its Eggs are of a greenish colour, spotted with brown, all the blunt end being dusky. It runs very swiftly on the shores, and makes short flights, singing or crying

continually as it flies. It is with us in England every where very common upon the Sea-coasts. We saw it also about the Lake of Geneva, and it hath been brought to us killed upon the banks of the River Trent, not far from Notingham.

This Bird is the very same which Marggravius describes, Book 5. Chap. 5. by the name of Matuitui, as he saith the Brasilians call it, as will clearly appear to him that shall but compare them together. So that it seems there are some Birds common to Europe, and even the Southern part of America. Leonard Baltner describes and pictures two sorts of this bird. Perchance his lesser kind is that which the Welsh call Goligod, and say is like a Sea-Lark, but less.

CHAP. V. The Turn-stone, or Sea-Dottrel: Morinellus marinus of Sir Thomas Brown. An Cinclus Turneri?

IT is lesser than a Plover, and something bigger than a Blackbird: in length from the tip of the Bill to the points of the Claws ten inches: In breadth between the extremities of the Wings extended twenty. It is long-bodied, and hath but an indifferent Head. The Cocks and Hens differ not in colours. Its Bill is streight, black, an inch long, from a thick base lessening by degrees into a sharp point, something flat, stronger and stiffer than in the Woodcock kind.

The colour of the Plumage in the Head, Neck, Shoulders, Wings, and upper part of the Breast is brown. [Mr. Willughby makes the feathers covering these parts to be black, or purplish black in the middle, cinereous, or of a white russet about the edges.] All the under-side, but the Breast, is as white as snow. The Plumage on the middle of the Back is white; but on the very Rump is a great, transverse, black spot. The long scapular feathers are brown, with edges of an ash-colour, or dirty white. The quil-feathers of the Wings are about twenty six, of a brown or dusky colour: But from the outmost three or four their bottoms are white, continually more and more, till in the nineteenth and twentieth the white spreads almost over the whole feather. In the second row the foremost feathers are wholly black: The tips of the following being white, together make a broad line of white cross the Wing. The edges of the lesser rows are red. Near the second joynt of the Wing is a white spot. The Tail is two inches and an half long, consisting of twelve feathers, of which the lower half is white, the upper black, yet the very tips white.

The Legs are short, of a Saffron or Orange colour. The Claws black: The Toes divided almost to the bottom, but the outmost and middle toe coupled by a mem∣brane as far as the first joynt. It hath the back-toe.

The Liver is divided into two Lobes, of which the * 1.71 dexter is much the bigger. I found no Gall, yet dare not say that it wants one. Upon the Western shores of Eng∣land, about Pensans in Cornwal, and Aberdaren in Merioneth-shire in Wales, we ob∣served many of them, where they fly three or four in company: Nor are they less frequent on the Sea-coasts of Norfolk.

Our honoured Friend Sir Thomas Brown of Norwich sent us the Picture of this bird by the title of the Sea-Dottrel.

CHAP. VI. * The first Junco of * 1.72 Aldrovand.

IT is of the bigness of a Sparrow, hath a black, channelled Bill, sufficiently hard, and crooked at the end; the Tongue also channelled, and at the tip hard, and cloven. The upper part of the Head, Neck, and the Belly are of a chesnut∣colour. All the underside of the Neck and Breast white. All the other parts of the body from * 1.73 dusky incline to black. The Tail is three inches long, consisting of ten feathers: The Legs and Feet dusky. The Cock differs from the Hen only in this, that in her the colours are more dull, in him more lively.

To this Aldrovand adds another, which being altogether of the same bigness, the same shape and fashion of body, and make of Bill and Feet, he thinks to be of kin to it, but to differ only in colour. For its Throat and Breast indeed are white, but its whole Belly from cinereous inclines to dusky [or brown.] The rest of the Plumage is dusky.

BOOK III. PART. II. Birds of a middle nature between Swimmers and Waders, or that do both Swim and Wade.

Of these there be two kinds, the one of cloven-footed Birds that swim, the other of whole-footed with long Legs.

SECTION I. Cloven-footed Birds that swim in the Water.

I. Such whose Toes have no lateral membranes, called WATER-HENS.

CHAP. I. Of Water-hens or More-hens in general.

THe Characteristic notes of Water-hens or More-hens, by which they may be distinguished from other kinds of Birds, are a small Head, a slender, com∣pressed, or narrow Body: A short Bill, moderately bending; short con∣cave Wings, like to Hens; a very short Tail; long Legs; very long Toes: Short flights.

They are called * 1.74 Gallinulae by modern Writers, a diminutive word from Gallina, which signifies a Hen, for the likeness of their bodies, (especially their Bills and Wings) and conditions to Hens.

CHAP. II. Of Water-hens in particular.

§. I. The common Water-hen or More-hen: Gallinula chloropus major Aldrovandi.

IN shape of body it is like a Coot, but smaller: Narrow-bodies, or very much com∣pressed sideways (which is common to all this kind) contrary to the Duck-kind, whose bodies are broad, flat and depressed. The Hen weighed twelve ounces, the Cock fifteen. The length of the Hen from the point of the Bill to the end of the Feet was more than seventeen inches, to the end of the Tail thirteen and an half; of the Cock fourteen and an half. The extremes of the Wings extended were twenty two inches and an half distant.

The Bill from the tip to the corners of the mouth was more than an inch long, * 1.75 streight, or but little bending: The nether Chap, as far as the angle, of a pale yellow, then red; the upper less yellow at the end; about the Nosthrils, and to the end of the bald part red. The bald part is round, and ends at the top of the Head, being like that of a Coot, save that the Coots is white, but this birds red. The redness on the Bill is as it were plaistered on, and may be scraped off. The red part of the Bill is sepa∣rated from the yellow by a round circumference a little elevated, so that in the mid∣dle of the Bill it is produced further than on the sides. The Tongue is pretty broad, * 1.76 not cloven, rough at the end. The Irides of the Eyes are red. The lower Eye-lid is not feathered. [In the young birds neither the Bill, nor the bald spot in the fore∣head are red.] The Legs are green: The Claws of a dark brown, near black, indiffe∣rently * 1.77 long. The Toes long, as in the Coot; the middle the longest, next the out∣most, all broader and plainer below than in the other cloven-footed birds for the use of swimming: The back-toe broad, as in Coots, serving them perchance as a Rudder, to steer and direct their course. The Legs are feathered almost down to the knees, between the feathers and the joynt marked with a red spot.

From the Shoulders or setting on of the Wing all along its base or ridge, and to the * 1.78 very ends of the feathers runs a line of white. The longer feathers under the Wings are curiously adorned with white spots, or lines tending downwards. The Breast is of a lead-colour: The Belly inclining to grey or ash-colour. Under the Tail are white feathers; as it swims or walks it often flirts up its Tail, and shews the white, especi∣ally when it puts down its head to pick up any thing. The Back and lesser rows of Wing feathers approach to a * 1.79 ferrugineous colour: Else it is all over blackish. In the Male the feathers under the Tail are whiter, the Belly more † 1.80 cinereous, and the Back more ferrugineous.

Its Liver is small; Gall-bladder great; the Gall within being of a greenish black * 1.81 colour. It will feed very fat. Its flesh is well tasted, and even comparable to that of Teal. It gets its food on grassie banks and borders near Waters, and in the very Wa∣ters, especially if they be weedy: Feeding (I suppose) upon the water-Insects it finds among the weeds. It builds upon low trees and shrubs by the water side; breeding twice or thrice in a Summer, and when its young ones are grown up it drives * 1.82 them away to shift for themselves. Its Eggs are sharp at one end, white, with a tin∣cture * 1.83 of green, spotted with reddish spots. It strikes with its Bill like a Hen: It sits * 1.84 upon boughs, but those only that are thick and near the water. It lives about Motes * 1.85 and great Pools of water near Gentlemens houses. It flies with its Feet hanging down.

§. II. The other green-footed Water-hen of Aldrovand, perchance our Water-Rail.

THis Bird from the tip of the Bill to the end of the Tail is almost eighteen inches long. It hath a Bill two inches long, both above and underneath for some space yellow, the remaining part being black. The Neck and Head are black: The Back and upper part of the Wings of a chesnut-colour: The nether part of a dark cinereous: Only the extremes of the Wings are white. The lower Belly also is al∣most all white. On the sides towards the Wings it is covered with thick feathers. The Tail ends * 1.86 sharp, being above of a chesnut-colour, underneath white. The Thighs are covered with ash-coloured feathers, [varied lightly with transverse white borders, not altogether down to the Knees.] The Legs are green: The Toes long, furnished with Claws a little crooked, broad, and plain underneath; perhaps that it may swim with them when there is need or occasion. The Female is in all parts paler than the Male.

This Bird, if it be not our Water-Rail, is, I confess, to me unknown. I do indeed suspect it to be the Rail, though, to say the truth, the marks do not agree. Where∣fore I would not omit its description, that the Reader, comparing it with that of the Rail, may himself judge.

§. III. Another green-footed Water-hen of Bellonius like to a Coot, perchance our Grinetta.

WE have necessarily separated the Water-hen [la Poulette d'eau] from the lesser and greater Coot [de la Poule & Macroule] because it swims not in the wa∣ter, nor is Web-footed. We have imposed the name of Water-hen upon this Bird from its likeness, though it be much less; yet is it bigger than a Rail, so that it seems to partake of both. The Fowlers to whom we shewed it, seeing it to be like a Coot, would needs perswade me that it differed only in bigness, being not yet come to its full age and growth. Whereupon I did more diligently search out some discrimi∣nating notes: Among which this was the chief, that this Water-hen had green Legs and Feet, not unlike to a Bitterns, and not so plain, nor having such broad appen∣dant membranes as in a Coot. The Tail also of this Water-hen is longer, and the bare spot upon its forehead less. In colour it is indeed like to a Rail, but tending to that of a Coot: Wherefore at first sight I took it to be a Rail, but viewing it more carefully, I observed that it had white Eye-lids, which neither Rail nor Coot have. In the Tail were two white feathers, one on each side. Under the Breast it inclined a little to blue. The Back is of a deep chesnut colour. Some also are blacker than others, and have the folds of their Wings white; and moreover, another white line in the * 1.87 lesser Wing, which its first feathers longways of the quil or shaft compose. The same meat was found in its Stomach as in the Rails and Coots. It hath a Breast∣bone and a Hip-bone different from other Birds, yea, even from the Coot.

Its flesh is like that of the Morehen, tender, and of easie digestion: Its bones easie to be broken: Its Liver also brittle: Its Craw large: Its Guts and Entrails as in a Coot: When roasted also it is of the same taste with a Coot. It builds, breeds, and brings up its young like the Rail.

This Bird in many things resembles our Grinetta, or * 1.88 Gallinula poliopus minor of Aldrovand, so that I doubt not but it is the same: Howbeit, I thought fit to insert its description in this work, that I might leave the Reader to the freedom of his judgment.

§. IV. The Water-Rail, called by some the Bilcock or Brook-Ouzel: Rallus aquaticus * 1.89 Aldrov. i. e. Ortygometra Bellonii: Also the Gallinula chloropus altera, Aldrov. And perchance the Gallinula Serica of the some: So of one species he makes three.

IT is like the common Water-hen, but less; bigger than a Quail; of a slender, nar∣row or compressed body: From point of Bill to the end of the Claws sixteen inches long, to the end of the Tail but twelve: According to our usual way of mea∣suring sixteen inches broad.

Its Head is small, narrow, or compressed sideways. Its Bill, like the Ruffs, about two inches long, streight, compressed likewise sideways, red, especially the lower Mandible, and lower part of the upper, for toward the top or point it is black, smooth, and hard. The Tongue reaches to the very end of the Bill, and is white and rough at the tip. It hath a round, black, bald spot or naked skin in the forehead, but much less than that of the Coot, so little that it is scarce observable. The colour of the Head, Shoulders, Back, covert-feathers of the Wings, in brief, the whole up∣per side is various of black or dark brown, and olive colour; each single feather ha∣ving its middle part black, and its edges olive-coloured. [Mr. Willughby makes the colour of the borders or edges of the feathers a yellowish red or russet; and attri∣butes white spots to the Head, which were not, or at least not observed in the birds seen and described by me.] The Chin is white, the Throat red, with a mixture of ash-colour; the extreme edges, and as it were fringes of the feathers being a little grey. The Breast is more blue, with a bed of white in the middle. On the Thighs and sides under the Wings grow black feathers, elegantly variegated with transverse white lines. The Belly is russet, with white feathers under the Tail, like the common Morehen, marked with one or two black spots. The Wings are hollow, the quil∣feathers short, black, or very near it, in number twenty two. Along the basis of the Wing is a line of white, as in the Morehen. The Tail is * 1.90 short and black, only the

edges of the two middle feathers are red. The Legs and Feet are of a dark flesh-co∣lour: The Legs strong: The Toes, as in the rest of this kind, very long, divided from the very rise, except that the outer Toe is joyned to the middle by a membrane at the bottom. The Claws are of the same colour with the Toes.

It had a great, long, crooked Gall-bladder; and a large Gall-pore besides: Long blind-guts, filled with Excrements; a musculous Stomach, in which we found a shell-Snail.

It runs very swiftly, and hides it self about the banks of Rivers: It walks rather than swims in the water. It flies with its feet hanging down. It is called at Venice, Forzane, or Porzana, a name common to other Water-hens also.

§. V. * The Velvet Runner: Gallinula Serica Gesneri. * 1.91 Aldrov. Perchance the same with the precedent.

THis is a remarkable bird; very handsomly particoloured of black and red al∣most all the body over, (as far as I remember) except that the Belly is white. And because the black colour in its feathers shines like Velvet, I thought sit to make and impose upon it the German name Samethunle. Its Legs are long and dark-colou∣red: Its Toes very long, but the back-toe short: Its Bill long. Thus far Gesner, and again in his Epitome: This Bird may be called Gallina Serica, because in it the black colour shines like silk. Quaere whether this be not the Ortygometra of Bellonius? And we truly hitherto have been of that opinion, but then Gesner hath not well described it: Which yet is not at all strange, sith (as we see) he described it by memory.

§. VI. A small Water-hen, called Grinetta in Italy; and at Milan Gillerdine: Poliopus Gallinula minor, Aldrov.

IT is less not only than the common Water-hen, but than the Rail, but in shape of body like. Its Legs and Feet are of the same, both figure and colour, with the common Water-hens, viz. a sordid green. The Toes very long, divided to the bot∣tom: The Bill shorter than either the Rails or common Morehens, compressed or nar∣row, sharp-pointed, of a yellow colour, brighter at the head, darker toward the tip. The upper part of the upper Chap near the Head above the Nosthrils is crusted over with a kind of yellow plaister. The Head, as in the rest of this kind, is little. The colour of the feathers in the middle of the crown is darker: From the Bill above the Eyes on each side is drawn a line of grey or pale ash-colour: Beneath about the Ears the feathers are of the same colour with the rest of the body; under the Throat again they are ash-coloured or blue. The Neck, both above and beneath, and all the Breast are particoloured, viz. of a middle colour between green, yellow, and dusky, elegantly sprinkled with black spots. [Mr. Willughby makes the Breast white or cinereous, the bottoms of the feathers being black, the Throat black, with white spots, the Chin of a dark ash-colour without spots.] The feathers on the crown of the head have their middle parts black, their edges red: Those on the Shoulders and middle of the Back their middle parts about the shaft black, their sides and tips of a sordid red, their utmost edges on each side white.

The quil-feathers of the Wings are all of a dark brown, with a certain tincture of red: The covert-feathers red, with transverse waved lines of white at intervals. The lateral parts covered by the Wings, are cloathed with brown feathers, variegated with transverse waved lines of white. The Tail is short, consisting of twelve feathers, of the same colour with the quils of the Wings, save that the middlemost on their lateral edges have something of white. But what is especially remarkable in the Tail is, that when spread it is not plain, as in most birds, but notably concave. The middle fea∣thers are longer than the rest. Moreover, the Wings are very hollow, as in most Land∣fowl of the Poultry-kind. The Gall is large, the Stomach musculous: In it we found seeds of Plants.

This sort of Water-hen we first saw and described at Milan, then at Florence, where the Fowlers call it Tordo Gelsemino, unless perchance that be a distinct kind; and

lastly, at Valence in Spain. That this is the Gallinula poliopus of Aldrovand the names imposed on it do perswade us, though the descriptions do not in all points agree.

The Bird that I described at Florence was of the bigness of the lesser Tringa, long∣bodied, with a small Head, Wings of a mean size, a short Tail, Legs bare for a little above the knees, very long Toes except the back one, which is shorter in proporti∣on than the rest, and situate higher. The Bill, for the bigness of the bird, is of a good length, streight, narrow, or compressed sideways; of a greenish yellow colour: But the upper Mandible both at the base and toward the tip is darker coloured, and as it were of a dusky green. The Legs and Feet are of a sordid green, neither is the co∣lour of the Claws different. In the colour of the feathers it agrees mostwhat with the described, save that in the middle of the Back between the Wings a black list runs down besprinkled with white spots, of a considerable length and breadth: to which also are two lines adjacent, one on each side, in the covert-feathers of the Wings, not parallel to the middle one, but running out wider toward the Tail. The Eyes are small, and their Irides of a greenish yellow. In the bird that Mr. Willughby mea∣sured the length from Bill to Claws was thirteen inches, from Bill to Tail nine and an half: The breadth between the tips of the Wings sixteen. The Bill, like that of the common Water-hen, from the point to the angles of the mouth scarce an inch long: The Tail two inches. along the utmost edge of the Wing from the Shoulders to the very tip of the outmost pinion feather runs a line of white, as in the common Water-hen. This line of white was not in the Bird we described at Florence: Yet I perswade my self that both these descriptions are of one and the same Species of bird, differing either in Age or Sex.

§. VII. * The Water-hen called by Gesner Ochropus: Schmirring, Aldrov. lib. 20. cap. 42.

SO he denominates it from the pale yellow or Brimstone-like colour of its Legs, (which appears also in its Bill to the middle part or further, for the forepart of it is black.) It is called in High Dutch Schmirring, a name (as I guess) framed in imita∣tion of its voice or the noise it makes. It hath the greatest variety of colours of any bird of this kind; there appearing in it seven distinct ones (as the * 1.92 Picture shews.) For besides the yellow colour I spake of, every where all over the whole body appears a russet, [ruffus:] In the ends of the shortest feathers of the Wings a red, like red Oker: A white both on the Head and about the Eyes, and also in the middle feathers of the Wings, and in the Belly. The longest feathers of the Wings are black, and elsewhere in the Back, Tail, Neck, and Wings are spots of black. The edges of the Eye-lids are tinctured with a Saffron-colour. There is also something of brown and cinereous in the Wings. The Feet want the back-toe, unless the Picture deceives me. It builds among shrubs with moss and grass. Thus far Gesner. This Bird (if it be rightly described, of which we are very doubtful) we have not yet seen.

§. VIII. * The Wyn-kernel or Gallinula ochra of Gesner, Aldrov. lib. 20. cap. 48.

I (saith Gesner) named this Ochra, from the greenish, but sordid and dark colour of almost the wholebody, more dusky on the upper side. The Head, Neck, Breast, and Wings are adorned with points and spots of white. The Tail is in part white. The Bill partly purple, partly black. The Legs pale yellow.

§. IX. * The Land-hen: Gallinula terrestris of Aldrovand. Perchance the Land-Rail.

WE suspect this Bird (however Gesner contradicts it) to be the Land-Rail or Ortygometra of Bellonius, however the Toes in the figure are drawn too too long. But that the Reader may satisfie himself whether or no we judge aright, we shall here put down Gesners description of it.

In the whole habit and fashion of its body it is very like the Water-fowl, if you except only the Bill. Gesner having no Greek or Latine name for it, it may, saith he,

be called * 1.93 Trochilus terrestris; (for there are also other Water-Trochili, likewise of the Hen-kind) sith it is of the same † 1.94 common kind, and runs swiftly, whence the Grecians gave it that name; howbeit some do call that very small bird the Regulus also by the name of Trochilus. This Bird runs very swiftly through shrubs, and some∣times leaps sideways. It flies ill, and with great difficulty raises it self from the ground up into the Air. So he. And in his Epitomy again he names it, the Land-Trochilus or Land-Rail, to difference it from that which lives about Waters, and adds, that Bello∣nius his Land-Rail is another bird. About the Lago maggiore (so he goes on) some call it Polle, which is as much as a Pullet or Hen, by a name too general. The Ger∣man Fowlers call it, Eggenschar, Heggeschar, and Hegesar, because they run in com∣panies near hedges, where they are found after Hay-harvest. For the Germans call a hedge Hegga, or Haga, and a flock or troup Schara: Or perchance because they dig the earth about hedges, for the word Scharren with us signifies to dig or scrape with the feet, as Hens are wont: Which whether or no these birds do is to me uncertain. There are some who call it periphrastically, Ein grosse wasser Hunle, that is, a great Water-hen. This Bird he thus briefly describes. It is thick and short-bodied, and shaped otherwise like its Picture, [of which he there gives a draught,] scarce any bird hath longer Toes for its bigness. The hind-toe also is about half as long as the fore ones. The colours I do not well remember, but I think their Legs were greenish. The Back and Wings from a reddish colour inclined to brown. Its note (as they say) is harsh, Ger, ger, ger, something like a Serpents. And therefore it is also taken by Fowlers imitating its voice by a knife drawn through dry wood. But whereas he saith, that the English, accounting it a very delicate bird, use several snares and de∣vices to catch it among the standing corn, he was certainly deceived by a false relati∣on; for that England neither breeds nor feeds any such bird besides the Land and Water-Rail.

§. X. The Brasilian Water-hen, called Jacana.

THis most elegant Bird is of the bigness of a Dove, but hath much longer Legs, * 1.95 of a yellow colour mixt with green. The lower Legs are more than two inches long; the upper (for the greatest part bare, as in Water-birds) a little less. It hath four Toes in each foot, the middle of those three which stand forward two inches long, the other two a little shorter; the fourth or back-toe a foot or more long; all armed with yellow Claws, half an inch long. Its Tail is short like a Water-hens. The feathers on the Back, Wings, and Belly are mingled of green and black: Those under the Tail white: Those near the Neck, and on the whole Neck and Breast of the same colour with the feathers that are seen on the Necks of Peacocks and some Pigeons. It hath a small Head like a Water-hen, covered with a certain round membranous tegument, of the colour of a Turcois stone. Its Bill is streight, like a Hens. above an inch long, from the beginning to the middle of a rare * 1.96 scarlet colour, the remaining part being of an excellent yellow, wherewith something of green is mixt. It is very frequent every where in the fenny places or Marish grounds of Brasil. Its flesh is edible, but not much valued.

§. XI. The Brasilian Water-hen, called Aguapecaca.

IT is in bigness equal, and in shape like to the precedent, but different and inferiour to it in colour. Its feathers on the Back are like those of the former; the Wings browner. It wants the Cap or Miter on the Head, and hath in each Wing on the in∣side a streight horn or spur, where with it defends it self.

§. XII. The third Brasilian Water-hen of Marggrave.

IT is for figure and bigness like and equal to the precedent, but different in colour. The whole Head, Neck, Back, and Tail are black, the beginning of the Wings brown: The remaining part green; the ends of the quil-feathers brown: Moreover, the Breast and lower Belly are of a brown colour, as also the upper half of the upper Legs. The Bill is streight, of a Saffron-colour, with a red skin at its rise, and on the fore-part of the Head. The Legs are bare, the Feet ash-coloured. In the fore∣part of each Wing it hath the like horn or spur as the former, of a yellow colour.

This is the * 1.97 Avis cornuta of Nierembergius, or rather Hernandez, which the Indians (saith he) call Yohualcuachili, or Caput nocturnum.

§. XIII. The fourth Brasilian Water-hen of Marggrave.

IT is of the same figure or shape with the rest. Its Bill is yellow. It hath a red skinny Miter or Cap on its forehead near the rise of its Bill: It hath also processes extended down the sides after the manner of the * 1.98 Guiny Hens. Its whole Head, Neck, Breast, and lower Belly are covered with black feathers. The Back, Tail, and beginning of the Wings with red, or light brown. The quil-feathers of the Wings are of a Sea-green, with black tips; but they are covered with those red [or russet] ones forementioned, and cannot be seen unless when the bird flies. Its Legs are long; its Toes also long: Each hath * 1.99 four joynts, of an ash-colour. Each Wing in the fore-part hath a very sharp horn [or spur] of a Saffron colour.

§. XIV. A Water-hen, called by the Brasilians, Tamatia.

IT hath the Bill of a Sparrow-hawk, is of the bigness of Yassana asu, walking with a crooked Back, and crooked Neck. It hath a great Head, great, black Eyes, si∣tuate near the rise of the Bill: A Bill two inches long, more than one broad, like a Ducks indeed, but * 1.100 sharp toward the tip: Its upper part black, its nether yellowish. The upper Legs are bare of feathers, and of a good length. It hath in each foot four Toes, three standing forward, one backward, long, as in Water-hens. The Legs and Toes are of a yellowish green colour. The Tail very short, not longer than in the Yassana. Its Head is covered with black feathers, the rest of its body with brown: But in the Belly some white feathers are intermingled.

CHAP. III.

§. I. * Of the Porphyrio, or purple Water-hen.

THis Bird neither Gesner, nor Aldrovandus, nor we truly have hitherto seen, but Pictures of it only. It is (if the Pictures deceive us not) of the Water∣hen kind. Its body is all over of a blue colour. The extreme half of the Tail is a whitish ash-colour: The Bill and Legs of a shining purple. So Gesner de∣scribes it by a Picture sent him from Montpellier. Aldrovandus describes it otherwise, as may be seen in Book 20. Chap. 28. of his Ornithology. Seeing therefore the Pictures of this Bird do so much vary, and none of those who have compiled Histories of Ani∣mals do profess themselves to have seen the Porphyrio, we did sometimes doubt, whe∣ther there were any such bird in nature, especially seeing some of those things which the Ancients attribute to it, as for example, that it hath five Toes in each foot, are without doubt false and fabulous. But because all the Pictures of it do agree in the figure of its Bill, Legs and Feet, and indeed the whole body, we have now changed our minds, and are more apt to believe the affirmative, viz. that there is such a

Porphyrio as they picture, akin to the Coots or Water-hens. Let others, who have the hap to see it, describe it more exactly, and so remove all doubt and scruple concern∣ing this matter out of the minds of the learned and curious.

§. II. * The Quachilto or American Porphyrio of Nieremberg.

THe Quachilto doth imitate the watching and crowings of a Cock. Some call it Yacacintli. Late at night, and early in the morning it crows after the manner of Cocks. It is of a dark purple colour, with some white feathers intermixt. The Bill is pale at the beginning. In the young birds the bald part at the rise of the Bill is red. It is like a Coot. Its Legs are yellow, inclining to green, ending in four pale∣coloured Toes, without any membrane. The Eyes are black, with a fulvous Iris [or circle about the Pupil.] It is a Marsh-bird, feeding upon fishes, it self being no un∣pleasant or ill-tasted meat.

CHAP. IV. * 1.101 Aldrovands Italian Rail.

THis Rail (as Gesner describes it) is more a Water than a Land Fowl: And at Mestre, a Village not far distant from Venice, it is taken, not without great toil and expence, viz. in Falcons, or other Hawks, and a troup of Servants, who wearing Buskins or high-shoos, do, in the room of hunting Dogs, wade up and down the shallow waters thereabouts, and put up those Birds with certain Clubs they carry, shaking and beating the shrubs and bushes where they lie; that so they may afterwards become a prey to the Falcons that wait for them. This is a very noted Bird in that City, but in my judgment much inferiour for taste both to a Thrush and a Quail. Aloysius Mundella, principal Physician at Brescia, in his Letters to me, writes thus. This Bird differs from our * 1.102 Fulica, in that it hath more white in the Wings, and about the Eyes. Its Bill is black; its Legs greenish. It hath no such dissected or scalloped membranes between the Toes, no baldness on the Head, as far as I gather from the Picture.

What Bird this is, and whether we have ever seen it, being so briefly described with a few, and some of those negative notes, we cannot certainly determine.

MEMB. II. Cloven-footed, fin-toed Birds, of kin to the Waterhens.

§. I. The Coot: Fulica.

IT weighs twenty four ounces: From Bill-point to Tail-end is sixteen inches long; to the Claws twenty two. The Bill is an inch and half long, white, with a light tincture of blue, sharp-pointed, a little compressed or narrow; both Mandibles equal. The feet bluish, or of a dusky green: The back-toe little, with one only membrane adhering, and that not scallop'd, but extending all the length of the Toe. The inner fore-toe is a little shorter than the outer: All the Toes longer than in whole-footed birds. About the joynts of the Toes are semicircular membranes ap∣pendant, on the inner Toe two, the middle three, the outer four. These circular membranes are bigger, and more distinct on the inside of the Toes, so that the inter∣mediate incisures or nicks reach to the very joynts. [This may be thus briefly ex∣pressed, The three fore-toes have lateral membranes on each side, scalloped, the inner with two, the middle Toe with three, and the outer with four scallops.] From the Bill almost to the crown of the Head arises an Excrescency or Lobe of flesh, bare of

feathers, soft, smooth, round, which they call the * 1.103 baldness. The feathers about the Head and Neck are low, soft, and thick. The colour all over the body black, deeper about the Head. The Breast and Belly are of a lead-colour. The Thighs cove∣red with feathers almost down to the knees: Just beneath the feathers is a ring of yel∣low about the Leg. The first ten quil-feathers are of a dark, dusky, or black colour, the eight next lighter, with white tips; the last or next the body are of a deeper black The Tail consists of twelve feathers, and is two inches long.

The Liver is great, divided into two Lobes, having also a large Gall. The blind guts are nine inches long, their ends for an inches space being reflected or doubled backwards. It builds its Nest of grass, broken reeds, &c. floating on the top of the water, so that it rises and falls together with the Water. The Reed, among which it is built: stop it that it be not carried down streams. This Bird in the figure and make of its body resembles a Water-hen, to which genus it ought without all doubt to be referred. It seldom sits upon trees. The flesh of it with us is accounted no good meat: In Italy it is more esteemed.

§. II. Bellonius his greater Coot, called by the French Macroule, or Diable de mer.

IT always dives in fresh waters, and is of a colour so exquisitely black, as if it were laid on with a Pencil. The white bald spot on the Head is broader than in the common Coot: And it is somewhat bigger-bodied. It draws up its Legs, and hath broad Toes, divided from each other, like the common Coot.

SECTION II. Whole-footed long-leg'd Birds.

CHAP. I. The Flammant or Phoenicopter: Phoenicopterus.

IT hath extraordinary long Neck and Legs. The Bill is broad, of singular, strange, unusual figure. For the upper Mandible is flat and broad, crooked, and toothed: The lower thicker than it: The tip of the Bill black, else it is of a dark blue.

The Neck and body are white: The quil-feathers of the Wings black: The covert∣feathers are wholly died with a most beautiful bright purple or flame-colour, whence it took the names Phoenicopter and Flammant.

It is whole-footed (as Gesner rightly hath it) from whom Aldrovandus, deceived (I guess) by the Picture of it dissenting, affirms the contrary, viz. that it is cloven∣footed.

In Winter-time in hard weather it comes over to the Coast of Provence and Lan∣guedoc in France, and is often taken about Martiguez in Provence, and Montpellier in Languedoc. We saw several cases of it dried at Montpellier.

The French call it Flambant or Flammant, rather from the flammeous colour of its Wings and Feet, than because it comes from Flanders in the Winter-time to the Coasts of Languedoc. For I believe there was scarce ever seen about Flanders a bird of this kind, so far are they from being common there, and flying from thence into other Countries. Howbeit, the Provencals might perchance through mistake think so. Whence it comes, or where it breeds, is to me unknown.

It feeds upon Periwinkles and fishes. The Ancients reckon the Phoenicopters Tongue among the choicest dainties. Apitius, the most profound gulph of gluttony and riot, (as Pliny relates) wrote, that a Phoenicopters Tongue is of an excellent taste and rellish.

CHAP. II. * The Trochilus, commonly called, Corrira, * 1.104 Aldrov.

THis Bird hath long Legs, yea, the longest of any whole-footed † 1.105 Fowl ex∣cept the Avosetta: Wherefore because it runs very swiftly they call it Corrira [Courier] whence I conjecture it to be the Trochilus, which, as they write, runs along the shores with that celerity many times, that its running is swifter than its flying. It is a particoloured Bird, hath a streight yellow Bill, black at the tip: A wide slit of the mouth; black Eyes, compassed about with a white circle, which is environed by another spadiceous one. Underneath on the Belly it is white. Two white feathers, which yet have black tips, cover the Tail. The upper side, Head, Neck, Back, and Wings are mostly of a ferrugineous colour. It hath (as I said) long Legs, short Thighs, Toes joyned together by membranes. Having not seen this Bird we have no more to add concerning it. Its figure somewhat resembles a Larus. Aldrovandus is mistaken in that he writes his Trochilus hath the longest Legs of any whole-footed bird but the Avosetta: For the Phoenicopter hath much longer Legs than the Avosetta it self. But Aldrovandus is herein to be excused, for that he held the Phoe∣nicopter to be a cloven-footed bird.

CHAP. III. The Avosetta of the Italians: Recurvirostra.

IN bigness it somewhat exceeds a Lapwing, weighing ten ounces and an half; be∣ing extended in length from the tip of the Bill to the end of the Toes twenty three inches and an half; to the end of the Tail but eighteen: In breadth, taken between the tips of the Wings spread, it is full thirty one inches. The Bill is three inches and an half long, slender, black, flat or depressed, reflected upwards, which is peculiar to this Bird, ending in a very thin, slender, weak point. The Tongue is short, not cloven. The Head is of a mean size, round, like a ball or bullet, black above, (save that the fore part of the Head is sometimes grey) which colour also takes up the upper side of the Neck extending to the middle of it. The colour of the whole under side of the body is a pure snow-white; of the upper side partly white, partly black, viz. the outmost quil-feathers of the Wings are above half way black, the rest white, as are also the feathers of the second row. The rest of the co∣vert-feathers almost to the ridge of the Wing are black, which make a broad bed of black, not directly cross the Wing, but a little oblique. On the Back again it hath two black strakes, beginning from the point of the Shoulder or setting on of the Wing, and proceeding transversly till in the middle of the Back they do almost meet, being thence produced streight on to the Tail. The whole Tail is white, three inches and an half long, made up of twelve feathers. The Legs are very long, of a lovely blue colour, bare of feathers for almost three inches above the Knees. The Claws black and little. It hath a back-toe, but a very small one. The blind guts are slen∣der, almost three inches long. The whole length of the Guts is three foot. It hath a Gall-bladder, emptying it self into the Gut by its own proper duct or channel, and a Gall-pore besides. The Stomach is small, in which dissected we found nothing but little stones, so that thence we could not learn on what it feeds. Indeed, the Bill be∣ing so slender, weak, long, and of so inconvenient a figure, turning upwards, one would wonder how it could gather its food, be it what it will.

Mr. Willughby describes the Wings thus. The interiour scapular feathers are black, which make a long black spot in the middle of the Back. The covert-feathers of the upper part of the Wing, from the setting on thereof to the first joynt, are white; from the first to the second joynt the lesser covert-feathers are black; from the second joynt to the roots of the greater quil-feathers white again. The first quill or pinion feather is wholly black, the succeeding have by degrees less and less black, till in the eight only the exteriour tip remains black.

We saw many of these birds both at Rome and Venice: They do also frequent our Eastern Coasts in Suffolk and Norfolk in Winter time. But there needs no great pains be taken or time spent in exactly describing this bird: For the singular figure of its Bill reflected upwards is sufficient alone to characterise and distinguish it from all other birds we have hitherto seen or heard of.

BOOK III. PART III. Of WHOLE-FOOTED BIRDS with shorter Legs.

WHole-footed birds with shorter Legs we distinguish into * 1.106 such as want the back-toe, and such as have it: These latter into such as have all four toes web'd together, and such as have the back-toe loose or separate from the rest: These latter again we subdivide into narrow-bill'd and broad-bill'd: The nar∣row-bill'd have their Bills either hooked at the end, or streighter and sharp-pointed. The hook-bill'd have their Bills either even, or toothed on the sides. Those that have streighter and sharp-pointed Bills are either short-winged and divers, called Douckers and Loons; or long-winged, and much upon the Wing, called Gulls. The broad-bill'd are divided into the Goose-kind, and the Duck-kind. The Duck-kind are either Sea-ducks, or Pond-ducks.

The general marks of whole-footed birds are, 1. Short Legs; Here we must ex∣cept the Phoenicoptter, Corrira, and Avosetta: 2. Legs feathered down to the Knees: 3. Short hind-toes: 4. The outmost fore-toe shorter than the inmost: 5. Their Rumps less erect, than other birds: 6. Most of the broad-bill'd kind have a kind of hooked narrow plate at the end of the upper Chap of their Bills; their bodies flat or depressed.

N. B. Under the name of whole or web-footed we comprise some birds, which have indeed their Toes divided, but membranes appendant on each side, such are some of the Divers or Loons. These might more properly be denominated sin-toed or sin-footed than whole-footed.

SECTION I. Whole-footed Birds that want the Back-toe.

CHAP. I. The Bird called Penguin by our Seamen, which seems to be Hoiers Goifugel.

IN bigness it comes near to a tame Goose. The colour of the upper side is black, of the under white. Its Wings are very small, and seem to be altogether unsit for flight. Its Bill is like the Auks, but longer and broader, compressed sideways, graven in with seven or eight furrows in the upper mandible, with ten in the lower. The lower Mandible also bunches out into an angle downward, like a Gulls Bill. It differs from the Auks Bill in that it hath no white lines. From the Bill to the Eyes on each side is extended a line or spot of white. It wants the back-toe, and hath a very short tail.

I saw and described it dried in the Repository of the Royal Society. I saw it also in Tradescants Cabinet at Lambeth near London.

The Penguin of the Hollanders, or Magellanic Goose of Clusius.

The Birds of this kind, found in the Islands of the strait of Magellane, the Hol∣landers from their fatness called Penguins. [I find in Mr. Terries Voyage to the East Indies mention made of this Bird. He describes it to be a great lazy bird, with a

white Head, and coal-black body. Now seeing Penguin in the Welsh Tongue signi∣fies a white head, I rather think the Bird was so called from its white head; though I confess that our Penguin hath not a white Head, but only some white about the Eyes.] This (saith Clusius) is a Sea-fowl of the Goose-kind, though unlike in its Bill. It lives in the Sea; is very fat, and of the bigness of a large Goose, for the old ones in this kind are found to weigh thirteen, fourteen, yea, sometimes sixteen pounds; the younger eight, ten, and twelve. The upper side of the body is covered with black feathers, the under side with white. The Neck (which in some is short and thick) hath as it were a ring or collar of white feathers. Their skin is thick like a Swines. They want Wings, but instead thereof they have two small skinny sins, hanging down by their sides like two little arms, covered on the upper side with short, narrow, stiff feathers, thick-set; on the under side with lesser and stiffer, and those white, wherewith in some places there are black ones intermixt; altogether unfit for flight, but such as by their help the birds swim swiftly. I understood that they abide for the most part in the water, and go to land only in breeding time, and for the most part lie three or four in one hole. They have a Bill bigger than a Ra∣vens, but not so * 1.107 high; and a very short Tail; black, flat Feet, of the form of Geese∣feet, but not so broad. They walk erect, with their heads on high, their fin-like Wings hanging down by their sides like arms, so that to them who see them afar off they appear like so many diminutive men or Pigmies. I find in the Diaries [or Jour∣nals of that Voyage] that they feed only upon fish, yet is not their flesh of any un∣grateful relish, nor doth it taste of fish. They dig deep holes in the shore like Cony∣burroughs, making all the ground sometimes so hollow, that the Seamen walking over it would often sink up to the knees in those vaults. These perchance are those Geese, which Gomora saith are without feathers, never come out of the Sea, and instead of feathers are covered with long hair. Thus far Clusius, whose description agrees well enough to our Penguin; but his figure is false in that it is drawn with four toes in each foot.

Olaus Wormius * 1.108 treating of this bird, to Clusius his description adds of his own observation as followeth. This Bird was brought me from the Ferroyer Islands; I kept it alive for some months at my house. It was a young one, for it had not arrived to that bigness as to exceed a common Goose. It would swallow an entire Herring at once, and sometimes three successively before it was satisfied. The feathers on its back were so soft and even that they resembled black Velvet. Its Belly was of a pure white. Above the Eyes it had a round white spot, of the bigness of a Dollar, that you would have sworn it were a pair of Spectacles, (which Clusius observed not) nei∣ther were its Wings of that figure he expresses; but a little broader, with a border of white.

Whether it hath or wants the back-toe neither Clusius nor Wormius in their de∣scriptions make any mention. In Wormius his figure there are no back-toes drawn.

This Bird exceeding the rest of this kind in bigness justly challenges the first place among them.

CHAP. II. The Bird called the Razor-bill in the West of England, the Auk in the North, the Murre in Cornwal: Alka Hoieri in Epist. ad Clusium. Worm. mus.

THis is less by half than the Penguin, being not so big as a tame Duck: Between the tips of the Wings spread it was twenty seven inches broad. Its Head, Neck, Back, and Tail, in general its whole upper side is black. Its Belly and Brest as far as the middle of the Throat white. The upper part of the Throat under the Chin hath something of a dusky or purplish black. Each Wing hath twenty eight quil-feathers; the tips of all * 1.109 to the eleventh are white. The Tail is three inches long, consisting of twelve feathers, the exteriour shorter by degrees than the interiour: The excess of the two middlemost above the next them is greater than that of the rest.

The Bill from the tip to the angles of the mouth is two inches long, of a deep black, narrow or compressed sideways. A little beyond the Nosthrils in the upper Mandible there is engraven a furrow or incision deeper than that in the Coulter-neb. As far as

this groove the Bill is covered with a thick, short, soft down, like the nap of Velvet, The upper Chap is crooked at the end, concave and overhangs the lower: Both are of equal length, channelled with two transverse furrows or grooves [the upper for the most part with three,] that next the Head, which is the widest, and almost crosses the whole Bill, being white. In these furrows there is some diversity in several birds, for some have more than two: Yet are the white lines like and equal in all. Besides from each Eye to the corner of the upper Mandible is a narrow white line drawn. The Mouth within is of a lovely yellow: The Eyes hazel-coloured. The Legs are situate as in the Penguin and Coulterneb, of a black colour, as are also the Feet and Claws. It wants the back-toe.

It lays, sits, and breeds up its Young on the ledges of the craggy Cliffs and steep Rocks by the Sea-shores, that are broken and divided into many as it were stairs or shelves, together with the Coulternebs and Guillemots. The Manks men are wont to compare these Rocks, with the Birds sitting upon them in breeding time to an Apo∣thecaries shop, the ledges of the Rocks resembling the shelves, and the Birds the pots. About the Isle of Man are very high Cliffs, broken in this manner into many ledges one above another from top to bottom. They are wont to let down men by ropes from the tops of the Cliffs to take away the Eggs and young ones. They take also the birds themselves when they are sitting upon their Eggs, with snares fastened to the tops of long poles, and so put about their Necks. They build no Nests, but lay their Eggs upon the bare Rocks. They fetch many circuits in getting up to their Nests, and if they have not aimed right, and so miss of them, they drop down into the Sea, and ascend up again by degrees.

All the birds of this kind that we know lay extraordinary great Eggs in proportion to their bodies: This birds are two inches three quarters long, the lesser ends not so sharp as in the Guillemots, white, varied with black spots, as Hoierus rightly describes them. They feed altogether upon fish.

CHAP. III. * The Mergus of Bellonius, * 1.110 Aldrov. Perchance the same with the precedent.

BEllonius, in his Book of Observations writes, that there is a peculiar sort of Sea∣diver in Candy, differing from the * 1.111 Phalacro-corax, and other divers, which he thinks to be the Aethyia of Aristotle. The Inhabitants of the Candy-shores (saith he) call it Utamania. It is of the bigness of a Teal [d' une Sarcelle] hath a white Belly, a black Head and Back, as also Wings and Tail. This alone among whole∣footed birds wants the back-toe. [Herein Bellonius is mistaken.] Its feathers are like down, sticking fast in the skin. Its Bill hath sharp edges, is hollow, and almost plain, for a good part of it covered with downy feathers; the upper Chap being black, the lower white: the crown of its Head is broad.

This bird in many things resembles the Auk, and perchance it may be the same, for its figure is not unlike: But if it be indeed, as it is described, no bigger than a Teal, and the lower Mandible of its Bill be white, it must be different.

CHAP. IV. The Bird called by the Welsh and Manks-men, a Guillem; by those of Northumberland and Durham, a Guillemot, or Sea-hen; in Yorkshire about Scarburgh, a * 1.112 Skout; by the Cornish, a Kiddaw: Lomwia Hoieri in Epist. ad Clusium.

IT is like the Auk, but greater, coming near to the bigness of a Duck: In length from Bill to Tail eighteen inches and an half; in breadth the Wings being spread out thirty. Its Head, upper-side of the Neck, Back, Wings, and Tail, and be∣side, the Chin also as far as the middle of the Throat are of a dark brown, or black ash-colour: Its Belly, Breast, and the rest of its Throat are white, as in the Auk. The

tips of the eleven foremost or outmost Wing-feathers of the first row are white, as in the Auk. The Tail is two inches long, consisting of twelve feathers, the middlemost the longest, the rest by degrees shorter and shorter to the outmost.

The Bill is streight, sharp-pointed, black, from the tip to the angles of the mouth, almost three inches long, round. The upper Chap near the point hath on each side a small angular process or tooth which is not received in the lower, but overhangs it on both sides when the mouth is shut. The Tongue undivided: The mouth within yellow. The Feet situate very backward near the Tail, as in the precedent, of a black colour, as are also the Claws. It wants the back-toe.

The skin of the stomach within is yellow: The Gall-bladder large: The Testicles in the Males great, from which the seminal vessel with various winding and reflections tend to the vent.

It lives and companies together with the Auks and Coulternebs: Breeding after the same manner, and in the same places: But it is a simpler bird, and more easily taken.

It breeds yearly on the steep Cliffs and inaccessible Rocks of the Isle of Man, as do the Auks, &c. Likewise on an Island or Rock called Godreve, not far from St. Ives in Cornwal: Also on Prestholm Island, about a League distant from Beaumaris in the Isle of Anglesey, where for want of fresh water no body at present dwels, nor are there any buildings remaining, save an old ruinous Chappel dedicated to St. Siri∣cian. My Lord Bulkley is proprietor of this Island. Moreover, this Bird frequents and builds on the Farn Islands near the coast of Northumberland; and the Clifts about Scarburgh in Yorkshire, in the Summer-months.

This lays the biggest Eggs of all this kind, more than three inches long, very sharp at one end, and blunt at the other, of a bluish green colour, some varied with black spots or strokes, some without any.

Mr. Johnson hath observed these birds to vary somewhat in colour, some having black backs, some brown or bay: Perchance these may be Hens, those Cocks.

CHAP. V. The Bird called Coulterneb at the Farn Islands, Puffin in North-Wales, in South-Wales Gulden-head, Bottle-nose, and Helegug, at Scarburgh Mullet, in Cornwal Pope, at Jersey and Guernsey Barbalot: Anas Arctica Clus. Pica marina vel Fratercula Gesneri * 1.113 Aldrov.

THis is lesser than the tame Duck, extended in length from Bill to Feet twelve Inches. Its Bill is short, broad, and compressed side-ways, contrarily to the Bills of Ducks, of a triangular figure, and ending in a sharp point, the upper Mandible arcuate, and crooked at the point. Where it is joyned to the Head a cer∣tain callous substance encompasses its base, as in Parrots. Between this callous body and the first furrow, anon to be described, are long holes for the Nosthrils produced by the aperture of the mouth. The Bill is of two colours, near the Head * cinereous † 1.114 or livid, toward the point red; it hath three furrows or grooves impressed in it, one in the livid part, two in the red. The Mouth is yellow within. The Eyes grey or ash-coloured. The Eye-lids are strengthened with a black cartilage: in the lower is a carneous protuberance of a * 1.115 livid colour, in the upper a small triangular excrescency of the same colour.

The Feet of some are yellow; I suppose those are young ones, of others red, situate backwards almost in the same plain with the Belly, as they are in Doukers or Loons, so that the Bird stands and walks almost perpendicularly erected upon the Tail. It wants the back-toe. The inmost of the fore-toes is the shortest, the middlemost the longest. The Claws are of a dark blue, inclining to black. The top of the Head, the Neck, and Back are black: The Breast and Belly white. A ring or muffler of black produced from the Neck encompasses the Throat. The sides of the Head from the crown, to the now mentioned muffler are white, or of a very pale ash-colour, so that the Eyes and Ears are included in these white spaces.

Their Wings are small, made up of short feathers, nevertheless near the supersicies of the water they fly very swiftly. They say that out of the sight of the Sea they

cannot fly at all, nor unless they do ever and anon dip their Wings in the water. The Tail is two inches long, made up of twelve feathers, all black. The Stomach within is yellow: The Liver divided into two Lobes, with a Gall annexed.

They build no Nest, but lay their Eggs upon the bare ground. They breed in holes under ground, which either they dig for themselves, or borrow of the Rabbets, whom they drive out and dispossess of their burrows. They lay but one Egg apiece (which is especially remarkable) but if you take away the Egg out of any Nest, that Bird will lay a second; if you remove that, a third, and so on to the fifth. It lays huge Eggs for its bigness, even bigger than Hens or Ducks, of a reddish or sandy co∣lour, much sharper at one end than Hens Eggs, and blunter at the other.

In the Islands of Man, Bardsey, Caldey, Farn, Godreve, Sillies, and other small de∣sert Islets near the Sea-shore they breed yearly in great numbers: And not only in Islands, but also on Rocks and Cliffs by the Sea-side, about Scarborough, Tenby, and elsewhere.

In the Summer time they abide in the places mentioned, being busie in breeding and feeding their Young: In the beginning of Autumn they fly away, returning again the next Spring. Whither they fly, and where they spend their Winter we know not. It is reported, that in the latter end of March, or beginning of April there come over first some Spies or Harbingers, which stay some two or three days as it were to view and search out the places they use to breed in, and see whether all be well: Which done they depart, and about the beginning of May return again with the whole troup of their fellows. But if that season happen to be stormy and tempestuous, and the Sea troubled, there are abundance of them found cast upon the shores lean and perished with famine. For they cannot, unless the Sea be calm, either proceed in their jour∣ney, or fish for their living. In August they all depart, nor are they seen any more any where about our Coasts till the next Spring. The Young which cannot then fly they leave to shift for themselves. All these things are to be understood also of the Auk and Guillemot. For these three kinds do for the most part fly together, and build in the same places.

A certain Fisherman told us, that in the middle of Winter he once found a Puffin under water, torpid, among the Rocks not far from * 1.116 Bardsey Island, which being again cast into the Sea streightway sank to the bottom. Believe it that will. Mr. Fr. Jessop sent us one killed in the fresh waters not far from Sheffield in Yorkshire, much less than this we have described, which yet I think differed only in age; for all marks agreed.

Of all the birds of this kind hitherto described I think it to be true which Mr. John∣son hath observed, that the underside is so far white as it is immersed in the water in swimming, the upper side as far as it is extant above the water being black.

The Auk, Guillemot, this Bird, and perchance all the rest of this kind and the So∣land-Goose lay but one Egg, and bring up but one young one at once, which is a thing very remarkable and worthy the observation: But that Egg for the bigness of the birds is an extraordinary great one.

CHAP. VI. The Greenland-Dove or Sea-Turtle: Columba Groenlandica dicta.

HIther also is to be referred that bird which in Holland they call the Greenland-Dove, for that also wants the back-toe. It is like the Coulterneb, but less: Its Legs alike red: Its Bill longer, not compressed sideways, sharp-pointed, a little crooked at the end, and prominent.

It hath a large white spot on the upper surface of each Wing, else it is all over black, of the colour of a Coot. We counted in each Wing twenty six or twenty seven quil-feathers.

I guess this bird to be the same with the Puffinet of the Farn Islands, which they told us was of the bigness of a Dove: Its whole body in Summer-time being black, excepting a white spot in each Wing, but turning white in the Winter: That it had a narrow, sharp Bill, that it built in the holes of the Rocks, and laid two Eggs. I perswade my self also, that it is the same with the Turtle-dove of the Bass Island near Edinburgh in Scotland, being thereto induced by the agreement of names.

Why they call it a Dove or Turtle I cannot certainly tell. It is indeed about the bigness of a Turtle, and lays (they say) two Eggs at once like them, and possibly there may be some agreement in their voice or note.

SECTION II. Whole-footed Birds with four fore-toes, or four toes all web'd together.

CHAP. 1. The Pelecan: Onocrotalus sive Pelecanus, Aldrov.

THe length of this Bird from the point of the Bill to the end of the Feet or of the Tail was sixty inches: Of the Bill it self from the tip to the angles of the mouth fourteen. The space between the Eyes and the Bill is * 1.117 na∣ked. Its feathers are almost like a Gooses: Those on the top of the Head longer than the rest, standing up like a Crest. The colour of the whole body white: Yet the Neck is yellowish. The shafts of the back-feathers are black. The Tail and covert-feathers of the Wings are of a dusky ash-colour, as in Geese: The ends of the quil-feathers black. The Tail is about seven inches long, made up of twenty or twenty two feathers, of almost equal length, save that the outmost are a little shorter than the middlemost. Each Wing hath twenty eight quil-feathers. The Bill toward the Head is of a Lead-colour, the end being yellowish: The upper Mandible broad and flat, the nether as it were two long ribs or spars joyned at one end, with a thick yellow skin interceding, which reaches backwards to the Throat beyond the Bill. At the end of the Bill is a little knob or protuberance, but the utmost tip of the Bill is hooked. The Nosthrils are situate at the base of the Bill near the Head; above the cranny or furrow running along the length of the Bill, as in the Soland-goose, and are round. The Eyes are of a yellowish ash-colour, or rather whitish: The Legs and Feet of a lead colour. The shanks bare above the knees. All the four toes are web'd together, as Aldrovand hath rightly observed.

We saw and described this Bird in the Royal Aviary in St. James Park near Westmin∣ster. The Emperour of Russia by his Embassadours sent to his Majesty in the year 166•• among other rarities presented the King with two birds of this kind.

Franciscus Stellutus, in a Letter to * 1.118 Jo. Faber at Rome, describes a Pelecan he saw at Fabriano thus. This Bird is much bigger than the biggest Goose, yea, equal to, or bigger than a Swan. [That which Gesner described weighed twenty four pounds, of twelve ounces the pound: Of Aldrovands two one weighed eighteen pounds, the other twenty five.] Of a whitish colour, yet not purely white, but clouded with something of dusky or red. Nor is this colour uniform all the body over, for the Wing-feathers are darker than of the rest of the body. Its Feet are made up of three Toes joyned together by a membrane, and a Heel behind. [Here by inadvertency I suppose Stellutus is mistaken, for all four toes are web'd together.] The Bill almost as long as ones arm, but not toothed. The tip of the upper Chap is bent downward, with a hook like the claw of some bird. I could not see any Tongue, [neither could Faber, who saw this same bird afterward at Rome, find the Tongue, though he searched diligently for it] but where the root of the Tongue was fixed I observed certain perforate bodies. On the crown of the Head there stood up some feathers elevated above the rest, imitating a Crest. The bag which hangs down under the Bill, and which makes the Pelecan greatly different from other birds, is membrana∣ceous, which it sometimes contracts and draws up so to the Bill, that it is scarce con∣spicuous, other times it suffers to be so dilated as to receive and contain many (Faber saith thirty) pounds of water: The membrane being so stretcht and distended, that it appears transparent, many fibres and veins running up and down through it. I wondered most (they are Fabers words) when the Bill being opened very wide, I saw the whole head of a man of great stature received in that vast gulf of the

* 1.119 Craw. In the Head I discovered two manifest but small holes reaching to the brain, which served for smelling. Wanting a Tongue it must make that uncouth sound, like the braying of an Ass, by the help of its Larynx only. I heard not this, but the Keeper of this Bird, that carried it up and down to shew, when he provoked it, striking it on the Bill, and the Bird seemed angry, and ready to peck or strike with its Bill, so that it would sometimes catch hold of his hand, it made a noise somewhat like the cry of a Goose, and that a small and hoarse one.

The noble Lord Jo. Carolus Schaad related to me, that a great while since there were three Pelecans shot in the River Danow running through Bavaria, two of which were kill'd, the third brought alive to the Duke of Bavaria's Court, where it lived forty years. It was much delighted in the company and conversation of men, and in Musick both Vocal and Instrumental. For it would willingly stand by those that sung or sounded the Trumpet, and stretching out its Head, and turning its Ear to the Musick, listened very attentively to that sweet harmony, though its own voice is said to be like the braying of an Ass. This confirms what we read in Aldrovand of the age of the Pelecan. which was kept fifty years at Mechlin, and was verily believed to be eighty years old. Thus far Faber.

It is singular in this Bird, that its bones are pellucid, solid, without any marrow at all within; and that the division of the Wind-pipe into two branches is near about the middle of the stomach, which I never observed in any other bird, saith Al∣drovand.

This bird feeds upon fish, as do all the rest of this kind. Faber saw it swallow two fresh Hakes, that weighed about four pounds, whole.

Many of them frequent the River Danow, but breed not there. Bellonius saith he saw flocks of Onocrotali in Egypt: Olaus Magnus writes, that they are frequent in the Northern Countries. Oviedus reports, that there is often seen a great flock of them about Panama in the West Indies, where they breed on the adjacent Rocks and Islandr. There are said to be of them likewise on the Caspian Sea. Of old time it seems they have frequented the Coast of Italy about Ravenna, for Martial hath it, Turpe Ravennatis guttur Onocrotali. Matthiolus makes them very common in the Sea∣coasts of Tuscany, especially about the Cape Argentaro, being frequently found about Port Hercole, and the Lake of Urbicello, where the Inhabitants call them Agrot∣ti. What credit this deserves (saith Faber) I know not, this I know, that many of Matthiolus his Country men have scarce ever seen so much as the Picture of an Ono∣crotalus, which if they were so common there, would not sure be accounted such strange things as to be carried about to shew at Rome, and in other places of Italy.

CHAP. II. The Soland Goose: Anser Bassanus.

IN bigness it equals a tame Goose. It is by measure from the tip of the Bill to the end of the Feet thirty four inches long: To the end of the Tail thirty nine. Its Wings are of an extraordinary length, for being extended their extreme tips are seventy two inches distant.

Its Bill is long, streight, of a dark ash-colour, a little crooked at the point, having on each side not far from the hook an angular Appendix or tooth, like the Bills of some rapacious birds. Beyond the Eyes the skin on the sides of the Head is bare of feathers, as in the Cormorant. The Palate, and all the inside of the Mouth is black: The slit of the Mouth huge wide. At the angle of the * 1.120 Upsilon-like bone is a very small Tongue: The Ears of a mean size: The Eyes hazel-coloured. [In another bird they were yellow.] By a diligent search we could find no Nosthrils, but in their stead a furrow or cranny extended on each side through the whole length of the Bill. If one view them attentively the edges of both Mandibles appear serrat, that it may more firmly hold the fish that it catcheth. It hath four fore-toes; for all its four toes are web'd together, and stand forward. The Legs are feathered down to the knees: The Feet and Legs, as far as they are bare, black: The Claw of the middle Toe is broad, and pectinated on the inside as in Herons. The Plumage is like that of a Goose. The colour of the old ones that have moulted their Chicken-feathers is all over white, excepting the greater quil-feathers of the Wings, which are black, and

the top of the head, which with age grows yellow. The young ones are partico∣loured of white and dark brown or black, especially on the upper part of the body. The number of quil-feathers in each Wing is about thirty two. The Tail is white, about seven inches long, consisting of twelve feathers. The skin is very full, sticking loose to the flesh.

The Bird we described was taken alive near Coleshil, a Market Town in Warwick∣shire, not being able by reason of the length of his Wings to raise himself from the ground, on which, I know not by what chance, he had fallen down. The blind guts were very short: Scarce any footstep remaining of the channel conveying the Yolk into the guts.

In the Bass Island in Scotland, lying in the middle of Edinburgh Frith, and no where else, that I know of, in Britany, a huge number of these Birds doth yearly breed. Each Female lays only one Egg. Upon this Island the Birds, being never shot at or frightned, are so confident as to alight and feed their young ones close by you. They feed only upon fish, yet are the young Geese counted a great dainty by the Scots, and sold very dear, so that the Lord of the Islet makes no small profit of them year∣ly. They come in the Spring, and go not away again before the Autumn. Whither they go, and where they Winter is to me unknown.

CHAP. III. The Cormorant: Corvusaquaticus.

IN bigness it is not much inferiour to a Goose. The colour on the upper side is dusky, shining with an obscure tincture of green; exactly like that of a Shag. The Breast and Belly are white. Each Wing hath about thirty quil-feathers, the extreme tips whereof, as also of those of the second row, are a little ash-coloured. The Tail is extended beyond the Feet, being an hand-breadth and an half long, when spread ending in a round circumference, being concave on the underside, consisting of fourteen stiff hard feathers, not being in any part covered with feathers incumbent on it either above or beneath. The Bill is like that of the Shag, three inches and an half long, hooked at the end; the upper Mandible black with sharp edges; the sides of the lower Mandible compressed and broad. The Tongue small, and almost none. The Eyes situate nearer the aperture of the Mouth than in most other birds, having cinereous circles round the Pupil. The Legs are strong, thick, but very short, broad, and flat, at least in the young ones. The Feet and Claws black, covered with a skin not divided into perfect scales, but cancellated. It hath four Toes in each foot, all web'd together by a broad black membrane, and standing forward, the outmost the longest, the rest in order shorter, The Claw of the middle Toe is serrate on the in∣side. But what is especially remarkable in this Bird, wherein it chiefly differs, the big∣ness excepted, from the Shag, is, that the basis of the nether Chap is covered with a naked yellow skin or membrane, like the Elks.

Its stomach is membranaceous, but its upper part thick and glandulous: Within were bones of fishes which it had devoured, and also one fish entire; that was a small Cod∣fish; also many little, long, blackish worms of the figure of Earthworms. Such like worms also Mr. Willughby found in the stomach of a young one, which he got at Se∣venhuys in Holland, where many birds of this kind build upon trees. The Guts are long, having many revolutions: The blind Guts very small: The Liver large, divided into two Lobes, the right one the bigger. It is infested with Lice of a pale red co∣lour, having a great black spot in the middle of their Backs.

They are wont (saith * 1.121 Jo. Faber) in England to train up Cormorants to fishing. When they carry them out of the rooms where they are kept to the fish-pools, they hood-wink them, that they be not frightned by the way. When they are come to the Rivers they take off their hoods, and having tied a leather thong round the lower part of their Necks that they may not swallow down the fish they catch, they throw them into the River. They presently dive under water, and there for a long time with wonderful swiftness pursue the fish, and when they have caught them they arise presently to the top of the water, and pressing the fish lightly with their Bills they swallow them; till each Bird hath after this manner devoured five or six fishes. Then their Keepers call them to the fist, to which they readily fly, and little by little one

after another vomit up all their fish a little bruised with the nip they gave them with their Bills. When they have done fishing, setting the Birds on some high place they loose the string from their Necks, leaving the passage to the stomach free and open, and for their reward they throw them part of their prey they have caught, to each per∣chance one or two fishes, which they by the way as they are falling in the air will catch most dextrously in their mouths. This kind of fishing with Cormorants is it seems also used in the Kingdom of China, as * 1.122 Nierembergius out of Mendoza relates.

This Bird builds not only on the Sea-Rocks, but also upon trees. For (saith a certain Englishman mentioned by Aldrovand) I have seen their Nests on the Rocks near the mouth of the River Tine, and in Norfolk upon high trees together with the Herons. Which same thing we also have observed. For on the Rocks of Prestholm Island near Beaumaris we saw a Cormorants Nest, and on the high trees near Sevenhuys in Holland abundance. Which thing is worthy the notice-taking: For besides this and the following, we have not known or heard of any whole-footed bird that is wont to sit upon trees, much less build its Nest upon them.

CHAP. IV. The Shag, called in the North of England, the Crane: Corvus aquaticus minor sive Graculus palmipes.

IT is bigger than a tame Duck, weighing almost four pounds. Its length from Bill-point to Tail end was two foot and an half. Its breadth the Wings being spread forty four inches. Its Bill streight, slender, neither flat, nor compressed sideways, but rather round, from the tip to the angles of the mouth four inches long; the upper Mandible black, hooked at the end, the nether from green of a pale yellow. It hath a wide gape. The Tongue is small, and almost none. The Nosthrils were not conspicuous, at least I could not discover any that it had. The Eyes small, situate lower and forwarder than is usual in other birds. Its body is small, flat and de∣pressed like the dun Divers: The upper side of a black purplish colour, or black, with a dark tincture of green, shining like silk. The under-side is dusky, but in the mid∣dle of the Belly inclining to ash-colour. Under the Chin it is white, behind the Vent blacker than the rest of the Belly. The Tail is an hand-breadth and an half long, composed of twelve feathers, hard and stiff, the middlemost being the longest, and the outmost the shortest, so that being spread it seems to resemble an hyperbolical cir∣cumference. Each Wing hath thirty feathers in the first row. * 1.123 The Wings when closed reach no further than the base or beginning of the Tail. The Legs are short, broad, compressed, feathered down to the Knees. The skin of the Legs is cancella∣ted, not scaly. It hath four Toes, all connected by intervening membranes, armed with black Claws; the outmost Toe the longest, the rest in order shorter. The soals of the Feet and backsides of the Legs are black: The membranes connecting the Toes dusky. The Claw of the middle toe is serrate on the inside. It hath a huge, long, membranous stomach, which in the birds we dissected was full of small fishes. It swims in the Sea with its Head erect, its body almost immersed in the water. When a Gun is discharged at it, as soon as it sees the fire flash, immediately it pops under wa∣ter like a Doucker, so that it is a very hard thing to shoot it.

It differs from the precedent, 1. In bigness, being much less: 2. In the colour of the Belly, which in this is blackish, in that white: 3. In the number of the feathers of the Tail, which is this are but twelve, whereas in that they are fourteen: 4. In that the claw of the middle toe in this is serrate, as in Herons, in that only sharp∣edged. [Mr. Johnson gives the Cormorant a serrate Claw, and denies it to this. Per∣chance herein there may be variety, Nature (as they term it) sporting it self, and not observing constantly the same rule:] 5. That in this there is not so much bare skin at the base of the Bill as in that, nor of the same yellow colour: 6. Lastly, in the slen∣derness and length of the Bill.

This Bird also builds on trees: Its Eggs are long and white.

CHAP. V. * The Sula of Hoier * 1.124 Clus. near of kin to, if not the same with the Soland-goose.

FRom the bottom of the Neck to the Rump, measuring along the Back, it was a Roman foot long. From the top of the Head to the Back were eleven inches. The Neck was as much about. The length of the Bill (which was very sharp∣pointed and strong) was five inches and an half. The thicker part of the Bill, and that about the Eyes was black. The compass of the body was full twenty four inches, that is, two Roman feet. The Wings were more than a foot long; but the longer feathers of the Tail did not exceed the length of seven inches. It had but slender and infirm Legs, and those not more than two inches long, and wholly of a black co∣lour, as were also the Feet, which were very broad, consisting of four Toes, of which the outermost, and that next it (which were the longest) consisted of three articu∣lations, the third of two, the least of one, each armed with a small claw, except the second, the Nail whereof is a little broader than the rest, and serrate on one side; but they are all joyned together by a black membrane. The longer prime feathers of the Wings are all black, as are also those three, which are longest, and lie uppermost, and take up the middle part of the Tail. The rest of the body was covered with white feathers, which yet in the Back were something yellowish, as if they were strowed with clay or dust.

This Bird in many things agrees with the Soland-goose, yet in some it differs, viz. the sharpness of the Bill, the black colour about the Eyes, the smalness of the Legs, and the black colour of the middle feathers of the Tail. But I suppose Clusius was mi∣staken in the number of the joynts of the outer Toe, for the outer and middle Toe in no bird that I have yet hapned to see, except only the Swift, do agree in the number of joynts: Nor doth the outer Toe consist of three articulations, but four, the mid∣dle of three, the inner of two, and the least or back-toe of one.

Clusius took this description from a dried bird, sent by Dr. Henry Hoier, Physician in Bergen in Norwey, to Dr. Peter Pauw, first Professor of Physick in Leyden. It is (he saith) called Sula by the Inhabitants of the Islands Ferroyer, where it is taken. Those Islands, Hoier writes in his Epistle to Clusius, are said to be so called from the abundance of feathers there.

CHAP. VI. The Tropic Bird.

IT is of the bigness of a Duck, hath a red Bill, about two inches long, somewhat bending downward, and sharp-pointed. A line of black is drawn on each side from the corner of the mouth to the back of the Head. The Belly is white: The Back also is white, but variegated with transverse lines of black thick set, which make it very beautiful to behold. The Wings are very long, yet each single feather short, as in the Soland-goose. In the outmost quil-feathers the one Web, i. e. that on the outside the shaft is black, the other or inner Web white; in the next to these the middle part of the feather along the shaft is black, the edges on both sides white; the next to these are all white; those next of all to the body black, and longer than the rest. The Feet are black, the Legs white: All the four Toes web'd toge∣ther. In the Tail (if one may rely upon the stuft skin, or credit the relation of those those that sent it) are only two very long feathers, of about eighteen inches, narrow, and ending in snarp points. This description I took from the case of the bird con∣served in the Repository of the Royal Society.

It is called the Tropic-bird because it is found about the Latitude of the Tropic circles, and no where else, so far as hath been by our English Travellers hitherto observed.

My honoured and ingenious friend, Mr. Martin Lister of York, takes this to be the bird described in the History of the Carribbee Islands in these words: There are seen near these Islands, and sometimes at a great distance from them in the Sea, certain birds

perfectly white, whose Beaks and Feet are as red as Coral. They are somewhat bigger than Crows: They are conceived to be a kind of Herons, because their Tails consist of two long and precious feathers, by which they are distinguished from all other birds frequenting the Sea. This, saith Mr. Lister, can be meant of no other than the Tropic-bird: But then it is wrong described, with red legs, and a perfectly white body.

CHAP. VII. * The Anhinga of the Tupinambae a people of Brasil. Marggrav.

IT is an elegant sort of * 1.125 Diver. Its body (excepting the Neck) is of the bigness of a common tame Ducks: Its Bill streight, not thick, very sharp, three inches long, the foremost half both above and below having a double row of very sharp * 1.126 teeth inclining backwards. Its Head is small, oblong, resembling a Ser∣pents, a little more than an inch and half long: Its Eyes black, with a golden circle: Its Neck slender, round, a foot long: Its body but only seven inches. Its Legs are short: The upper two inches long, and feathered; the lower scarce an inch and half. It hath four Toes, three turned forwards, joyned together by membranes, after the manner of Ducks or Cormorants, the fourth shorter, extended sideways below, joyn∣ed to the rest by a membrane; very sharp, crooked Claws: A broad Tail, ten inches long, consisting of twelve feathers. The Wings end about the middle of the Tail. The Bill is grey, and after its rise a little yellowish. All the Head and Neck are cove∣red with very fine feathers, to the touch as soft and sleek as Velvet, on the upper side of the Head and Neck of a colour from grey inclining to yellow: Under the Throat and beneath the Neck of a grey colour, like the fur of those skins called Verhfelle, of which womens * 1.127 Caps are made, which fur they resemble both to the touch and sight. The whole breast, lower Belly, and upper Legs are covered with soft feathers of a silver colour: The beginning of the Back with brown ones, each whereof hath in its middle an oblong spot of a whitish yellow colour, so that it appears speckled: The rest of the Back hath a black Plumage. It hath long Wings, at the * 1.128 setting on cove∣vered with the like short feathers as the beginning of the Back. Then follows a row of half grey, half black ones, that is, on one side the shaft gray, on the other black: But the prime feathers are black. The Tail consists of black and shining fea∣thers, whose ends are grey. The Legs and Feet are of a colour from a dark yellow inclining to grey. It is very cunning in catching of fish. For after the manner of Ser∣pents, first drawing up its neck, it darts forth its Bill upon the fishes, and catches them with its Claws. I have eaten of its flesh, but it is not much better than the flesh of a Gull.

SECTION III. Whole-footed Birds, having the back-toe loose, with a narrow Bill, hooked at the end, and not toothed.

CHAP. I. * Of the Artenna of the Tremiti Islands: De Ave Diomedea.

THis Bird Aldrovandus sets forth for the Diomedea avis, induced thereto by this argument chiefly, because the present Inhabitants of the Diomedean Islands, called now Tremiti, do affirm thereof what Pliny of old con∣cerning the Diomedean Birds, viz. that they are found in no other place but in those Islands. His description he partly borrows of Gesner, partly takes from a Picture of the Bird.

They are (saith he) of the bigness of a good corpulent hen, but have pretty long Necks and Legs. Their colour is dusky, or a dark ash, and (if I be not mistaken) they have some white under their Bellies, as wild Pigeons sometimes have. [My Bird on the under-side was almost wholly white.] Its Bill is very hard, and hooked at the end like an Eagles, but not so much, of a bright red, if I well remember. [I be∣lieve he did not well remember this, for the Bill in my Bird was of a pale yellow, all but the hook, which was black.] Its Eyes fair, of a fire-colour, not very great. For I did once see one, which being smitten with a rod on the Head opened its Eyes and cried out, but shut them presently again, not being able to bear the light of the Sun. And again: Their colour is not simply white (as Pliny writes) but inclining to cinereous, as in Fulicae (he means a Bird of the Gull-kind) to which also he com∣pares them. Whether they have toothed Bills or not, I did not observe, but they have them strong and pretty long. Thus far Gesner. Which notes (saith Aldrovandus) do for the most part agree exactly to my Bird, which had it not a hooked Bill, one might not unfitly judge to be of the great Gull-kind: It doth so resemble them in the whole body, but especially in the Wings. The Feet are of the same colour with the Bill, as are the Legs also.

But this description is not much to be confided in, being partly borrowed of Ges∣ner, (who had it from the relation of a certain friend, who described it by memory) partly took from a Picture, or a dried case of the Bird sent him out of the Island. Those who happen to travel to the Islands called Tremiti, would do well to enquire dili∣gently concerning these Birds, or rather themselves procure and exactly describe them, that so we may not be any longer without a true and perfect history of them.

CHAP. II. The Puffin of the Isle of Man, which I take to be the Puffinus Anglorum.

MR. Willughby saw and described only a young one taken out of the Nest, who makes it equal in bigness to a tame Pigeon. Those which I saw dried in the Repository of the Royal Society, and in Tradescants Cabinet, seemed to me somewhat bigger. Its colour on the Head, Neck, Back, and whole upper side is dusky or black, on the Breast and Belly white. The Bill is an inch and half, or it may be two inches long, narrow, black, and for its figure something like to a Lap∣wings Bill, the upper Chap being hooked at the end, like a Cormorants. Its base is co∣vered with a naked skin, in which are the Nosthrils. From the Nosthrils on each side a furrow or groove is produced almost to the hook. The Head is blacker than the rest of the Back: The Wings long: The Tail an hand-breadth long, and black. The Feet underneath black; above, the outer half of each foot is black, the inner of a pale or whitish flesh-colour, so that the middle toe is partly white, partly black. It hath a small back-toe, and black Claws.

For its extraordinary fatness its flesh is esteemed unwholsom meat, unless it be well seasoned with salt.

At the South end of the Isle of Man lies a little Islet, divided from Man by a nar∣row channel, called the Calf of Man, on which are no habitations, but only a Cot∣tage or two lately built. This Islet is full of Conies, which the Puffins coming year∣ly dislodge, and build in their Burroughs. They lay each but one Egg before they sit, like the Razor-bill and Guillem; although it be the common perswasion that they lay two at a time, of which the one is always addle. They feed their young ones wondrous fat. The old ones early in the morning, at break of day, leave their Nests and Young, and the Island it self, and spend the whole day in fishing in the Sea, never returning or once setting foot on the Island before Evening twilight: So that all day the Island is so quiet and still from all noise as if there were not a bird about it. What∣ever fish or other food they have gotten and swallowed in the day-time, by the innate heat or proper ferment of the stomach is (as they say) changed into a certain oyly substance [or rather chyle] a good part whereof in the night-time they vomit up into the mouths of their Young, which being therewith nourished grow extraordina∣rily fat. When they are come to their full growth, they who are intrusted by the * 1.129 Lord of the Island draw them out of the Cony-holes, and that they may the more readily know and keep account of the number they take, they cut off one foot and

reserve it; which gave occasion to that Fable, that the Puffins are single-footed. They usually sell them for about nine pence the dozen, a very cheap rate. * 1.130 They say their flesh is permitted by the Romish Church to be eaten in Lent, being for the taste so like to fish.

Gesner, and Aldrovand following him, from the relation of a certain English man, write, that they want hard feathers, being covered only with soft feathers, or a kind of down: Which is altogether false, they being furnished with sufficiently long Wings and Tail, and flying very swiftly. They say it is a foolish bird, and easily taken. We are told that they breed not only on the Calf of Man, but also on the Silly Islands. Notwithstanding they are sold so cheap, yet some years there is thirty pounds made of the young Puffins taken in the Calf of Man: Whence may be gathered what number of birds breed there.

CHAP. III. * The Brasilian Maiaguè of Piso.

MAiaguè, also received into the number of whole-footed, edible, but Sea wild∣fowl, is of the bigness and shape of a Goose; not unlike to those great black diving birds of our Country, having in like manner the end of their Bills hooked and fitted for ravin: So that it seems to resemble Gesners * 1.131 Corvus aquaticus. It hath a thick, round Head; shining Eyes; a long Neck, decently bowed like a Swans. The whole Bird is of a dusky and blackish colour, only the forepart of the Neck adorned with yellow feathers. It lives in the Sea about the mouths of Rivers: But builds its Nest and lays its Eggs on the shore. It is a swift bird, swims and dives well, and cunning in avoiding and escaping the snares of the Fowlers.

Its flesh is esculent, and good meat, especially if it be young, but because it feeds always upon fishit is disapproved and rejected by some.

Whether this Bird hath all its four toes web'd together or not Piso doth not tell us, there∣fore we have subjoyned it to those which have the back-toe loose, although we suspect that it doth rather belong to the former genus.

CHAP. IV. The Shear-water.

OUr learned and worthy friend Sir Thomas Brown of Norwich among the designs and Pictures of many other birds, sent us also that of this, with a short histo∣ry of it as followeth. The Shear-water is a Sea-fowl, which fishermen observe to resort to their Vessels in some numbers, swimming swiftly to and fro, backward, forward, and about them, and doth as it were, radere aquam, shear the water, from whence perhaps it had its name. It is a fierce and snapping fowl, and very untracta∣ble. I kept two of them five of six weeks in my house, and they refusing to feed, I caused them to be crammed with fish, till my Servant grew weary, and gave them over: And they lived fifteen days without any food. So far Sir Thomas. This Bird, according to the Picture of it, hath a great head like a Gull: Its upper part [Head and Back] were of a dark brown or blackish: Its Chin, Throat, and Breast white: Its Feet of a flesh-colour: Its Bill long, round, hooked at the end like a Cormo∣rants, and blackish: Its Wings long, when gathered up reaching to the end of the Tail.

SECTION IV. Of whole-footed Birds with the back-toe loose, having a narrow Bill, hooked at the end, and toothed, called DIVERS, in Latine, MERGI.

CHAP. I. The Goosander. Merganser, * 1.132 Aldrov. Harle, Bellonii.

ITs weight was almost four pounds: Its length from the tip of the Bill to the end of the Tail or Claws (for they were equally extended) twenty eight inches: Its breadth, the Wings being spread, forty. It is long-bodied: Its Back broad and flat. The Head and upper part of the Neck is of a very deep shining green, almost black: The lower half of the Neck is of a glossie white. Yet the up∣per side of the bottom of the Neck, the middle of the Back, and the interiour sca∣pular feathers are black [the exteriour are white.] The lower part of the Back is of a pale ash-colour. On both sides near the Rump, and on the very Rump and Thighs the feathers are variegated with transverse * 1.133 dusky lines. The Tail is made up of eighteen feathers, wholly cinereous. Each Wing hath about twenty six prime feathers, the ten outmost black; the four next also black, but tipt with white: The five succeeding white, with their bottoms black: The remaining six or seven next the body white, with their exteriour edges black. In the second row of the Wing those incumbent on the white quil-feathers are white from their tips to the middle, beneath black. Thence as far as the bastard Wing all are white: But between those white ones and the long scapular feathers some black ones intervene. Whence if you take the long scapular feathers, which cover the Back, for part of the Wing, the Wings will be (as Aldrovandus describes them) black toward the back, next white, with a certain paleness; then black again, but more remissly; after that again white, the extreme feathers at last being black. The whole under-side of the body (ex∣cepting the Wings, which are white underneath) of a faint yellow or Isabella colour. The exteriour feathers of the Thighs are elegantly varied with transverse waved lines of a whitish and blackish colour, alternately placed.

The Bill measured from the tip to the corners of the mouth exceeds the length of a mans middle singer: The lower Mandible black; the upper along its middle or up∣per part black, on the sides red; the tip being black and hooked, both upper and lower toothed on both sides like a Saw, the teeth inclining inward. The Tongue and Palate are yellow.

It hath not a Crest properly so called on the Head, but the feathers are more loose, and stand more staring upwards than ordinary, whence also the Head seems to be big∣ger than indeed it is. The Ears are round; the Nosthrils large, the Irides of the Eyes of a sanguine colour. The Legs and Feet are of an elegant red-lead colour. The back-toe broad, with an appendant membrane. It hath a huge bony labyrinth on the wind-pipe just above the divarications and besides, the windpipe hath two swel∣lings out one above another, each resembling a powder-puff.

The Stomach is scarce musculous; out of it dissected we took a Roch and an Ed, whence it is manifest, that the bird feeds upon fishes. It hath a gall-bladder. The blind guts were two or three inches long, and full of Excrements.

The Dun-Diver or Sparlin-fowl: Merganser foemina. Mergus cirratus longiroster, Gesn. & Aldrov.

The Sexes in this kind of bird differ extremely from one another in colour, so that both Gesner and Aldrovand do set them forth for different species, calling the Female, Mergus cirratus longiroster major.

The Head of this (which we take to be the Female of the precedent) is of a sor∣did red. The feathers on the Crown of the Head stand out somewhat, and seem to bend backward in form of a crest or toppin. The Chin is white: The whole Back

of bluish ash-colour; the Fowlers call it Dun, whence this Bird also is by them cal∣led the Dun Diver. The underside of the body is of the same colour as in the Male. The quil-feathers of the Wings also do not much differ as to their colours. The Bill and Feet agree with those of the Male. The Wings in both Sexes are short, and little for the bulk of the body; notwithstanding by the very quick agitation of them, it flies exceeding swiftly near the surface of the water.

The Stomach of this Bird is as it were a Craw and a Gizzard joyned together. The upper part resembling the Craw hath no wrinkles or folds in its inner membrane, but is only granulated with small papillary glandules, resembling the little protuberances on the third ventricle of a Beef, called the Manifold, or those on the shell of a Sea-Urchin.

CHAP. II. The Bird called at Venice, Serula: Mergus cirratus fuscus: Anas (ut puto) longirostra Gesneri, Aldrov. t. 3. p. 281.

THis Bird is very common at Venice. In bigness it comes near to the common Duck. All its Head and the upper part of its Neck are of a dark fulvous co∣lour, but the crown of the head darker or blackish. It hath a pretty long crest or tuft on its head hanging down backward. The Back is dusky, or of a very dark cinereous. The Throat for an inch and halfs space is white, below grisled of black, white and red. The whole Belly white. The Bill from the tip to the angles of the mouth three inches, slender, and of a round figure: The lower Mandible wholly red, hath in the end an ash-coloured oval spot, the upper is of a dark brown above with some mixture of green, red on the edges, hooked at the end, and marked with a whitish oval spot: Both toothed on both sides along the edges with teeth like those of a Saw inclining inwards. The Eyes of a sanguine colour. The Wings are very short and little for the bigness of the bird, having each about twenty five or twenty six feathers in the first row. Of these the outmost ten are black, the eleventh hath the tip white, and the three next in order still more, the following six have their upper halves white: The rest are indeed white, but have their edges black, some on one side only, some on both. Of the second row those that cover the white ones of the first are themselves white half way. Above toward the base of the Wing is a great white spot, beginning from the bastard Wing. The coverts of the underside of the Wing, and the interiour bastard wing are white; but those under the outmost quil∣feathers are dusky. The Tail is short, consisting of eighteen feathers. The Legs short: The Feet red, or of a deep Saffron colour. The Wind-pipe at the divarication hath such a vessel as the precedent, and besides above swells out into a puff-like cavity. In the stomach we found a Mullet.

This Bird is not much more than half so big as the precedent: It differs also in its colour, its crest, the white spot below the bastard Wing, and other accidents. We suspect the Bird described was a Female, and that its Male represents the Goosander, though we have not as yet hapned to see it; unless perchance it be that whose skin stuft we saw in Sir William Fosters Hall at Bambergh in Northumberland, which had on each Wing a white spot, and two small transverse black strakes. We cannot but wonder (if the Male of this Bird be such a one as the Goosander) that among so many Females at Venice we should not see one Male. Mr. Willughby saw and described at Venice another Bird of this kind, perchance specifically different from this, under the name of Cokall; for 1. It was less: 2. It had no Labyrinth. This makes us doubt again concerning the Sexes of these birds; for in others of the Duck-kind the Females have no labyrinth; whereas in the dun Diver, which we take to be the female of the Goosander we found a large labyrinth; and yet in this lesser Diver, called Cokall, it seems there was none; so that we will not be very consident that the Goosander and Dun Diver differ no more than in Sex. This Bird Leon. Baltner calls Klein Merch, i. e. a little Diver.

Gesner besides these sets forth four or five species of this kind of birds, whose de∣scriptions were sent him by a certain German. But those descriptions are so short, general, and obscure, that we cannot thence certainly learn what birds the Author means.

CHAP. III. The * 1.134 Mergus Rheni of Gesner, Aldrov. tom. 3. pag. 275.

IT is in bigness equal to a Duck, and the most Duck-like of any of the Mergi: Its body all over particoloured of black and white: Its Bill and the space about the Eyes black. On both sides the back of the Head are black spots: The rest of the Head is partly black, partly dusky or cinereous. The lower or fore-part of the Neck with the Belly are of a white colour, but varied here and there with cinere∣ous points or spots, which in the lower part of the Belly and sides being drawn out in waved lines, make a very pretty shew, and pleasant to behold. The Legs grow back∣wards about the bottom of the Belly. The Feet and Toes are dusky, the membranes on the inside black. The Tail black: The Wings and whole back distinguished with several black and white spaces alternately. Some call this Bird a White Nun.

I suspect that this Bird was no other than our Albellus, next to be described: Only the bigness and want of a crest forbid it. Perchance Gesner might describe it from the relation of others, or from a Picture. I am sure Leonard Baltner, a Fisherman and Fowler of Strasburgh, who did very diligently observe, gather together, and cause to be painted all the birds frequenting the Rhene thereabouts, gives us no other bird of this kind but the Albellus, to which also he gives the title of White Nun.

CHAP. IV. The other Albellus of Aldrovand, tom. 3. p. 279. the Mergus major cirratus of Gesner, Aldrov. tom. 3. p. 276. We may call it with the Germans the White Nun.

IN bigness it comes near to a Wigeon; weighing about twenty four ounces. From the point of the Bill to the end of the Tail, or of the Feet it was by measure eighteen inches and an half long: between the tips of the Wings extended twen∣ty seven inches broad. The Bill an inch and half, or near two inches long.

Its Head and Neck were white, excepting a black spot under the Crest (which it hath hanging down backward from behind its Head) encompassing the Crest, and ending in an acute angle below, and another on each side extending from the angles of the mouth to the Eyes. The Breast, Belly, and whole under-side is purely white. As for the upper side, all the Back is black. The long scapular feathers incumbent on the back are white. At the setting on of the Wing on each side there is a crooked line of black, half encircling the Neck just above the shoulders, and higher up the Neck, where the black we mentioned in the middle of the Neck begins, there is another such like arcuate line on each side, resembling half a collar.

The ten outmost quil-feathers of the Wings are wholly black; the tips of the next ten are white, of the hindmost in order more than the foremost. Then follow two half white, viz. on the outside the shaft, the other half being black: The rest of the feathers are cinereous: The number of all twenty seven. The feathers of the second row growing on the middle of the Wing are black, only their utmost tips being white. Above, a broad and long spot or bed of white beginning from the bastard wing reacheth to the twentieth quil-feather. The interiour bastard wing is white. The side-feathers under the Wings variegated with transverse waved black lines are very pleasant to behold. The Tail is dusky, or between ash-coloured and black, composed of sixteen feathers, a quarter of a yard, or three inches and an half long, the middle feathers being the longest, the rest on each side gradually shorter to the outmost.

The Bill is of a cinereous or lead colour, [but at the tip of each Mandible is a spot of sorbid white] thicker at the Head, growing slenderer by degrees toward the point, narrower, and less than in the Duck-kind. The upper Mandible hooked at the end, toothed on the sides: The Nosthrils oblong, open, at a good distance from the fea∣thers: The Eves of a dark colour. The Legs and Feet of a cinereous or lead colour, the Toes being joyned by a dusky membrane. The foremost Toe and the back-Toe

have lateral appendant membranes, reaching their whole length.

The Wind-pipe at the divarication ends in a certain great, strong, bony vessel, which we are wont to call a Labyrinth; whence proceed the two branches tending to the Lungs.

This Bird hath not two blind guts, after the manner of other Birds, but only one short blunt one, [yet in one bird of this kind we found two.] The Wind-pipe is fastned to the upper angle of the Merry-thought by a transverse ligament, and then ascends upward to the Labyrinth. It feeds upon fishes.

The Albellus aquaticus of Aldrovand, as it seems to me, differs not from this bird, for both the figure, and all the marks he gives of it, agree; only he makes no mention of the crest, perchance it was a young bird he described.

There is in this kind also so much difference between the Sexes, that the Writers of the History of Birds have taken the Male and Female for different sorts. The Fe∣male is described by Gesner under the title of Mergus glacialis, which Mr. Johnson Englisheth the Lough-diver. It was sent us by Mr. Dent from Cambridge by the name of a Smew.

In the Female the whole Head and the Cheeks are red or fulvous: The Throat white. On the beginning of the Breast above the Craw there is seen as it were a col∣lar of a darker or brown colour: It hath no Crest. All the upper side except the Wings is of a dusky ash-colour or brown. About the middle of each Wing are two transverse white lines. In other particulars it agrees well enough with the Male.

It hath a great Gall; oblong Testicles: The Guts have many revolutions. The Stomach larger than in granivorous birds, less musculous, filled with fishes, in the birds we opened.

SECTION V. Of DOUCKERS or Loons, called in Latine, COLYMBI.

CHAP. I. Of Douckers in general.

DOuckers have narrow, streight, sharp-pointed Bills: Small Heads, and also small Wings: Their Legs situate backwards near the Tail, for quick swim∣ming, and easier diving; broad flat Legs; by which note they are distin∣guished from all other kinds of birds: Broad Claws like humane nails. Of these Douckers there are two kinds, The first is of such as are cloven-footed, but fin-toed, having lateral membranes all along the sides of their Toes, and that want the Tail; the second is of those that are whole-footed and * 1.135 caudate, which do near∣ly approach to those birds we call Tridactylae, that want the back-toe. These are not without good reason called Douckers, for that they dive much, and continue long under water, as soon as they are up dopping down again.

CHAP. II. Cloven-footed DOUCKERS that have no Tails.

§. I. The greater Loon or Arsfoot: Colymbus major, Aldrov.

IT weighed a pound: Was from Bill to Claws twenty three inches long: Between the extremities of the Wings spread twenty three and an half broad. The Bill from the tip to the angles of the mouth was two inches long. The feathers in∣vesting the whole body were fine, soft, and thick: The Head and Neck brown: The Back blacker: The sides and lower Belly dusky: The Breast of a silver colour. It wholly wants the Tail. Each Wing hath about thirty quil-feathers: Of which the outmost twelve are black; the tip of the thirteenth is white; and the tops of the following in order more and more to the twentieth, after which the next four are wholly white: The twenty fifth towards the tip is brown, and in the twenty sixth the white ends. The lesser rows of Wing-feathers underneath are white.

Its Bill is black, narrow or compressed sideways; about the angles of the mouth and on the nether Chap yellowish. The Tongue long, and a little cloven: The Eyes of an ash-colour with some mixture of red: Its Claws are broad like the nails of a man, black on one side, on the other of a pale blue or ash-colour: The outmost toe the longest. The Legs broad, flat, serrate behind with a double row of asperities: The Toes are broad, bordered on each side with appendant membranes, but not web'd together.

It hath no Labyrinth on the Wind-pipe: That we described had a great Gall: A large Stomach, almost round, and therein we found Sea-weeds and fish-bones.

§. II. The greater crested or copped Doucker of Aldrovand, lib. 19. cap. 52.

BOth Mandibles of the Bill, where it joyns to the Head, are tinctured with a Saf∣fron-colour. The Head is black on the crown, beneath cinercous; which co∣lours meet near the ends of the Eyes (which are yellow.) From the back of the Head hangs down a tuft of black feathers. The upper part of the Neck is also black, the remaining part of a middle colour between * 1.136 ferrugineous and rose. The Breast and Belly are of a whitish ash-colour. The Back and Wings black, but of these the ridges and extremes are white. It hath no Tail at all: The Rump from cinereous is black. The Legs, Feet, and Claws are of the same make and shape as in the former.

§. III. Of the Water-Hare, or crested Mexican Doucker of Hernandez.

THat kind of Duck [so he calls it] which Aristotle calls Colymbus, but Gaza ren∣ders Urinatrix, the Mexicans are wont to call Acitli or the Water-hare. This would be altogether the same with that described and delineated by some of the later Writers, were not the Head adorned with a greater and black crest, the Belly of a shining silver colour, and the Neck beneath of a pure white, above of a dark brown. It frequents Lakes, either swimming in the water or abiding near it: For it can nei∣ther fly, nor conveniently walk on the Land, its Thighs being so joyned and as it were * 1.137 united to the body, that they serve only for swimming, not for walking. It feeds upon the fishes it catches, and they are its sustenance. It breeds up its young among rushes and reeds; and exceeds not the bigness of our common Ducks. The Male is somewhat longer-bodied, and hath a larger neck and crest. The Bill of the Female is shorter, black, and on both sides near the Eyes covered with fulvous fea∣thers, whereas the Males is with white. This is that Bird which the Indians fabu∣lously report to call forth or conjure up winds, when he perceives the Fowlers aim to

catch him, which blowing trouble the waters so that their Canoes are overturned and the men drown, if they do not happen to kill him in the shooting of five arrows out of a bow. They fancy that in his heart dissected is or may be found a Jewel, useful for many things, and highly prized, not to be consecrated to any but God. But these are idle stories and lies, proceeding from the credulity of these people. Its flesh is not pleasant, nor very wholesome, like that of other fenny birds, and therefore not to be used for food by any one of a critical palate.

Between this and the precedent Doucker there is so little difference, that I scarce doubt but they are the same.

§. IV. The grey or ash-coloured Loon of Dr. Brown.

THis Bird differs from the common Doucker, as well crested as not crested, in the grey colour of its body, being much rarer with us. The Picture represents the feathers on the crown of the Head standing up in form of a crest or toppin.

§. V. The greater crested and horned Doucker.

IT is something less than that described in the first place, but hath a thicker and longer Bill, approaching to a ferrugineous colour. It is both crested and horned, ha∣ving long feathers standing out about the crown of the Head and upper part of the Neck, black above, and red on the sides. The Chin and space about the Eyes is white, bounded with red. The Neck is not so long as in the first kind. The upper or back∣side of the Neck is partly blackish, and partly shews something of red. The Breast and Belly are almost of the same colour with the spot we mentioned encompassing the Eyes, viz. white with a mixture of red. On the Back some long downy feathers of a cinereous and a reddish colour are mingled with the black ones. The Wings are lon∣ger in proportion than in the first, their ridges and almost all their quil-feathers being whitish, else of a sooty colour. [In the Bird we saw the Wings were of a dusky or brown colour, but the lesser quil-feathers were white, as also those small feathers on the base or ridge of the Wing.] The Legs are not situate so backward as in the first.

§. VI. The Didapper, or Dipper, or Dobchick, or small Doucker, Loon, or Arsfoot: Colymbus five Podicipes minor.

FOr the shape of its body it is like to a Teal, but lesser by almost a third part: Of the weight of six ounces: From the tip of the Bill to the end of the Claws ten inches and an half long: between the tips of the Wings distended sixteen broad. Its Bill from the point to the angles of the mouth is one inch, streight, sharp, almost like a Thrushes Bill, thicker at the Head, and lessening by degrees to the point: The upper Chap black, excepting only its very tip and sides, which are of a white or pale yel∣low, as is also the whole lower Mandible. The Tongue is long, sharp like the Bill, and cloven. The Nosthrils are a little remote from the feathers; The Eyes great, with hazel-coloured Irides. The whole body is invested with a thick and soft Plu∣mage or down, especially on the under-side. Its colour on the Back is a dusky or dark brown, on the Belly a white, or rather silver-colour. The Chin white: The Head and Neck darker than the Belly, lighter-coloured than the Back. The Throat and sides of the Neck are a little red: The lower Belly of a sordid dusky colour. The Thighs have a little mixture of red. The Neck is slender, scarce an hand-breadth long. Its Wings are small and concave: Each having about twenty six quil-feathers: The twelve outmost are of a Mouse-dun, or black brown, the inte∣riour to the twenty third particoloured, the outer Webs being dusky, the inner partly white, the white part being in the nearer to the body broader, in the more re∣mote feathers narrower. As for the lesser rows of Wing-feathers, those above are black, those beneath white. It hath no Tail at all, but yet hath the rump-glandules, though lesser than ordinary, out of which also springs a brush or tuft of feathers, as

in other Birds. The Legs are situate very backwards at the end of the body, made rather for swimming than walking, (so that it cannot walk, but with the body erect almost perpendicularly) compressed or flat, of a sordid green colour, serrate behind with a double row of asperities. The soals of the feet are black. The Feet are divi∣ded into three broad Toes, finned on each side with lateral membranes, having thin, broad, blunt Claws like humane nails. Yet are the Toes joyned together by inter∣vening membranes from the divarication to the first joynt. It hath also a small back∣toe finned in like manner on each side: Two blind guts of a moderate length: No La∣byrinth on the Wind-pipe: A membranaceous stomach: Strong musculous Thighs, by the help whereof it swims very swiftly, diving down to the bottom, and rising again at pleasure. From the make and conformation of its parts it moves with more ease and expedition under water, than either upon the surface of the water, or upon the Land. So soon as it is risen above water it holds up its Head, looks about it, and with wonderful celerity plunges it self under water again. It can hardly raise it self up out of the water, but when it is once gotten upon the Wing it can hold out flying a long time. The stomach of that we dissected was full of grass and weeds. Belloni∣us saith, that it feeds most willingly upon fishes. Being rosted it smells very strong.

Both Gesner and Aldrovand describe two kinds of small Douckers, but they differ so little one from the other that I suppose the diversity is rather in Age or Sex than in Species.

CHAP. III. Whole-footed Douckers with Tails.

§. I. The greatest speckled Diver or Loon: Colymbus maximus caudatus; Mergus max. Farrensis five Arcticus, Clus.

THis is a singular kind of Bird, and as it were of a middle nature between whole-footed birds with four fore-toes and with three. In bigness it exceeds a tame Duck, coming near to a Goose. It is long-bodied, hath a round Tail, and a small Head. The upper part of the Neck next to the Head is covered with feathers so thick set, that it seems to be bigger than the very Head it self.

The colour of the upper part, viz. the Neck, Shoulders, covert-feathers of the Wings, and whole Back, is a dark grey or dusky, pointed or speckled with white spots, thinner set on the Neck, and thicker on the Back. These white spots are big∣ger upon the long scapular feathers and coverts of the Wings, and smaller in the mid∣dle of the Back. The lower part of the Neck, the Breast and Belly are white. In a bird I saw that was killed in the Isle of Jarsey the Head was black and also the Neck, which had a white (or rather grey) ring, about the middle of an inch or inch and half broad, consisting of abundance of small white specks. We counted in the two outmost * 1.138 joynts of each Wing thirty quil-feathers, but they are short, all black, or of a dark brown. It hath a very short Tail, of the figure of a Ducks, made up of at least twenty feathers. Its Bill is streight, sharp, like that of the Guillem, almost three inches long; the upper Mandible black or livid, covered with feathers to the very Nosthrils, reflected a little upwards; the nether is white. The Nosthrils are divided in the middle by a skin hanging down from above. It is whole-footed, and hath very long fore-toes, especially the outmost. The back-toe is very short and little. Its Legs are of a mean length, but flat and broad like the ends of Oars, the exteriour surface being brown or black: The interiour livid or pale-blue. The Claws broad like the nails of a man. The Legs in this bird are situate almost in the same plain with the Back; so that it seems not to be able to walk unless erected perpendi∣cularly upon the Tail. It hath no Labyrinth upon the Wind-pipe. The Liver is di∣vided into two Lobes, and hath a bladder to contain Gall: Above the stomach the Gullet is dilated into a kind of Craw, the interiour surface whereof is granulated with certain papillary glandules. The Throat is vast, loose, and dilatable. The guts large, especially towards the stomach; The stomach less fleshy and musculous than in granivorous birds.

The Bird described was shot on the River Tame in Warwickshire. I have seen four of them, 1. One at Venice in Italy: 2. One in Yorkshire at Dr. Hewleys, shot near Ca∣wood: 3. A third in the Repository of the Royal Society: 4. A fourth in the house of my honoured friend Mr. Richard Darley in London, taken in the Isle of Jarsey. They differ something one from another in colours. For some of them have a ring about their necks, their Back, Neck and Head blacker, and painted with little white lines: Others want the ring, and have the upper side of their bodies more ash-coloured or grey, varied with white specks, and not lines. Perchance these are the Hens, those the Cocks.

That which Clusius described was bigger than a tame Goose, or at least equal to it. For from the Neck, where it joyns to the Breast, to the Rump it was two foot long. The compass of the body round was more than two foot. The Wings were fourteen inches long: The Tail scarce three: The Tongue almost three: The Bill more than four: The Neck near eight, and somewhat more in compass: The Head short, three inches broad: The Legs somewhat longer than three inches: The Feet four inches wide. So far Clusius, Of that which Mr. Willughby described at Venice the measures were as followeth: The weight thirty six ounces: The length from Bill to Claws thirty one inches; from Bill to Tail twenty eight. The Bill from the tip to the an∣gles of the mouth was almost three inches long: The Tail two: The second bone of the Leg four and a quarter; the third two and an half; the outmost fore-toe three inches and an half. The Tongue long, sharp, having a transverse bed of asperities not far from the bottom, beneath which it is toothed on each side, as this figure re∣presents.

[illustration]

In the Palate, on each side the fissure, are five rows of prickles or asperities. The blind guts were three inches and an half long. Hence it manifest∣ly appears, that the bird described by Clusius was bigger than ours. But perchance Clusius his was a Cock, ours a Hen. For those I saw at Dr. Hewleys and Mr. Darleys were nothing at all less than that of Clusius, sent him by Hoierus. But what Hoier writes of them, that they cannot fly at all, is a mistake; for though they never breed in England, yet in hard Winters they come over hither. I scarce believe they swim so far. Whence it is manifest, that they not only flie, but make great flights.

§. II. * Gesners greatest Doucker: Colymbus maximus Gesneri.

IN the Lake of Constance I hear there is taken, though but seldom, a certain bird congenerous to the aforesaid, but bigger than a Goose, called Fluder, from its un∣couth fluttering motion on the surface of the water, for that it can neither fly well, nor walk conveniently, unless it leans both upon Feet and Wings, as do also the other Douckers, by reason of the position of the Legs so turned backwards: That it hath a long, sharp Bill: A loud, shrill cry, of a singular kind: That it dives exceeding deep, so that it is sometimes taken twenty yards deep under water, viz. with a Net, or an Iron-hook baited with a fish: that they are commonly sold for two drachms and an half of silver a piece.

Leonard Baltner, a Fisherman of Strasburgh, describes this bird thus. In bigness it equals a Goose: Its length from the point of the Bill to the end of the Toes is one Strasburgh yard and an half. Its Bill from the point to the Eyes is five inches long: The Legs from the Claws to the feathers (that is the bare part) ten inches: The space of the Wings extended two yards and a quarter. The Stomach small: It feeds upon fish: The Bill sharp: The Feet broad, the toes web'd together. The upper side of the body is cinereous and black, the under-side white. The Tail three inches long. It dives very far, a Pistol-shot before it rises again. Its flesh is commended for good meat, and is of no unpleasant taste.

This Bird if it be different from the above described, is I confess hitherto to me unknown. Mr. Johnson, in his Papers sent us, writes, that he hath seen a bird of this kind without any spots in its Back or Wings, but yet thinks it not to differ specifically, but accidentally.

§. III. * Wormius his Northern Doucker, called, Lumme.

IT is common among the Norwegians and Islanders, who in their own Country Lan∣guage call it * 1.139 Lumme. Carolus Clusius mentions it in his Auctarium, pag. 367. It is an elegant bird, of the bigness of a Duck, with a black, sharp Bill, two inches long. Its Head and Neck are covered with grey [cinereous] feathers, ending in a sharp point, as if it had a Monks hood on its Back. Its Back and Wings are black, sprink∣led over with square spots of white, which yet are bigger on the Back than the Wings. Under the Neck is a square oblong black spot like to a shield, five inches long, and two broad, compassed on all sides with feathers variegated of black and white as with a * 1.140 Girdle. The whole Belly and lower parts of the Wings are white. The Legs are stretcht forth beside the Tail [as if they grew out of the Vent] fitted not so much for walking as for swimming, not slender, but flat and broad. Each foot hath three Toes, that are black, and joyned together with black membranes, armed with sharp and crooked Claws. The Thighs are also hid in the Belly. It is of the Mergi [Diver] or rather Colymbi [Doucker] kind. In diving it can hold its breath a long time, and no bird can plunge under water more nimbly and speedily than it, as they experience who shoot them. For so soon as the powder flashes, it presently ducks under water, before the bullet can come at it. It builds its Nest so near the water, that it can, if need be, speedily cast it self into it: But when it betakes it self again to its Nest, fastning its Bill into the earth, it hangs its whole weight upon it, till it raises up its body, and so by degrees reaches its Nest. It perceives before by a peculiar natu∣ral instinct when there are about to fall great showers and shots of rain, and fearing lest the flouds should destroy its Nest and Young, its makes a querulous noise and cry: On the contrary, when it presages fair weather, it expresses its joy by chearful acclamations, and another more pleasant note. It lays yearly three or four Eggs as big as Geese Eggs, of a * 1.141 green colour, and spotted. They say, that at set times of the year they depart into hotter Regions, and return not until the Spring be well come on. Whence they think it ominous for any one to hear the cry of this bird first fast∣ing. The Norwegians think it * 1.142 a sin to kill or disturb this Bird, which they account holy. They sometimes catch it in their Nests against their wills, and sometimes shoot it with Guns. The Islanders because they eat it, take it either with a snare, or with an angle-line. They fasten two stakes at the entrance of the Nest, upon which they hang, and so accommodate the Snare, that the Bird going to her Nest may thrust her head into it. Or they cross the Pool where she frequents at its narrowest part with a fishing line, so that one on each side holds it, raking therewith the surface of the wa∣ter, till the bird fearing some danger towards dives down to the bottom; then ob∣serving the place where she is rising up again by the circles there made in the water, thi∣ther they direct and there hold a snare fastned to the line, that coming up out of the wa∣ter, she may put her head into it, and so be caught by the Neck.

Its skin is used to defend the Head and Breast from the injury of cold, and pre∣ferred before a Swans. This Bird Besler hath figured in his Gazophylacium by this title. A singular kind of exotic Water-Swallow. But it hath nothing almost common with a Swallow.

§. IV. * The small black and white Diver with a short, sharp-pointed Bill.

THe Picture of this Bird was communicated by that worthy person Sir Thomas Brown. It hath a short Bill, a little bending at the end, [both Mandibles.] The top of the Head, the Back, Wings, and in general the whole upper part is black, excepting a transverse line of white in the Wings. The Chin, Throat, Breast, as far as the middle of the Belly, and sides of the Tail white: The Tail short: The Legs of a sordid green. The Toes web'd together. The Picture doth not shew any hind∣toe. This Bird (saith Sir Thomas) is not usual with us; I have met with but two of them, brought me by a coaster, who could give it no name.

SECTION VI. Of SEA-GULLS, called in Latine, LARI.

CHAP. I. Of Gulls in general.

GUlls are a whole-footed fowl, with an indifferent long, narrow, sharp∣pointed Bill, * 1.143 a little crooked at the end; oblong Nosthrils; long and strong Wings: short Legs, small Feet (for they do not swim much) a light body, but invested with many and thick-set feathers, a carrion carkass, the fat that is sticking to the skin, [as in other birds;] much upon the Wing, very clamo∣rous, hungry, and * 1.144 piscivorous.

These we divide into two kinds, First, The greater, which have Tails composed of feathers of equal length, and an angular prominency or knob on the lower Chap of the Bill underneath, to strengthen it, that they may more strongly hold fishes. 2. The lesser, which have a forked Tail, and no * 1.145 knob on the Bill. Both kinds may be divi∣ded into pied or particoloured, and grey, or brown.

CHAP. II. The greater Gulls with Tails of equal feathers.

And first such as are pied or particoloured of white and cinereous or black.

§. I. The great black and white Gull: Larus ingens marinus Clusii.

THis Bird, the biggest by much of all the Gulls we have hitherto seen, weighed four pounds and twelve ounces. Its length from the tip of the Bill to the end of the Tail was twenty six inches: Its breadth from tip to tip of the Wings distended sixty seven. Its Bill was yellow, compressed sideways, more than three inches long, something hooked at the end, and like in figure to those of the rest of this kind. The lower Mandible underneath bunched out into a knob, marked on each side with a double spot, the lower red, the upper black. The edges of the Eye∣lids round about were of a Saffron colour. The Head great, flat-crowned. Both Head, Neck, Breast, Belly, and Tail white. The middle of the Back and the Wings, excepting the tips of the quil-feathers, were black. Each Wing had about thirty four feathers in the first row, all black, with white tips. Its Tail was six inches long, made up of twelve snow-white feathers: Its Legs and Feet white: Its Claws black. It had a small back-toe; a wide Mouth, a long Tongue, a large Gullet. It preys up∣on fishes: For out of its stomach dissected we took a Plaise entire. It had a great Li∣ver divided into two Lobes, with a Gall adhering: Short and small blind guts: A musculous Stomach, and an oblong Spleen.

In another bird of this kind, (which was I suppose a young one) both the top of the Head and the Neck were particoloured of black and white: The Back and Wings paler than in that described. I suppose that this is the very same bird which Clusius describes in the fifth Book of his Exotics, Chap. 9. under the title of a * 1.146 huge Sea-gull, though his description be not so full and exact, as being taken only from a Picture.

This Bird we saw and described at Chester, being not rarely found on the Sea-coasts near that City. In the Feroe Islands it is called, The Swarth-back.

§. II. The Herring-Gull. Larus cinereus maximus.

IT is well nigh as big as a tame Duck: From tip of Bill to the end of the Toes twenty four or twenty five inches long, to the end of the Tail twenty two or twen∣ty three: Between the terms of the Wings stretched out fifty, and in some fifty five inches broad. The weight was different in several birds, one weighing only twenty six ounces, another thirty, another thirty four. The Bill was yellow, two inches long, narrow, as in the rest of this kind, but pretty deep: The lower Mandible not streight, as in other birds, but the upper edges convex or arcuate; underneath it bunches out into an angle or knob, on the sides of which is a large spot of red. The Irides of the Eyes were of a lovely yellow. The edges of the Eye-lids in some yel∣low, in some, (perchance these were Cocks) of a red-lead colour. The Legs in some yellow, bare of feathers for some space above the knees, in others white, or of a pale flesh-colour: The hind-toe small: The Claws black: The inner edge of the middle Claw sharp. Its Head, Neck, Rump, Tail, and whole under-side white: Its Back, the covert-feathers of its Wings, and the quil-feathers also, except the out∣most five, of a dark ash-colour. The two outmost quils were marked with a white spot near the tip, the outmost with a greater, the inner with a lesser, but the very tips of both were black. The tips of the fifth and sixth were dusky. All the rest had white tips. [These colours in several Birds vary something: Yet in general the quil∣feathers in all Birds of this sort are particoloured of white, black and cinereous.] The Tail was about five inches long, not forked, made up of twelve feathers of equal length. The Wings when gathered up reached beyond the end of the Tail, and crossed one another. It had a large Craw, a musculous Stomach, in which were fish-bones. They say that is preys upon Herrings, whence it took the name Herring-gull. It lays Eggs as big as Hens Eggs, sharp at one end, whitish, but spotted with a few black spots.

In the young ones the Back and Head are ash-coloured, with black spots, the Bill black, but white at the tip.

This sort, though it be very common with us, yet hath it not hitherto, that I know of, been described.

§. III. The common Sea-Mall: Larus cinereus minor.

THat which I described was a Hen-bird. It weighed a full pound of sixteen ounces: It was from the beginning of the Bill to the end of the Toes fifteen inches and an half long, to the end of the Tail sixteen and an half. The tips of the Wings extended were forty one inches distant from each other. It is something less than the greater Gull described by Aldrovand; like to the Herring-Gull, but much less. Its Bill was like to those of the rest of this kind, narrow, but deep, sharp-pointed, of a whitish colour, but yellow toward the tip. The knob under the lower Chap small, and scarce conspicuous, the upper Chap something hooked or bending at the point. The Tongue cloven: The Nosthrils oblong. The Eyes were great, and furnished with membranes for nictation; the Irides of a pale hazel-colour: The Ears of a mean size: The Feet of a pale green: The Claws black; that of the middle Toe sharp on the inner side: The back-toe very small, yet armed with a Claw. The membranes connecting the Toes reached as far as the Claws. The Head and upper part of the Neck were clouded with brown spots, the nether part white: The Back ash-coloured, but the feathers covering the Tail white. The Throat and whole un∣der-side of the body was as white as snow: The Tail also purely white. The Shoul∣ders and upper covert-feathers of the Wings ash-coloured, the coverts of the under∣side white.

In each Wing were about thirty quil-feathers; the first of which at the tip in the inner Web had a black spot, and on the outer edge a black line, scarce appearing, then followed a white bar about two inches broad, the rest of the feathers to the bot∣tom being black. The tip of the second was white: Under the white a cross bar of black, half an inch broad, beneath that a white bar of an inch breadth, the rest of the

feather to the bottom being black, but the very bottom ash-coloured. The tip also of the third was white; from the tip the upper half of the feather was black, the lower ash-coloured. The three next had also white tips, but the black part was still shorter and shorter, or narrower and narrower in the following than the foregoing feathers, till in the sixth it became scarce a quarter of an inch broad. All the rest of the quils were ash-coloured, with white tips. The Tail was six inches long, not forked, made up of twelve feathers.

The Liver was large, divided into two Lobes: The Gall yellow: The * 1.147 Pancreas great: The muscles of the Gizzard not so thick and strong as in granivorous birds; within which we found grass and Beetles. It is a gregarious bird, frequenting Mea∣dows, and the banks of Lakes. That which we described we shot on the bank of the Lake of Bala in Merioneth-shire in Wales, commonly called Pimble-mear, through which the River Dee, on which Chester is built, runs, and they say mixes not its waters with those of the Lake.

It differs from the Herring-gull, 1. In that it is less. 2. In the colour of the Bill: From Bellonius his ash-coloured Gull, 1. In that it is bigger: 2. That it hath a back∣toe armed with a Claw.

§. IV. * Baltners great ash-coloured Sea-Mew, perchance our Pewit.

THe whole body (at least on the upper side is of a dark ash-colour or bluish, as are also the Tail and lesser quil-feathers, for the greater are black. The crown or top of the Head is black, with an obscure tincture of green (if the * 1.148 Picture deceive us not.) The Bill streight, of a red-lead colour: The Legs and Feet black: The Wings very long, and when gathered up reaching beyond the end of the Tail. The length of the Bird from the tip of the Bill to the end of the Tail was a † 1.149 Stras∣burgh Yard or more: The breadth from tip to tip of the Wings extended two yards. The Leg so far as it was bare [from the feathers to the end of the Claws] a quarter of a yard long: The Guts seven quarters. I suspect this Bird was no other than the Cepphus of Turner and Gesner, that is, our Pewit: But then the Legs are painted of a wrong colour; for in the Pewit they are red: so is also the Tail.

§. V. Bellonius his ash-coloured Gull, called in Cornwal, Tarrock.

IN bigness it exceeds not a common Pigeon, neither is it much different in the shape of its body, save that its Head is bigger. It weighs seven ounces: Its length from the point of the Bill to the end of the Tail is almost sixteen inches. Its Wings ex∣tended were by measure full thirty six inches. Its Tail almost five inches long, not forcipate, consisting of twelve feathers. The under-side of the body was all purely white: As for the upper side, the Head and Neck were white, save that at the Ears on each side was a black spot: The lower part of the Neck was black: The middle of the Back and the Shoulders ash-coloured: The Tail white, only the tips of the feathers for about an inch black: Yet the outmost feather on each side was all white. The four outmost quil-feathers were above half way black: The two next to these had only black tips, being else white. The seventh had only a black spot near the tip: All the rest were white: In brief, the ridge, upper or fore-part of the Wing extend∣ed was all along black; which colour near the Back was dilated into a large and broad stroak, [or spot.] The Bill was more than an inch long, something arcuate or bending downwards, especially toward the point, which is sharp, of a black co∣lour. The lower Mandible, not far from the tip, bunched out into an angle under∣neath, as in the rest of this kind. Its Legs and Feet were of ash or livid colour: Its Claws black. It hath some rudiment of a hind-toe rather than a perfect toe; for it is only a carneous knob without any Claw. The Legs also are destitute of feathers for about the length of an inch above the knees.

The colour of the Mouth within and the Tongue is like that of an * 1.150 Assyrian Apple, as Bellonius hath observed. The Tail is five inches long, made up of twelve almost equal feathers: The number of quil-feathers in each Wing twenty eight, or twenty nine.

This Bird is easily known and distinguished from all others of this kind, that we have hitherto observed by its wanting the back-toe. It is common on our Sea-coasts.

§. VI. The Pewit or Black-cap, called in some places, The Sea-Crow and Mire-Crow: Larus cinereus, Ornithologi * 1.151 Aldrov. Also the Larus cinereus tertius, Aldrov. The Cepphus of Turner and Gesner.

IT is about the bigness of a tame Pigeon. That which we described weighed about ten ounces: Its length from tip of Bill to end of Tail was fifteen inches: Its breadth thirty seven. Its Bill was of a sanguine colour, bending something downwards, from the point to the angles of the Mouth two inches long. The Palate was of a red-lead colour: The Eyes hazel-coloured, The edges of the Eye-lids red: Both upper and lower Eye-lids towards the hind-part of the Head were compassed with white fea∣thers. The Head and Throat were black, but dilute. The middle of the Back ash-coloured: The Neck, Tail, Breast, and Belly white: The number of quil-feathers in each Wing twenty nine: The tip and extreme edges of the first were white, the rest of the feather black; the following feathers to the tenth had black tips, yet with some diversity in several birds; else the whole Wings were ash-coloured. The Tail all snow-white, of about five inches length, not forked, consisting of twelve feathers. The Wings gathered up reach beyond the end of the Tail. The Legs were of a dark sanguine colour: The back-toe small: The Claws little, and black. The Males differ little from the Females in colour or outward appearance. Near Graves∣end a huge number of these birds frequent the River Thames.

We saw and described at Chester a Bird of this kind, which there they called the Sea-Crow, which differed from the precedent in some accidents of less moment, viz. The crown or top of its Head only was black, not its Throat. Each Wing had twenty eight quil-feathers, the outmost of which had its tip and exteriour edge black; the three next in order had their outer Webs white, their tips and interiour edges black; the three succeeding had only their tips black. [The third, fourth, and fifth, and in some also the second feathers have a spot of white on their tips.] Of this kind also are those birds which yearly build and breed at Norbury in Staffordshire, in an Island in the middle of a great Pool, in the Grounds of Mr. Skrimshew, distant at least thirty miles from the Sea. About the beginning of March hither they come; about the end of April they build. They lay three, four, or five Eggs, of a dirty green colour, spotted with dark brown, two inches long, of an ounce and half weight, blunter at one end. The first Down of the Young is ash-coloured, and spotted with black: The first feathers on the Back after they are fledg'd are black. When the Young are almost come to their full growth, those entrusted by the Lord of the soil drive them from off the Island through the Pool into Nets set on the banks to take them. When they have taken them they feed them with the entrails of beasts, and when they are fat sell them for four pence or five pence apiece. They take yearly about a thousand two hundred young ones: Whence may be computed what profit the Lord makes of them. About the end of July they all fly away and leave the Island.

Some say, that the crowns of those Birds are black only in Spring and Summer. A certain friend of mine (saith Aldrovand) did sometime write to me from Comachio, that the feathers on their Heads grow black in March, and that that blackness con∣tinues for three months, viz. so long as they are breeding and rearing their Young, and that the other nine months of the year they are white. Which thing if it be true (for to me indeed it seems not probable) no wonder that of one and the same Species of Bird described at several times of the year there should be three or four made. Al∣drovandus writes, that the description of Gesner agrees in other things to his ash-co∣loured Gull, disagreeing only in the colour of its Bill and Feet. But perhaps (saith he) the colour of the Bill and Feet may vary in birds of the same species, which I will not easily grant, unless they differ in Age or Sex.

§. VII. * The greater white Gull of Bellonius, which we judge not to be specifically different from our Pewit.

IT is, saith he, lesser than the ash-coloured Mew, and a veryhandsom bird, as fair to see to as a white Pigcon, though it seem to be bigger-bodied; and yet being stript of its feathers it hath far less flesh. It is as white as snow, yet * 1.152 under the Wings it hath somewhat of ash-colour. The Eyes are great, and encompassed with a black circle. Near the region of the Ears on both sides is a black spot. It is well winged, for the Wings exceed the Tail in length. Its Legs and Bill are red, which they are not in the ash-coloured Gull. It stands streight upon its Legs, carrying the hinder part of the body more elevated, so that the lower parts seem to be bent like a bow. The Bill is round and sharp-pointed, the ends of the Wings black. This Bird in most things approachòs to our Pewit last described, it differs in the colour of the crown, and in the black spots about the Ears. Aldrovandus makes the lesser white Larus of Bellonius to be the same with the Cepphus of Turner, that is, our Pewit. I rather think it to be the Sea-Swallow, because he writes, that it frequents fenny places, and thò banks of Rivers.

CHAP. II. Great brown and grey Gulls.

§. I. Our Catarracta, I suppose the Cornish Gannet. Skua Hoier, Clus.

THe skin of this stuft was sent us by our learned and worthy friend Dr. Walter Needham, who found it hung up in a certain Gentlemans Hall. The Bird it self living, or newly kill'd we have not as yet seen at hand. It is of the biggest of this kind, equal to, or bigger than a tame Duck. Its Bill is stronger, bigger, and shorter than in other great Gulls, black, hooked at the end, and seemed to be covered with a skin from the base to the Nosthrils, as in Land-birds of prey. Its Legs and Feet were black: Its Toes armed with strong, crooked Claws, such as we never before observed in any whole-footed Fowl. The colour of the Back is a rusty cinereous or brown, like that of a Buzzards: Its Belly and underside paler. The greater quil∣feathers of the Wings are black: The Tail also is black, about seven inches long, made up of twelve feathers, of which the two middlemost are somewhat longer than the rest. The bottoms of the feathers as well of the Tail as Wing-quils are white. The length of the Bill from the tip to the angles of the Mouth was no more than two inches and an half. The angular prominence on the lower Chap is small and scarce conspicuous.

Hapning to read over the description of Hoiers Skua in the Auctarium of Clusius his Exotics, pag. 367. I find it exactly to agree with ours, so that I do not at all doubt but this Bird is the Skua of Hoier. Clusius his description being more full than ours I shall here subjoyn.

The Bird sent me by Hoier was (saith he) of the bigness of a great Gull, from the bottom of the Neck to the Rump nine inches long. The compass of its body, mea∣suring under its Wings, was sixteen inches. The Neck from the crown of the Head to the Back was seven inches long. The Head not very great, nor the Bill flat, but rather long and narrow, on the part next the Head rugged and rough, towards the point smooth, black, and crooked, almost like those of rapacious birds or Gulls, not exceeding the length of two inches. The Wings were almost seventeen inches long, reaching something further than the end of the Tail. The four greater quil-feathers of the Wings were black, not white at the tip, as Hoier wrote, unless perchance he had observed that mark in other birds of this kind. From the quill or naked part I found them to be white half way up the feather, as were also the three greater and uppermost Tail-feathers below where they were inserted into the Rump, the upper

part being black as in the quil-feathers. As for the rest of the feathers investing the body they were of a colour between black and cinereous, but the black predominant, and did nearly resemble the feathers of a bald Buzzard or Kite. The Legs were placed backward, in the hindmost part of the body, at in most Water-fowl, above the Knee they were very short, below the Knee down to the Foot almost three inches long. The Feet were flat, having three Toes and a short Heel. The outmost Toe (next in length to the middlemost) consisted of four joynts; the middle (which was the longest) of three; the inmost (which was the shortest) of two; and the heel or back-toe of one. All ending in sharp, crooked Claws, and joyned together by a black membrane or cartilage to the very Claws.

The characteristic notes of this species are, 1. The thickness and its Bill. 2. The uniform black colour of its Tail [as far as it appears beyond the in∣cumbent feathers.] 3. The bigness and crookedness of its Talons.

Hoier writes, that it preys not only upon fish, but on all kinds of small birds.

The Cornish Gannet (as they told us) doth constantly accompany the sholes of Pil∣chards, still hovering over them in the Air. It pursues and strikes at these fish with that violence that they catcht it with a strange artifice. They fasten a Pilchard to a board, which they fix a little under water. The Gannet espying the Pilchard, casts himself down from on high upon it with that vehemence, that he strikes his Bill clear through the board, and dashes out his brains against it, and so comes to be taken. We saw many of these Gannets flying, but could not kill one. They seem to be very strong birds, long-winged, and fly swiftly.

§. II. * Aldrovandus his Catarracta.

IT comes near to the bird last described. It (saith he) exactly resembles a Goshawk. [to which our Bird also answers very well, both in bigness and figure, and in the colour of the upper side of the body,] so that you can scarce distinguish them; for on the upper side, like that, it is variegated with brown, white and yellow mingled; on the under side it is all white, spotted with brown, as the Picture shews. Aristotle also writes, that it is less than a Hawk, and that it hath a large and broad Throat or Gullet; which last note agrees exactly to my bird, though indeed other Gulls also have a wide throat as well as this. But I think Aristotle likened it to a Hawk, not only for its bigness, but because it was alike spotted, and especially because it preys after the manner of a Hawk; and for that purpose is endued with a Bill for the bigness of its body very great and strong, sharp-pointed also, and the upper Chap more than ordinarily hooked. It is an inch thick, and of a deep black. The Neck also is pret∣ty long: The Head lesser than in Gulls. The Wings in length are even with the Tail. The Tail is a Palm long, and black: The Hips covered with feathers to the Knees, which in other Gulls are not so, but bare a little higher. Its Legs, Feet, and inter∣vening membranes cinereous: The Claws black, crooked, and small.

It differs from our Catarracta chiefly, 1. In the colour of the underside of the body: 2. In the colour of the Feet: 3. In the smalness of the Claws. But these things not∣withstanding, perchance it may be the same. For Aldrovandus (as I gather from his words) took his description from a Picture. But Painters are not wont to be very exact either in expressing of the colours, or delineating the parts.

This description also doth in many things agree to that Gull which we shall next de∣scribe under the title of the Cornish Wagel.

§. III. The great grey Gull, which we take to be the Cornish Wagel, called at Venice, Martinazzo, at Amsterdam, the Burgomaster of Groenland: An Larus albo-cinereus torque cinereo of Aldrov?

IT weighed twenty two ounces; being stretcht out in length from the point of the Bill to the end of the Feet twenty one inches and an half, to the end of the Tail twenty one: its breadth was fifty three inches. Its colour as well in the lower as up∣per side was grey, such as is seen in the back of a wild Duck, or a Curlew, being mixed of whitish and brown. [Mr. Willughby gives also some mixture of ferrugineous both

to the brown, and to the ash-colour in the Wings and Back.] The feathers of the Back are black in the middle, and ash-coloured about the edges. The Rump-feathers incumbent on the Tail are for the most part white, only spotted in the middle with brown. The Chin is white. Each Wing hath thirty quil-feathers, all black. The tips of the lesser rows of Wing-feathers in some are black, in some cinereous. The Tail is six inches and an half long, consisting of a dozen feathers, the outmost tips of which are white, then succeeds a cross bed or bar of black, of about two inches broad: The lower part is varied with transverse bars of white and black, the white also spotted with black.

The Bill is almost three inches long, all black, the upper Chap bending a little downward, and as it were hooked: The lower between the angle and the tip under∣neath bunches out into a knob. The Nosthrils oblong: The Eyes grey: The Neck short: The Head great, which in walking or standing still it always draws down to its shoulders, as do also other Gulls, so that one would think they had no necks, of a whitish grey colour. Its Legs and Feet are white, or white with a little duskish∣ness: The hind-toe small: The Claws black, that of the middle toe sharp on the inside.

It hath a huge Liver, divided in two: a Gall annexed to the right Lobe. The Sto∣mach more musculous than in carnivorous birds: The blind guts short and little, yet turgid, and full of Excrement.

The Cornish men related to us for a certain truth, that this Bird is wont to perse∣cute and terrifie the Sea-Swallows, and other small Gulls so long, till they mute for fear; and then catches their excrements before they fall into the water, and greedily devours them as a great dainty: This some of them affirmed themselves to have seen.

The Larus albo-cinereus torque cinereo of Aldrovand is very like to, if not the same with this. On the Breast and Belly it is of a colour from white inclining to cinereous, as also on the upper side of the Wings. It hath a very great Head, encompassed with a kind of ash-coloured wreath, which yet reaches not to the Neck behind, but turns up to the middle of the crown. Along the Neck and Back it declines from grey to blue. The covert-feathers of the Wings are of a colour mixt of white and cine∣reous. The longer quil-feathers are black, reaching an inch further than the Tail. The Tail is ash-coloured, and black at the end. The Legs, Bill, and Eyes red, yet the tip of the Bill black.

§. IV. The Winter-Mew, called in Cambridge-shire the Coddy-moddy. Larus fuscus five Hybernus.

IT weighs well nigh seventeen ounces. In length from the tip of the Bill to the end of the Claws or Tail it was by measure eighteen inches and better. The ex∣tremes of the Wings extended were forty five inches distant. The lower part of the Throat about the Craw is a little dusky, else the under-side of the body is all white. The Head is white, spotted with brown: The Neck brown: The middle of the Back cinereous. The long scapular feathers varied with brown spots. The Rump is white. The Tail more than five inches long, made up of twelve feathers. The extreme tips of the Tail-feathers are white; then succeeds a black bar an inch and an half broad, the rest of the Tail being white. The outmost quil-feather of the Wing is of a dark brown or black colour; the second ash-coloured on the inner side: In the following the black part is lessened by degrees, till in the sixth and seventh the tips only remain black. The tips of the eighth and all the following are white. The eleventh fea∣ther is wholly cinereous, yet in the middle of the shaft, not far from the tip, darker: In the two next is a brown spot. The succeeding have also their exteriour edges black. In the twenty third the blackness disappears again, so that the twenty fourth and twenty fifth are wholly cinereous. Of the last or those next the body the one half is black. The lesser covert-feathers in the upper part of the Wing are of a mixt colour of cinereous and black: Those on the underside of the Wing are white.

The Bill is more than two inches long; from the Nosthrils to the end whitish: The upper Mandible longer and crooked, the nether underneath bunches out into an angle or knob, as in other great Gulls: The Tongue white, cloven, reaching to the end of the Bill: The Eyes hazel-coloured, and furnished with nictating membranes: The Ears great: The Legs and Feet of a dusky or greenish white: The back-toe little,

armed with a small Claw: the inner fore-toe the least: The Claws black; that of the middle Toe sharp on the inner side.

The Guts were long [twenty eight inches] having many spiral revolutions: The stomach musculous: The Liver divided into two Lobes: The Gall-bladder large. It frequents moist Meadows, Fens, and Rivers, and sometimes plowed Lands too many miles distant from the Sea.

This Bird in many things comes near to the Larus major of * 1.153 Aldrovand, but differs from it in the colour of the Eyes, Bill, and Feet, the Bill and Feet in Aldrovands bird being yellow. But the description of this greater Gull [Larus major] in Aldrovand answers exactly to that bird which Leonard Baltner hath painted under the title of Ein Winder-Meb: wherefore we will here subjoyn his description.

§. V. * The Larus major [Greater Gull] of Aldrovand, called by Leonard Baltner, Ein Winder-Meb, that is, A winter Mew.

FRom the point of the Bill to the end of the Wings it was almost two spans long: Had a very great and thick Head, particoloured of white and cinereous: Also a large full Breast of the same colour, but more dilute, especially towards the lower belly: A thick yellowish Bill, black at the tip, and very sharp, in the upper Chap whereof are long Nosthrils. It gapes very wide. The Pupil of the Eye is black; the Iris yellow, or shining like gold; the yellow is encompassed with a circle of black, the black with a white, and lastly, the white with a grey or ash-colour. The Wings are of a colour mingled of white, * 1.154 grey, and brown, or chesnut, to the quils, which on the outside are dusky or blackish, on the inside for the most part cinereous, and † 1.155 exceed the Tail by an hand-breadth: The longest of them are more than a span. The Tail it self is four inches and an half long and better, all cinereous, except a cross bar or border of black, near the end, of more than an inch broad. The Thighs are cinereous, and near the Legs bare of feathers: The Legs of a good length, and slen∣der, as became a light bird, of a pale yellow colour. The Feet, Toes, and inter∣vening membranes also yellow: The Claws black, short and crooked: The back-toe conspicuous enough, armed also with a claw.

§. VI. * Baltners great grey Sea-Mew, the same perchance with ours described in the third place.

FRom the point of the Bill to the end of the Wings it was 1⅛ of a Sirasburgh Ell long: Between the tips of the Wings extended two Ells broad. It weighed scarce a pound. The length of its foot from the feathers to the Claws was a quarter of a yard: Of its guts seven quarters. Its Bill and Feet were brown [braunlecht.] The Picture represents them of a dark purple. The colour of the whole body was grey [grau,] I take this to be no other than the great grey Gull described in the third place, but then the colour of the Legs is mistaken.

§. VII. * Aldrovands Cepphus.

IT's not like a Gull in any thing save the Bill and shape of the Legs and Feet, for in other things it rather resembles a Duck. From the Bill to the end of the Tail it is a span and half long, and because it hath abundance of feathers it seems to be corpulent, whereas the matter is nothing so. The Bill is of a moderate both length and thick∣ness, of a horn colour, on the sides of the Mandibles red, at the tip (which is hooked) black. The Eyes little, for the most part red, encompassed with a white circle. The Head (which is something less than in Gulls) together with the Neck, Breast, Belly, Thighs, and Rump are variegated with white and * 1.156 brown spots, with a mixture of bay and yellow. The Wings are black, the ends of the feathers being yellowish. The greater feathers of the Tail are also black: The Legs and shanks greenish; the Feet and membrane connecting the Toes dusky.

This Bird is as yet to us unknown, and therefore we have no more to add concern∣ing it. What the Ancients have left us concerning the Cepphus see in Aldrovand. Tur∣ner thinks that bird which we call the Pewit to be the Cepphus of the Ancients, as we have already told the Reader.

§. VIII. The brown Tern: Larus cinereus minor Aldrov. called by Baltner, Ein Kessler.

IT is about half so big as Bellonius his ash-coloured Mew, for it scarce exceeds a span in length. On the Back and Wings it is of an ash-colour, but far deeper than in that, inclining to a blue. The quil-feathers of the Wings are on the outside cinereous, but on the inside black; on both sides at * 1.157 the ends white. The Bill is slender [or small] for the proportion of the body, a little bending and black. The crown of the head towards the hind-part black. The Feet, Legs and membranes uniting the Toes of a Saffron-colour: The Claws black. All the other parts purely white. This is the bird which Leon. Baltner describes and paints under the title of Ein Kessler, of the bigness of a Blackbird, with long Wings, short legs, a small Head, and black for the most part; the Back and quills of the Wings brown, the covert-feathers cine∣reous, yellow or Saffron-coloured Feet; a black, sharp Bill, moderately bending. It flies up and down continually over the water in pursuit of Gnats and other water-Insects. It feeds also upon fish. This is also the brown Tern of Mr. Johnson, (if I be not mistaken) whose underside is all white, the upper brown: The Wings partly brown, partly ash-coloured: The Head black: The Tail not forked. The Birds of this kind are gregarious, flying in companies.

§. IX. * Marggraves Brasilian Gull, called Guaca-guacu, Gaviota of the Portughese.

IT is of the bigness of a common Hen; hath a streight, long, thick, yellow Bill. Its Head above is covered with black feathers, as are also the hinder moieties of the Wings and Tail. The Throat, whole Neck, Breast, and lower Belly, and fore-part of the Wings are white. It lays its Eggs in the sand, which are like to a Hens for sigure, bigness, and colour: They are indeed well tasted, but the flesh of the Bird is nothing worth.

CHAP. III. The lesser Gulls with forked Tails.

§. I. The Sea-Swallow: Hirundo marina, Sterna of Turner, Speurer of Baltner.

THe weight of this Bird was near five ounces: Its length from Bill to Tail six teen inches: its breadth from Wings end to Wings end thirty two inches.

It is a small bird, slender, and long-bodied: Hath a forked Tail, whence it got the name of a Swallow: A black crown, the black being terminated by a line drawn from the Nosthrils through the Eyes to the Neck, so that above the Eyes the Head is black, under the Eyes white. The Cheeks, Chin, lower Belly, under∣side of the Wings are all white: The Breast hath something of cinereous ming∣led. The Rump is white: The Back and upper side of the Wings are of a dark ash∣colour. Each Wing hath twenty nine quils; the outmost ten whereof have their outer Webs running out into sharp points, the rest their inner. The exteriour Web of the first or outmost feather is black, the shaft white, and of a notable thickness: The tips of the following till the tenth, and the inside of all white, and moreover half the interiour Web of the four or five foremost. The Tail is composed of twelve feathers, the outmost being half a foot long and better, and having their exteriour Webs from cinereous inclining to black: The two middlemost scarce three inches

long and white: The rest having their outer Webs cinereous, their inner white.

Its Bill is long, almost streight, black at the tip, else red. Its mouth is red within: Its Tongue sharp: Its Legs red; the back-toe small: The fore-toes web'd together as far as the very Claws. The craw was large, out of which we took a Gudgeon: The Gizzard full of fish-bones: The Guts twenty inches long: The blind guts very short.

These Birds flock together, and build and breed on Islands uninhabited near to the Sea-shores many together in the same quarter. In the Island of Caldey, adjacent to the Southern shore of Wales, they call them Spurres; [a name (as appears by Baltner) common to them with the Germans about Strasburgh,] and that little Islet where they build Spurre Island. In other places of England they are called Scrays, a name, I conceive, framed in imitation of their cry: For they are extraordinarily clamorous. In the Northern parts they call them Terns, whence Turner calls them in Latine, Sternae, because they frequent Lakes and great Pools of water, which in the North of England are called Tarns.

They lay three or four Eggs, either upon the bare ground, or in a Nest made of Reeds. Their Eggs are like the great Gulls Eggs, though much less: The Young are also spotted with black like theirs. They fly up and down over the water, intent up∣on their prey, and when they espy a fish, they cast themselves down with wonderful swiftness into the Water, and catching it up, fly away with it in a trice. They frequent Rivers far remote from the Sea, as for example, the Rhene about Strasburgh, where they were taken, described and painted by Leonard Baltner, by the title of Ein Speurer, who tells us also that they build in gravelly and sandy places by the banks of the Ri∣ver; so that if it happen there be a floud in their breeding time, their Eggs are marred, and Nests destroyed.

This Bird for its long Wings, small Feet, forked Tail, continual flying, and final∣ly, for the figure of its whole body, is commonly, and not undeservedly, called, the Sea-Swallow.

§. II. The lesser Sea-Swallow: Larus Piscator of Gesner and Aldrov. Ein Fischerlin of Baltner.

GEsner describes this Bird thus. They say that it is white, with a black crown. It is lesser than the ash-coloured Gull, with a black head like the Sterna, Bill and Feet of a pale dusky colour: Of swift flight, and when it catches fish, plunging it self into the water, which the ash-coloured Gull doth not.

Leonard Baltner describes his Fischerlin after this manner. It is a very little kind of Speurer, that is, Sea-Swallow, even less than a Blackbird. It hath long ash-coloured feathers: Bill and Feet of a Saffron-colour: A black crown: The neither side of the body all white, in like manner the Tail. It preys upon small fishes, whence it had its name. Its guts are half a yard long. The Females are less than the Males. Their flesh is good to eat. The Picture represents the Tail forked, and the point of the Bill black: The greater quil-feathers of the Wings likewise black.

It differs from the greater Sea-Swallow chiefly in bigness, and the colour of the Bill and Feet.

Mr. Johnson thus briefly describes it. It hath the Wings, Tail, and swiftness of a Swallow: A red Bill; a black crown; brown Legs; a forked Tail six inches long. In the colour of the Legs he agrees with Gesner: but perchance the colour may vary with Age, or differ in the Sexes.

§. III. The Scare-crow: Larus niger Gesneri; * 1.158 Aldrov. Ein Brandvogel or Megvogel of Baltner.

THis small Gull hath black Bill, Head, Neck, Breast, Belly, and Back, (as far as one can judge by the Picture) ash-coloured Wings, reaching beyond the Tail. The Legs have a light dash of red. About Strasburgh it is called Megvogelin, that is, the May-fowl, because (saith Baltner) it comes to them in the month of May. Baltner describes and paints it under the title of Brand-vogel. It is (saith he) of the bigness of a Blackbird; hath long Wings, small and short Legs and Feet, partly cloven, a black Bill, of which colour is also the whole body. They fly in flocks for the most

part, twenty or thirty together. They catch Gnats, and other water-Insects. Their flesh is good to eat.

This is (Isuppose) the same with that which Mr. Johnson saith, they in the North call the Scare-Crow; and thus briefly describes. It cannot abide the presence of men: Its Head, Neck, and Belly are black; its Wings ash-coloured; its Tail a little forked: Its feet small and red. The Male hath a white spot under his chin.

§. IV. Our black cloven-footed Gull.

IT is less than the Sea-Swallow: In length from the tip of the Bill to the end of the Tail ten inches: in breadth from Wings end to Wings end twenty four. The Bill from the point to the angles of the mouth is an inch and half long, sharp-pointed, and black: The Tongue sharp, and slit at the end: The Head black: The back and up∣per surface of the Wings of a dark cinereous: The Throat and Breast black: But the feathers of the lower belly under the Tail pure white. The number of quils in each Wing twenty seven: The Tail forked, made up of twelve feathers, the outmost 3⅛ inches long, the middlemost two and an half. The outmost on each side is all white, all the rest ash-coloured. The Legs are bare up to the middle of the second joynt: The Feet small, of a reddish black colour: The Claws black: The hind-toe little; the middle fore-toe the longest, and next to that the outmost. The membrane con∣necting the inmost and middle toes in the inmost is extended to the Claw, in the middle toe proceeds not beyond the first joynt; so the upper bone of the Toe is altogether free and loose. That which joyns the outmost and middle Toes, though it begins in both from the very Claws, yet is it depressed in the middle, and as it were hollowed into the form of a Crescent, whose horns are the Toes. The Claw of the middle toe on the inside is thinned into an edge, Its cry is hardly distinguishable from that of the Sea-Swallow. It builds among the Reeds, and lays three or four Eggs, like to those of other Gulls, of a sordid green, spotted with black, compassed with a broad black girdle about the middle. The blind Guts, as in the rest of this kind, are very short. In the Stomach were Beetles, Maggots, &c.

This Bird comes very near to the black cloven-footed Gull of Aldrovand: But its Tail is forked, of which remarkable note he makes no mention, which sure could not have escaped him, if it had been in the birds he described.

It frequents Rivers, Mears, and Plashes of Water far from the Sea.

§. V. * Aldrovands cloven-footed Gull, with longer Wings.

THis Bird on the Wings and Breast is all ash-coloured, hath very large Wings, ex∣ceeding the Tail three inches in length, and towards the end black. The Tail is short, and cinereous: The part under the Tail white: The Toes are of a good length, and armed with notable Claws; the Legs short; both black. The Eyes very black, as is the whole Head, and also the Neck, and the Bill beside, which is pretty long, and a little crooked at the end.

§. VI. * The other cloven-footed Gull of Aldrovand, with shorter Wings.

IT is almost of the same bigness with the precedent, but hath far shorter Wings, and on the contrary a much longer Tail. Its bigness is equal to that of a Blackbird; its colour cinereous; its Head black. Its length from the Head to the Rump is nine inches: The Tail is a full Palm [hand-breadth] long. The ridges of the Wings are white: The Bill black, slender, a little crooked. The feathers under the Tail are white. The Feet are reddish, small, as in Swallows, It hath four Toes, with some rudiment of a membrane between them. The Claws are black, and small, however crooked.

These Birds (saith Aldrovand) because they do in the shape of their bodies some∣thing resemble Swallows, are called by us Rondini marini.

§. VII. Mr. Johnsons small cloven-footed Gull.

IT is of the bigness of a Blackbird, or something less. Its Bill is slender, streight, sharp-pointed, black, round, having no knob in the lower Mandible. The crown of a black or dark red. The sides and under-side of the Neck are red: The Belly and whole nether side white: The Back and Wings brown, spotted with yellowish spots. In the Wings is a transverse white line in the tips of the feathers. The Wings are long; the Tail short. The Toes not web'd together, but bordered on each side with lateral membranes scalloped, and elegantly serrate: Whence when I first saw the skin of it stuft at Mr. Johnsons at Brignal in Yorkshire, from the make of its Feet I judged to be of the Coot-kind. But afterwards being informed by Mr. Johnson that it is much upon the wing, hath sharp Wings, and cries like a small Gull, differs also in the fashion of the Bill, I changed my opinion, and think that it ought rather to be referred to the Gulls, to which I have subjoyned it.

SECTION VII. Of Whole-footed Birds with broad Bills.

THese may be divided into the Goose-kind, and the Duck-kind. The marks of the Goose-kind, of which we shall first treat, are a bigger body: Large Wings; a long Neck; a large, and round-ended train: A white ring about the Rump: A rounder Back, not so flat and depressed as in the Duck-kind: A Bill thicker at the base, slenderer toward the tip, and not so flat and broad at the end as in Ducks: To which might be added shorter Legs.

MEMB. I. The Goose-kind.

CHAP. I. Of the Swan: De Cygno.

§. I. The tame Swan: Cygnus mansuetus.

THis Bird is much the biggest of all whole-footed Water-fowl with broad Bills. An old one we made trial of weighed twenty pounds: From the tip of the Bill to the end of the Tail was fifty five inches long, to the end of the Feet fifty seven. The distance between the tips of the Wings extended was seven foot and eight inches.

The whole body is covered with a soft, delicate Plumage, in the old ones purely white, in the young ones grey. The quils of the greater Wing-feathers in this Bird are greater than in the wild Swan.

The Bill in the young ones of the first year is of a lead colour, having a round nail as it were at the tip, and a black line on each side from the Nosthrils to the Head. From the Eyes to the Bill is a triangular space, bare of feathers, of a black colour, the base whereof respects the Bill, the vertex the Eyes. In old ones the Bill is red, the hook or nail at the end being black. Above at the base of the Bill grows a great Lobe of tuberous flesh of a black colour, bending forward or downward. The space un∣der the Eyes always continues black. The Tongue is indented or toothed: The Feet

of a lead colour, bare a little above the knee. The inmost Toe hath a lateral mem∣brane appendant. The Claws are black.

The stomach is furnished with thick and strong muscles: The Guts have eight or nine revolutions, and are large. The Wind-pipe in this kind enters not the Breast-bone. Wherefore Aldrovand doth not rightly infer that Aristotle never dissected this Fowl, because he makes no mention of this ingress, and of the strange figure of the Wind-pipe. For this is proper to the wild Swan, not common to both kinds; we having not observed such a conformation of the Wind-pipe in any of those tame Swans we have dissected. Aldrovandus therefore thinking there was but one kind of Swan, viz. that which he dissected, did erroneously attribute what was proper to that one kind, to the Swan in general. We have opened two wild Swans, and in both have observed the Wind-pipe so to enter the cavity of the Breast-bone, and to be there so reflected as Aldrovandus hath expressed both in words and figures: Of tame Swans we have anatomized many, and in all have observed the wind-pipe to descend streight down into the Lungs without any such digression or reflection.

It is a very long-lived fowl, so that it is thought to attain the age of three hundred years: Which (saith Aldrovandus) to me seems not likely. For my part, I could easily be induced to believe it: For that I have been assured by credible persons that a Goose will live a hundred years or more. But that a Swan is much longer-lived than a Goose, if it were not manifest in experience, yet are there many convincing argu∣ments to prove, viz. that in the same kind it is bigger: That it hath harder, firmer, and more solid flesh: That it sits longer on its Eggs before it hatches them. For, that I may invert Plinies words, Those creatures live longest that are longest born in the Womb. Now incubation answers to gestation. For the Egg is as it were an expo∣sed Womb with the young enclosed, which in viviparous Animals are cherished, and, as I may so say, hatched within the body, in oviparous Animals without the body, by the warmth of the old one sitting upon them.

The Swan feeds not upon fish, but either upon herbs growing in the water, and their roots and seeds, or upon Worms, and other Insects, and shell-fish. Albertus writes truly, that its flesh is black and hard. As the Bird it self is far bigger than a Goose, so its flesh is blacker, harder, and tougher, having grosser fibres, hard of di∣gestion, of a bad and melancholic juice: Yet for its rarity serves as a dish to adorn great mens Tables at Feasts and entertainments, being else in my opinion no desirable dainty. It lays seven or eight Eggs, and sits near two months before its young ones be hatcht.

They make use of the skin, the grosser feathers pluckt off, and only the Down left, and so drest, as a defensative against cold, especially to cover and cherish the Breast and Stomach.

§. II. A wild Swan, called also an Elk, and in some places a Hooper.

IT weighs less than a tame Swan, not exceeding two hundred sixty five ounces, or sixteen pound three quarters, Its length from the tip of the Bill to the end of the Feet was sixty inches, to the end of the Tail fifty six. The figure of the body is the same with the tame Swans: The colour white, yet not all over so white as the tame Swans: For the middle of the Back, and the smaller covert-feathers of the Wings are cinereous: Sometimes also here and there a brown feather is mixt with the white ones in the Back. Each Wing hath thirty eight quils. The first feather of the bastard-wing is longer than ordinary, as in the tame Swan: The quils much less than in that. The Bill towards the tip, and as far as the Nosthrils, is black: Thence to the Head covered with a yellow membrane. [Mr. Willughby describes the Bill a little differently thus. The upper Mandible is moveable, from the Eyes to the Nosthrils bare, and of a fair yellow colour, beyond the Nosthrils black. The lower Mandible is black, but the membrane under the Chin yellow.] The Legs are bare of feathers a little above the knees, of a dusky yellow, as are also the Feet. The Wind-pipe after a strange and wonderful manner enters the Breast-bone in a cavity prepared for it, and is therein reflected, and after its egress at the divarication is contracted into a narrow compass by a broad and bony cartilage, then being divided into two branches goes on to the Lungs. These branches before they enter the Lungs are dilated, and as it were swoln out into two cavities.

On the sides of the Rump grow two huge glandules, out of which by a light pressure may be squeezed a certain glutinous substance like to ear-wax, wherewith she anoints and composes her feathers. But these glandules are not peculiar to this Bird, though perchance greater and more remarkable in her, but common to all. The Bird we described was a Female. The knot or bunch of Eggs was situate far within the body, between the very Lobes of the Lungs. The Wind-pipe enters the breast-bone, and comes out again below the Merry-thought: The stomach is very fleshy, and furnished with thick muscles. Above the Stomach the Gullet is dilated into a bag, thick-set, and as it were granulated within with many papillary glandules, ex∣cerning a kind of Saliva, which serves as a menstruum to macerate the meat.

The Wind-pipe reflected in form of a Trumpet seems to be so contrived and formed by nature for modulating the voice. Hence what the Ancients have delivered con∣cerning the singing of Swans (if it be true, which I much doubt) seems chiefly to agree to this bird, and not to the tame Swan.

For my part, those stories of the Ancients concerning the singing of Swans, viz. that those Birds at other times, but especially when their death approaches, do with a most sweet and melodious modulation of their voice, sing their own Naenia or funeral song, seemed to me always very unlikely and fabulous, and to have been therefore not un∣deservedly exploded by Scaliger and others. Howbeit Aldrovandus, weighing on both sides the Arguments and Authorities of learned men, hath (he saith) observed them to be equal; wherefore to cast the scale, and establish the affirmative, he thinks that wonderful structure of the Wind-pipe, by him first observed, is of weight suffi∣cient. But this Argument though it be very specious and plausible, yet doth it not conclude the controversie. For we have observed in the Wind-pipe of the Crane the like ingress into the cavity of the Breast-bone, and reflection therein, or a more re∣markable one; yet no man, that I know of, ever commended the Crane for singing, or musical modulation of its voice. But if you ask me, to what purpose then doth the Wind-pipe enter into the breast-bone, and is in that manner reflected there? I must in∣genuously confess, I do not certainly and fully know. Yet may there be other rea∣sons assigned thereof; as that which * 1.159 Aldrovand alledges in the first place, 1. That whereas sometimes for almost half an hours space the Swan continues with her heels up, and her head under water, seeking and gathering up her food from the bottom of the Pool or River she swims in, that part of the Wind-pipe enclosed in the breast-bone may supply her with air enough to serve her all that while. So the use of it will be to be a store-house of air, for the advantage of diving and continuing long under water. 2. This kind of structure doth undoubtedly conduce much to the increasing the strength and force of the voice. For that the wild Swan hath a very loud and shrill cry, and which may be heard a long way off, the English name Hooper, imposed upon it (as I suppose) from its hooping and hollowing noise doth import.

Hence it appears how uncertain and fallacious a way of arguing it is from the final cause. For though Nature, Gods ordinary Minister, always acts for some end, yet what that is we are often ignorant, and it doth not rarely fall out to be far different from what we fancy: Nay we may be deceived when we think we are most sure, and imagine it can be no other than what we have presumed.

Wherefore I make more account of the testimonies he alledges; as of Frederick Pendasius, that affirmed he had often heard Swans singing sweetly in the Lake of Man∣tua, as he was rowed up and down in a Boat. But as for the testimony of George Braun concerning flocks of Swans in the Sea near London, meeting, and as it were welcoming the Fleets of Ships returning home with loud and chearful singing, is with∣out doubt most false: We having never heard of any such thing.

* 1.160 Olaus Wormius of late confirms the opinion of Aldrovand, and the reports of the Ancients concerning the singing of Swans, producing the Testimonies of some of his familiars and Scholars who professed themselves to have heard their music. There was (saith he) in my Family a very honest young man, one Mr. John Rostorph Student in Divinity, a Norwegian by Nation. This man did upon his credit, and with the interposition of an Oath solemnly affirm, that himself in the Territory of Dronten did once by the Sea-shore early in the Morning hear an unusual and most sweet murmur composed of most pleasant whistlings and sounds: Which, when as he knew not whence it came, or how it was made, for that he saw no man near which might be the author of it, looking round about him, and climbing up the top of a certain Pro∣montory, he espied an infinite number of Swans gathered together in a Bay of the Sea near hand, making that harmony; a sweeter than which in all his lives time he

had never heard. By some Islanders, my Scholars, I have been told, that nothing is more frequent with them than this harmony, in those places where there are Swans. This I therefore alledge, that it may appear that the report of those famous ancient Authors concerning the singing of Swans is not altogether vain, but attested and proved by modern experiments. Thus far Wormius. Let the Readers judge whe∣ther his witnesses be sufficient.

This Bird hath not as yet, that I know of, been described by any Author.

CHAP. II. Of the Goose.

§. I. Of the tame Goose.

IT is less than a Swan, bigger than a Duck; weighing sometimes when fatted ten pounds. Its length from the tip of the Bill to the end of the Tail, in that we measured, was thirty five inches and an half, to the end of the Feet thirty seven and an half: The Wings extended were sixty inches and an half over. The length of the Neck from the tip of the Bill to the setting on of the Wings seventeen inches. The Bill it self from the tip to the angles of the Mouth was two inches three quarters long, to the Eyes three and an half. The Tail was six inches and an half long, com∣pounded of eighteen feathers, the outmost the shortest, the rest by degrees longer to the middlemost, which are the longest. The colour in these, as in other tame Birds is various, in some brown, in some grey, in some white, in some flecked, or partico∣loured of white and brown. The Bill and Legs in young ones are yellow, in old ones for the most part red. The Bill is thick at the head, and slenderer by degrees to the point. Each Wing hath twenty seven quils or feathers in the first row. When it is angry it hisses like a Serpent. It is very long-lived. A certain friend of ours of undoubted fidelity told us that his Father had once a Goose that was known to be eighty years old, which for ought he knew might have lived the other eighty years, had he not been constrained to kill it for its mischievousness in beating and destroying the younger Geese.

But of the Goose, a Bird so well known in all Nations, more than enough.

§. II. The common wild Goose: Anser ferus.

IN bigness it equals a tame Goose; is for the shape of its body very like it, and not much different in colour. Its Head, Neck, Back, generally its whole upper side, excepting the feathers incumbent on the Tail is of a dark grey or brown. Yet the uppermost covert-feathers of the Wings are paler. The second, third, and fourth rows of Wing feathers, and likewise the scapular ones have white edges about their tips. The feathers also next the Tail are purely white. The quils of the Wings are twenty seven in number, of a dark brown, almost black. The Tail is six inches long, composed of eighteen black feathers, having their tips and exteriour edges white. The colour of the underside of the body is a light grey, by degrees lighter from the Head to the Tail, whereunder it is perfectly white. The Bill is more than two inches long, from the Head almost half way black, then of a Saffron colour, the tip again being black. The upper Mandible all along is toothed or indented with many rows of small teeth; the nether only with one row on each side. The Tongue also hath on either side a row of Teeth in its bordering membrane. Its Legs and Feet are of a Saffron colour: Its Claws black or livid. Under each Eye is a whitish line. That we described weighed seven pound and a quarter.

§. III. The Bernacle or Clakis: Bernicla seu Bernacla.

IT is lesser than a tame Goose. Its length from the tip of the Bill to the end of the Claws or Tail (for they are equally extended) is thirty one inches. Its Bill black, much lesser and shorter than a Gooses, from the tip to the angles of the Mouth scarce an inch and half. The Chin, Cheeks, and what of the forehead touches the Bill is white, excepting only a line or bed of black between the Eyes and Bill. The Neck and fore-part of the Breast to the * 1.161 sternum both above and beneath is black. The under-side of the body is white, with some mixture of cinereous, yet the lower feathers on the Thighs a little above the Knees are black. The feathers next the Tail are white, those above them black, else the Back is particoloured of black and cine∣reous. The Tail black: The quil-feathers of the Wings brown: The lesser rows of covert-feathers of the Wings have white edges, then they are black for a good way, the remaining part of the feather being ash-coloured: which colours so succeeding one another make a very fair shew. The hind-toe is very small.

It frequents the Sea-coasts of Lancashire in the Winter-time. This is the Bird which Bellonius describes under the title of Cravant or Oye Nonnette, which he thinks to be the Chenalopex of the Ancients. See Bellonius his description in * 1.162 Aldrovand, which agrees exactly to this bird. We have sometimes thought the Bernacle and Brent-Goose to differ only in Sex, not in † 1.163 Species, but afterwards more diligently consi∣dering and comparing both their cases we changed our opinion, for there are re∣markable notes by which they may be distinguished, as will easily appear to whoso∣ever will take the pains to compare their descriptions. For in this the Chin and Cheeks are white, in that the whole Head and Neck black, save only a black line on each side the Neck; which in the Bernacle are wanting. Besides, the Bernacle seemed to us bigger, and much fairer, for those cinereous and black colours alternately dispo∣sed in the feathers of the Back and Wings make a very lovely shew.

This also seems to be the same with the Brenta or Bernicla of Gesner, although his description be not very exact. Perchance also the Baumgansz or tree-goose of Gesner may be the same, although he make them different birds: For the description of this he took from a Picture, as it seems, not exactly drawn: Unless his Baumgansz be the same with Baltners, i. e. the Brenta, next to be described.

What is reported concerning the rise and original of these birds, to wit, that they are bred of rotten wood, for instance, of the Masts, Ribs, and Planks of broken Ships half putrified and corrupted, or of certain Palms of trees falling into the Sea, or lastly, of a kind of Sea-shels, the figures whereof Lobel, Gerard, and others have set forth, may be seen in Aldrovand, Sennertus in his Hypomnemata, Michael Meyerus, who hath written an entire book concerning the Tree-fowl, and many others. But that all these stories are false and fabulous I am confidently perswaded. Neither do there want sufficient arguments to induce the lovers of truth to be of our opinion, and to convince the gainsayers. For in the whole Genus of Birds (excepting the Phaenix whose reputed original is without doubt fabulous) there is not any one example of equivocal or spontaneous generation. Among other Animals indeed the lesser and more imperfect, as for example many Insects and Frogs, are commonly thought either to be of spontaneous original, or to come of different seeds and principles. But the greater Animals and perfect in their kind, such as is among Birds the Goose, no Philo∣sopher would ever admit to be in this manner produced. Secondly, those shells in which they affirm these Birds to be bred, and to come forth by a strange metamorphosis, do most certainly contain an Animal of their own kind, and not transmutable into any other thing: Concerning which the Reader may please to consult that curious Naturalist Fabius Columna. These shells we our selves have seen, once at Venice growing in great abundance to the Keel of an old Ship; a second time in the Medi∣terranean Sea, growing to the back of a Tortoise we took between Sicily and Malta. Columna makes this shell-fish to be a kind of Balanus marinus. Thirdly, that these Geese do lay Eggs after the manner of other Birds, sit on them, and hatch their Young, the Hollanders in their Northern Voyages affirm themselves to have found by ex∣perience.

§. IV. The Brent-Goose: Brenta.

IT is a little bigger than a Duck, and longer-bodied. The Head, Neck, and up∣per part of the Breast are black. But about the middle of the Neck on each side is a small spot or line of white, which together appear like a ring of white. The Back is of the colour of a common Goose, that is, a dark grey. Toward the Tail it is darker coloured: But those feathers which are next and immediate to the Tail are white. The lower Belly is white: The Breast of a dark grey: The Tail and greater quils of the Wings black, the lesser of a dark grey. The Bill is small, black, an inch and half long, thicker at the head, slenderer toward the tip: The Eyes hazel-co∣loured: The Nosthrils great: The Feet black, having the back-toe. The length of the Bird from Bill to Tail was twenty inches.

I am of opinion that the Brant-Goose differs specifically from the Bernacle, however Writers of the History of Birds confound them, and make these words Synonymous.

We have seen both alive among his Majesties Wild-fowl kept in St. James's Park. The Case of the Brent-Goose stuft we have seen with Mr. Johnson at Brignal in York∣shire, of the Bernacle in Sir William Fosters Hall at Bamburgh in Northumberland: Mr. Jessop also sent us them both out of Yorkshire.

This is the Bird whose figure Aldrovandus gives us in the third Tome of his Ornitho∣logie, Chap. 37. which Brancion sent him painted out of the Low-Countries: The whole Head, and Neck besides a certain imperfect white circle in its upper part, the Back and inside of the Thighs were black, the Eyes yellow: The Bill shorter than in that of Bellonius [our Bernacle] and thicker where it joyns to the Head: The Wings from ash-colour inclined to brown.

Both the description and the figure of the Ring-Duck [Anas torquata] of Bellonius agree in all points to this Bird of ours, so that I doubt not but they are the same. See Aldrovands Ornithologie, Book 19. Chap. 37. It is painted and described by Leonard Baltner under the title of Baumganss, that is, Tree-Goose; and perchance may be also the Baumgansz of Gesner.

Mr. Johnson, in his Letters lately sent us, writes, as if he thought that this were only the Female of the precedent, induced chiefly by this argument, that the Fowlers ob∣serve these to company and fly together with them, as themselves told him.

§. V. The Swan-Goose: Anser cygnoides Hispanicus seu Guineensis.

THe Back, as in other Geese, is of a dark grey: The Belly white: The Throat and Breast of a reddish brown. A line or list of dark brown runs all along the ridge of the Neck from the Head to the Back. The Bill is black, from the root whereof arises a knob or bunch over-hanging it, which in the Males and old Birds is bigger than in the Hens and Young. A line or fillet of white between the Eyes and Bill adorns the Head. The Tail is of the same colour with the Back and Wings, the tips of the feathers being whitish. The Feet are red, and in some the Bill too. The back-toe is little. It is a stately Bird, walking with the Head and Neck decently erected.

§. VI. The Gambo-Goose, or Spur-wing'd Goose.

IT is for shape of body like to the Muscovy Duck, and of equal bigness: Hath long red Legs: A white Belly; the Back of a dark, shining, purple colour. Its Bill is red: Its Cheeks and Chin white. Its Head hath a red * 1.164 Caruncle. But what is most remarkable in it, is a strong Spur proceeding from the first joynt of the Wings: The like whereto Marggrave hath observed in four or five sorts of Brasilian Birds: But no Europaean Fowl, that I know of, hath them.

§. VII. The Canada Goose.

ITs length from the point of the Bill to the end of the Tail, or of the Feet is forty two inches. The Bill it self from the angles of the mouth is extended two inches, and is black of colour: The Nosthrils are large. In shape of body it is like to a tame Goose, save that it seems to be a little longer. The Rump is black, but the feathers next above the Tail white: The Back of a dark grey, like the common Gooses. The * 1.165 lower part of the Neck is white, else the Neck black. It hath a kind of white stay or muffler under the Chin, continued on each side below the Eyes to the back of the Head. The Belly is white: The Tail black, as are also the greater quils of the Wings, for the lesser and covert-feathers are of a dark grey, as in the common tame Geese. The Eyes are hazel-coloured, the edges of the Eye-lids in some, I know not whether in all, white: The Feet black, having the hind-toe.

The title shews the place whence it comes. We saw and described both this and the precedent among the Kings Wild-fowl in St. James's Park.

§. VIII. The Rat-Goose, or Road-Goose: Brenthus fortasse.

MR. Johnson, who shewed us this Bird at Brignal in Yorkshire, thus describes it. It is less by half than a tame Goose, about two foot long; its Bill scarce an inch, black of colour, as are also the Feet. The top of the Head and part of the Neck black: The feathers next the Bill, the Throat and Breast brown: The rest of the under-side white: The upper-side grey, but the ends of the feathers from grey darken into a brownish colour, the edges changing into white, as is usual also in the common tame Goose. The quils of the Wings, and the Tail are black, but this hath white feathers on each side. The Rump is also white.

It is a very heedless Fowl, (contrary to the nature of other Geese) so that if a pack of them come into Tees, it is seldom one escapes away, for though they be often shot at, yet they only fly a little, and suffer the Gunner to come openly upon them.

SECTION VII. MEMB. II. Broad-billed Birds of the Duck-kind.

CHAP. I. Of the Duck in general.

THe Duck-kind have shorter Necks and larger Feet in proportion to their bodies than Geese: Lesser bodies: Howbeit, the biggest in this kind do equal, if not exceed the least in that. They have shorter Legs than Geese, and situate more backward, so that they go wadling: A broader and flat∣ter Back, and so a more compressed body; and lastly, a broader and flatter Bill. Their Tongue is pectinated or toothed on each side, which is common to them with Geese.

These are of two sorts, either wild or tame. The wild again are of two sorts, 1. Sea-Ducks, which feed most what in salt-water, dive much in feeding, have a broader Bill, (especially the upper part) and bending upwards, (to work in the slem) a large hind-toe, and thin, (likely for a Rudder) a long train, not sharp∣pointed. 2. Pond-Ducks, which haunt Plashes, have a streight and narrower Bill, a

very little hind-toe, a sharp-pointed Train, white Belly, speckled feathers, black, with glittering green in the middle Wing, with a white transverse line on either side. For this distinction of Sea-Ducks and Pond-Ducks we are beholden to Mr. Johnson.

CHAP. II. Of Sea-Ducks.

§. I. * Wormius his Eider or soft-feathered Duck.

THere hath been brought me (saith Wormius) from the Ferroyer Islands a cer∣tain sort of Duck they call there Eider: What name the Latines give it I know not, I have thought fit to intitle it, * 1.166 Anas plumis mollissimis. The Cock differs from the Hen in many things, though the lineaments of the body are much what the same. The Cock in figure or shape exactly resembles a tame Drake or Mal∣lard; hath a flat, black Bill, coming nearer the figure of a Gooses than a Ducks; per∣forate in the middle with two oblong holes, serving for respiration; of the length of three inches, pectinated on the sides. From the Nosthrils through the crown of the Head above the Eyes two very black spots or strokes consisting of soft feathers tend to the hinder part of the head, divided by a narrow white line ending in the upper part of the Neck, * 1.167 which from green inclines to white. The whole Neck, the lower part of the Head, the Breast, the upper side of the Back and Wings are white: The quils of the Wings black, as also the whole Breast and Rump, The Tail, which is three inches long, is also black: The Legs short and black: The Feet consist of three black Toes, joyned together to the ends by a black membrane: The Toes armed with sharp, crooked Claws. They have a * 1.168 Spur behind, situate at the beginning of the Leg, furnished also with the like membrane and claw.

The Hen is of the same bigness and figure, but all over of one uniform colour, viz. brown, sprinkled here and there with certain black spots: in its other lineaments and parts agreeing with the Cock.

They build themselves Nests on the Rocks, and lay good store of very savoury and well-tasted Eggs; for the getting of which the neighbouring people let themselves down by ropes dangerously enough, and with the same labour gather the feathers (Eider dun our People call them) which are very soft, and fit to stuff Beds and Quilts. For in a small quantity they dilate themselves much (being very springy) and warm the body above any others. These Birds are wont at set times to moult their feathers, enriching the Fowlers with this desirable merchandize. This same description Wormius repeats again in the third book of his Museum, pag. 310.

§. II. The Cutbert-Duck: Anas S. Cuthberti seu Farnensis.

IT is bigger than the tame Duck. The Male is particoloured of white and black, the Back white, the Tail and feathers of the Wings black. The Bill is scarce so long as a Ducks: The upper Mandible a little crooked at the end, over-hanging the lower. The Legs and Feet black; having a back-toe. But, what is most remarkable in this kind is, that on both sides the Bill in both Sexes the feathers run down in an acute angle as far as the middle of the Nosthril below [under the Nosthrils.] The Female is almost of the colour of a Hen-Grouse. This Fowl builds upon the Farn Islands, laying great Eggs. I suspect, nay, am almost confident, that it is the same with Wormius his Eider. I saw only the Cases of the Cock and Hen stuft, hanging up in Sir William Fosters Hall at Bambergh in Northumberland. It breeds no where about England but on the Farn Islands, that we have ever heard of. When its young ones are hatcht it takes them to the Sea, and never looks at Land till next breeding time, nor is seen any where about our Coasts.

§. III. Aldrovandus his black Duck.

IT is bigger than the common Duck. Its Bill is broad and short, yellow on both sides, black in the middle, with a red hook at the tip. The Head and part of the Neck are of a black green, or black, with a tincture of green: The Legs and Feet are red on the out-side, of a citron-colour on the inside: The Web of the Foot and the Claws of a deep black. All the rest of the body is black, saving a cross line of white in the middle of the Wings, and a white spot behind each Eye. The feathers of the whole body are so soft and delicate as nothing more, so that it might be not un∣deservedly called the Velvet-Duck. In the Stomach and Guts, almost down to the streight Gut, I found small indigested fragments of Cockle and Periwinkle-shells: But in the streight gut they were all concocted, and reduced into a fine powder or sand. It is seldom seen with us, unless driven over by a storm, but on the shores of Norway there are great flocks of them, hundreds together.

This is that Duck which William Mascerellius, a Physician of Collen, sent to Aldro∣vandus, giving it this title: The black Duck with a black, red, and yellow Bill; whose figure, though not very elegant, we have borrowed. The description of this Bird we owe to Mr. Johnson, with whom also we saw its Case stuft.

§. IV. The Sheldrake or Burrough-Duck, called by some, Bergander; Tadorna Bellon. Vulpanser quibusdam.

IT is of a mean bigness, between a Goose and a Duck. Its Bill is short, broad, some∣thing turning upwards, broader at the tip, of a red colour all but the Nosthrils, and the nail or hook at the end, which are black. At the base of the upper Man∣dible near the Head is an oblong carneous bunch or knob. The Head and upper part of the Neck are of a black, or very dark green, shining like silk, which to one that views it at a distance appears black: The rest of the Neck and region of the Craw milk-white. The upper part of the Breast and the Shoulders are of a very fair orange or bright bay-colour. [The fore-part of the body is encompassed with a broad ring or swath of this colour.] Along the middle of the Belly from the Breast to the Vent runs a broad black line. Behind the Vent under the tail the feathers are of the same orange or bay colour, but paler. The rest of the Breast and Belly, as also the underside of the Wings is white: The middle of the Back white: The long sca∣pular feathers black. All the Wing-feathers, as well quils as coverts, excepting those on the outmost * 1.169 joynt, are white.

Each Wing hath about twenty eight quil-feathers, the ten foremost or outmost whereof are black, as are those of the second row incumbent on them, save their bottoms: Above these toward the ridge of the Wing grow two feathers, white be∣low, having their edges round about black. The next twelve quils, as far as they appear above their covert-feathers, are white on the inside the shaft, on the outside tinctured with a dark shining green. The three next on the inside the shaft are white, on the outside have a black line next the shaft, the remaining part being tinctured with an orange colour. The twenty sixth feather is white, having its outer edge black.

The Tail hath twelve feathers, white, and tipt with black, all but the outmost, which are wholly white.

The Legs and feet are of a pale red or flesh-colour, the skin being so pellucid that the tract of the veins may easily be discerned through it.

It hath as it were a double Labyrinth at the divarication of the Wind-pipe.

Its flesh is not very savoury or delicate, though we found neither fish nor fish-bones in its stomach.

They are called by some, Burrow-Ducks, because they build in Coney-burroughs: By others, Sheldrakes, because they are particoloured: And by others, it should seem, Berganders, which name I find in Aldrovand, Book 19. Chap. 19.

We have seen many of them on the Sea-coasts of Wales and Lancashire, nor are they less frequent about the Eastern shores of England.

§. V. The sharp-tail'd Island Duck of Wormius, called by the Islanders, Havelda.

IT is less than the broad-bill'd Duck, called by Gesner Schellent: From the crown of the Head to the Rump of a foot and three inches length. Its Head is small, compressed, having white feathers about the Eyes; on the crown black ones incli∣ning to cinereous. The Neck is of the same colour: The Back down to the Rump is black, with a mixture of * 1.170 Isabella colour. The Plumage on its Rump is mingled of black and white. Out of the end of the Rump spring four sharp, black feathers; two of which are nine inches long, the other two of the same colour and figure, being but one third of the former in length. The underside of the Neck and the Bel∣ly half-way are black; the other half, and the sides, so far as covered by the Wings, white. The feathers on the upper surface of the Wings are of a purplish black, on the under side cinereous. The Bill is broad like the common Ducks, toothed; the tip, and the part next the Head black, the middle part of an elegant red-lead-colour: It is small and proportioned to the body. The Feet are * 1.171 brown; the Claws and membranes between the Toes black. The fourth (which stands backward, and re∣sembles a Spur) hath a broad membrane annexed.

§. VI. The Swallow-tail'd Sheldrake of Mr. Johnson.

THe Bill is short and simous, black at the root to the Nosthrils, and at the end, the rest red: The Head and Neck all white, which colour reacheth to a good part of the Breast, but further on the Back almost to the Scapulae, save that there and behind the Ears there is a mixture of dusky Plumage: The Back and Wings black, as is the Breast to the mid-belly; but the Wings are lighter than the Back, especially the middle Pens, which incline to a russet. On either side the Back from the Scapulae go down divers long, sharp-pointed white feathers, which make an area of about four inches long, and one broad: The rest of the Belly and under the Tail is all white: The Tail hath sixteen pens; the two outmost all white, the four middle all black, and two of those longer than the rest by three inches at least, and very sharp-pointed, the rest black on the out edge, and white on the inner; the Legs whitish blue, with black Webs. She is a great diver, and of the size of a Wigeon.

I should have taken this to be the Male, and that described by Wormius the Female Havelda, in respect of some common notes in Tail and Neb; but that the Female was with this of mine (as may be presumed, a pair only feeding together, several days in Tees River, below Barnards-Castle) and did not much differ in colour. Thus far Mr. Johnson: I am almost perswaded that it is specifically the same with Wormius his Havelda, differing only in Age or Sex, or perhaps both.

§. VII. The great red-headed Duck: Seen and described at Rome.

IT is full as big or bigger than the tame Duck; weighing two pounds and ten ounces Roman. Its Bill is broad, as in the rest of this kind, thicker and broader at the base, slenderer, and narrower toward the point, streight, of a light sanguine colour. Each Mandible is pectinated or toothed with low teeth. The Tongue is thick, broad, as is usual in Ducks, of a flesh colour, cut in on each side with black teeth, like those of a Sickle. The Head seems greater and thicker than in proportion to the body. The crown of the Head is covered with a curious silken Plumage of a pale red co∣lour. These feathers are longer than ordinary, and more erect, so that they appear like a great crest or tuft. The Eyes are red like the Bill, or rather of a red-lead co∣lour. Beneath the Eyes on each side and under the Throat the feathers are of a deep * 1.172 red. The whole Neck, the Breast, Shoulders and whole Belly are black. The sides under the Wings, and the interiour surface of the Wings white, with a very sleight tincture or dash of red. Each Wing had twenty six quils of the same colour also above, excepting only the six next the body, which are grey, or ash-coloured.

Yet the tips of all are black, and in the four or five outmost the exteriour Webs also. In the middle quils the extreme tips are again white. All the covert feathers are grey, excepting a white line in the uppermost ridge of the Wing. The middle of the Back is of a grey or ash-colour, with a light tincture of red. Of the same colour are those long feathers growing at the setting on of each Wing, and covering the Back: Above which appear in the Back two broad white spots of the figure of the segment of a circle. The hinder part of the Back to the very Tail is black. The Tail it self very short, composed of sixteen feathers, their upper sides grey, their under white, with a light tincture of red. The Legs and Feet, as in other birds of this kind, red, yet here and there, especially about the joynts, clouded with sable. The membranes connecting the Toes, and all the soals of the Feet black. The Bird I described was a Cock, and had a Labyrinth at the divarication of the Wind-pipe. The Wind-pipe it self was greater at the head, slenderer in the middle, and above the Labyrinth again swoln into a greater tube. Its Stomach or Gizzard very large, and provided with very thick and strong muscles, filled with very small stones mingled with grass. Its Liver pale; Gall-bladder little, blind guts long.

This Bird I found in the Market at Rome, shot, I suppose, upon the Sea-coast. I ne∣ver hapned to see it else where, neither do I find any description of it, or so much as any mention made of it in any book. Where it lives and breeds I know not.

§. VIII. The Scaup-Duck: Perchance the Fuligula of Gesner.

IT is somewhat less than the common Duck, about two foot long. Its Bill is broad, and blue; the upper Mandible much broader than the nether. The Head and part of the Neck are of a black green: The Breast and underside of the Neck black, the lower part of the Neck hath something of white mingled. The Belly is white, with a sprinkling of yellow in its lower part, about the Vent of black. The upper part of the Back is of a sooty or sable colour; the middle white, waved with trans∣verse lines of brown; the lower, together with the Tail, brown. The Tail is scarce two inches long: The Wings brown, adorned on the upper side with white spots, having also a cross line of white. The Legs and Feet, together with the Web and Claws, are of a dusky blue colour.

This Bird is called the Scaup-duck, because she feeds upon Scaup, i. e. broken shel∣fish: She varies infinitely in colour, especially in Head and Neck, so that among a pack of forty or fifty you shall not find two exactly alike: A thing not usual in this kind.

This Bird we have not as yet seen: We owe this description and history of it to Mr. Johnson.

§. IX. The tusted Duck: Anas Fuligula prima Gesneri, * 1.173 Aldrov. Mergus cirratus minor Gesn. Querquedula cristata five Colymbis Bellonii, Aldrovand. p. 210. as we think. Capo negro at Venice.

THe Bill from the tip to the corners of the Mouth is about two inches long, broad, of a pale blue colour all but the tip, which is black. The feathers on the forehead descend down the middle of the Bill in a peak or angle. The Nosthrils are great, at a pretty distance from the Plumage. The Irides of the Eyes of a yellow or gold colour: The Ears small, as perchance in all Water-sowl. The Head, especially the crown, of a dark purple inclining to black, or rather black with some mix∣ture of purple; whence at Venice, and elsewhere in Italy, it is called, Capo negro. It hath a crest or cop hanging down backwards from the Head, of an inch and halflong. The colour of the Neck, Shoulders, Back, in fine the whole upper part is a dark brown, almost black.

The Wings are short, all the covert feathers black: The four outmost quils of the same colour with the body; the succeeding little by little whiter, the subsequent than the antecedent. The second decad or middle quils are purely white, all but their tips, which are black. The next six are wholly black. The Tail is very short, com∣posed of fourteen black feathers.

The nether side of the Neck and forepart of the Breast are black, the rest of the Breast and Belly, as far as the Vent, of a white or silver-colour, the lower the darker. Behind the Vent it is black. The lateral feathers covered by the Wings when closed, those on the Thighs, and the under-coverts of the Wings are white. The interiour bastard-wing consists of six white feathers.

The Legs are short and situate backwards: The Feet of a livid or dark blue co∣lour, the Web black: The Toes long.

The body is short, thick, broad, and something compressed or flat, weighing about two pounds.

In the angle of the lower Mandible some have a white spot, which in others is wanting.

The Wind-pipe hath its labyrinth. The Liver is divided into two Lobes, having a Gall annexed. The Gizzard is composed of thick muscles: Therein we found no∣thing but small stones and Sea-wrack.

We saw a Bird very like this, perchance the same, in his Majesties Pools in S. James's Park.

Its Bill and Legs were of a lead-colour: Its Head black. Its Wings little, but above the Wings the sides white. A long crest hangs down backward from behind the Head. [To me, beholding the Bird at a distance, the whole Wings seemed white, but perchance that colour was proper to the covert-feathers, not common to the quils.]

§. X. The black Diver or Scoter: Anas niger minor.

IT is almost as big as the common Duck, but rounder-bodied. The whole body all over is of a black or sable colour. From the Shoulders in some birds spring blacker feathers. In the Chin and middle of the Breast some ash-coloured or whitish fea∣thers are mingled with the black. The Wings are of the same colour with the body, without any diversity of colours at all. The Bill such as in the Duck-kind, yellow about the Nosthrils, else black; pectinated about the sides, yellow within, with∣out any bunch in the upper Mandible. Its Feet are black. This description is of a Hen.

In the year 1671. I found the Male of this kind at Chester, killed on the Sea-coasts thereabouts, and bought in the Market by my Lord Bishop Wilkins his Steward, and described it in these words.

It is something less than a tame Duck, short-bodied for its bigness, and broad; all over black both upper and under-side: Only the Head had a dark tincture of pur∣ple, and the under-side of the first, second, and third rows of Wing-feathers inclined to cinereous. The wings were short; the quils in each twenty five. The Tail more than an hand-breadth long, consisting of sixteen feathers, the outmost of which were the shortest, the rest in order longer to the middlemost, which were the longest, so that the Tail runs out into an acute angle, more acute than I remember to have ob∣served in other Sea-ducks; and each single feather is very sharp-pointed.

The Bill in this Bird is especially remarkable, being broad, blunt, as in the rest of this kind, of about two inches length, having no Appendix or nail at the tip, contra∣ry to the manner of other Ducks. The upper Mandible above the Nostrils, next the forehead, bunches out into a notable protuberance, being so divided in the middle as to resemble Buttocks, distinguished by a yellow intercurrent line. Now the colour of this upper Mandible is black about the sides, yellow in the middle, the yellow part being so broad as to contain the Nosthrils, and about an inch long. The Tongue is very great. The Eye-lids yellow. The Irides of the Eyes dark. The Legs and Feet dusky: The Toes very long, and web'd together, so that its oars are broad and large. The shorter Toe hath a membranous border extant along its outside. This had no labyrinth on its Wind-pipe. The blind-guts for a bird of this kind were very short: The Gall great. It weighed two pounds and nine ounces: Its length from Bill to Tail was twenty two inches: It breadth from Wings end to Wings end thirty four and an half.

This Bird hath not as yet been described by any Author extant in Print that we know of. It abides constantly at Sea, gets its living by diving, and is taken in Nets placed under water. In the wash in Lincolnshire it is found plentifully. Its Case

stuft was sent us first by Mr. Fr. Jessop out of Yorkshire: Next we got it at Chester, as we have said: Then Sir Thomas Brown sent us a Picture of it from Norwich; and last∣ly, Mr. Johnson sent a description of it in his method of Birds, in which description are some particulars not observed by us, viz. that the Male hath on the upper side some tincture of shining green, and that in the Hen the Neck and Head on both sides, as far as the Eyes, is white.

§. XI. The Poker, or Pochard, or great read-headed Wigeon: Anas fera fusca of Gesner, Aldrov. t. 3. p. 221. Penelops veterum & Rothalss of Gesner, Aldrov. p. 218. Cane a la teste rouge of Bellonius.

THat we described weighed thirty two ounces: From tip of Bill to end of Tail was nineteen inches long, to the Claws points twenty one. It is bigger than the common Wigeon, and for its bigness shorter and thicker. The lesser covert-fea∣thers of the Wings, and those on the middle of the back are most elegantly variega∣ted with dark brown and cinereous waved lines [or ash-coloured, with very narrow, waved, cross, dusky lines.] The Rump and feathers under the Tail are black, so that the Tail is compassed with a ring of black. The lower part of the Neck is likewise black, so that the forepart of the body seems also to be encircled with a ring or swathe of black. The Head and almost the whole Neck are of a deep fulvous or red colour: the middle part of the Breast white, the sides and lower part, and Belly all of the same colour with the Back, and varied with the like transverse undulated lines, but both colours paler: Toward the Vent it is by degrees darker coloured. The Tail is very short, not exceeding two inches, made up of twelve feathers, of a dark grey, the outmost the shortest, the rest gradually longer to the middlemost; yet the excess is not considerable, so that notwithstanding it is not to be reckoned among those that have sharp Tails. The quils of the Wings are about twenty five, all of one colour, viz. a dark cinereous, though if they be carefully heeded, there will appear some diversity, for the tips of the exteriour and greater feathers are marked with black, of the middle ones with white. The interiour bastard-wing and lesser covert-fea∣thers of the underside of the Wings are white.

The Bill is bigger and broader than in the Wigeon. The feathers divide the middle of the upper Mandible coming down from the forehead in form of a peak or acute angle. The upper Mandible is of a lead-colour, but its tip black: The nether is wholly black. The Irides of the Eyes are of a very beautiful colour, from yellow inclining to a sparkling red: The Feet lead-coloured: The membranes connecting the Toes black: The inmost toe the least, having a membranous border annexed to its outside. The back toe hath likewise an appendant membrane or fin.

The characteristic note of this Bird, is one uniform colour of its Wings, without any feathers of different colour in the middle of the Wing, as is usual in most Birds of this kind.

In another Bird of this kind, (which we take to be the Female of this) the Bill was black with an ash-coloured spot of the form of a crescent a little above the tip. The back feathers and coverts of the Wings had no such transverse waved lines as those of the Male. In other points it agreed mostwhat with the Male.

§. XII. The lesser red-headed Duck: Perchance the Anas Filigula altera of Gesner, Aldrov. p. 227. The Glaucium or Morillon of Bellonius: Capo rosso at Venice.

IT is bigger than a Teal, and something less than a Wigeon. Its Bill two inches and an half long, of a moderate breadth, of a dark blue colour, paler about the edges, and toward the tip. The very tip or nail is round and black. The Nosthrils small, long, situate almost in the middle of the Bill. The Irides of the Eyes of a cream or Ivory co∣lour. The Head is pretty great, all over red: But in the very angle of the lower Mandi∣ble is a small white spot. The Neck, as in others of this kind, is short, encompassed in the middle with a ring of brown. The whole Back and covert-feathers of the Wings are of a dark brown or dusky colour. All the quils of the Wings (which are in each about twenty six) except the three or four outmost, and the three or four

inmost are white with brown tips, so that when the Wing is spread they represent a broad transverse line of white. The Tail is very short, the middle feathers which are the longest being about two inches and a quarter in length, the outmost shorter; of a brown or dusky colour, the number of feathers fourteen. The Breast below the ring down to the Merry-thought is red, which colour above also reaches to the mid∣dle of the Shoulders. The rest of the Breast and the upper Belly is white, the lower to the Vent dusky or dark grey. The feathers under the Tail are white, those long ones on the thighs red. The Legs and Feet black, especially the joynts and mem∣branes connecting the Toes. The back-toe hath a broad appendant membrane or sin, as in the rest of this kind. The Wind-pipe hath a labyrinth at the divarication, and besides above swells out into a puff-like cavity. The stomach is musculous. These Birds vary something in the colour, especially of their Wings.

A Bird of this kind weighed twenty one ounces; was in length from the tip of the Bill to the end of the toes seventeen inches and an half; in breadth between the ex∣tremes of the Wings expanded twenty six and three quarters: The length of the guts forty two inches.

The description of the Anas Fuligula altera of Gesner in * 1.174 Aldrovand agrees well to this Bird: So doth also the description and figure of the Morillous or Glaucium of Bel∣lonius, especially in the colour of the Eyes. But because there is some difference, we will subjoyn his description that the Reader himself may judge.

The Glaucium or Morillon of Bellonius.

There is (saith he) also another Water-fowl, called in our common speech Mo∣rillon, very like to a Duck, and of the same bigness, having its Bill cut in the edge like a Saw; its Legs and Feet red on the inside, dusky on the out: Its whole Head to the middle of the Neck of a deep ferrugineous. Below the ferrugineous a whitish circle encompasseth the Neck. The Breast is of an ash-colour, the Belly white: The Back and Wings black. But in these, if they be stretcht out appear seven white fea∣thers, which render the Wings particoloured as in a Pie. The rest of the Wings, as also the Tail (resembling that of a * 1.175 Cormorant) are black. Getting its food for the most part out of the water, it lives upon little vermine and creeping things, which it finds in the bottom of the water: Diving also, and continuing long under water, it catches small fishes, and water Millepedes or Lice, which the French call les Escrou∣elles. It feeds also upon the seeds of herbs which grow on River-banks, and upon young Cray-fish and Snails. It hath a Tongue so fleshy, that near the root it seems double: A broad Breast, like the rest of the Duck-kind: Short Legs, stretched out back∣wards, like the Divers [Mergi.] In the inward parts this only is peculiar to it, that no Gall appears in it. The Liver is divided into two Lobes, one whereof is incumbent on the stomach, the other on the guts.

This description in most notes, the magnitude excepted, agrees to our Bird. For though Bellonius in his description affirms, that the ring about the Neck is white, yet in his figure he represents it black.

§. XIII. The Golden-eye: Anas platyrhynchos mas, Aldrov. p. 225. Clangula Gesneri, Aldrov. p. 224. * 1.176 Quattro occhii Italis: Weisser Dritvogel of the Germans about Strasburgh.

IT is thick and short-bodied; and hath a great head. Its Neck, as in the rest of this kind, is short: Its Bill broad indeed, but short; more elevated, and not so flat or depressed as in the rest of this kind, thicker at the head, lesser and narrower toward the tipl all black, from the tip to the angles of the mouth an inch and three quarters long. The Head is of a very dark green, or of a changeable colour of black, pur∣ple, and green, as it is variously exposed to the light, shining like silk. At the cor∣ner of the Mouth on each side is a round white spot, as big as a three pence, whence it got its name Quattr' occhii in Italian. The Irides of the Eyes are of a lovely yellow or gold-colour. The whole Neck both above and underneath, the Shoulders, Breast, and whole Belly are white: The space between the Shoulders and all the lower part of the Back are black. The Wings particoloured of black and white, viz. the middle fea∣thers, both quils and coverts, are white; the outer and inner black. To speak more exact∣ly. The fourteen outmost Quils are black; the seven next white; the four inmost again

black. The covert-feathers above the seven white ones are white, all but those near the ridge of the Wing. But the bottoms of those of the second row are black half way up. The long scapular feathers are also mixt or particoloured of black and white. The Tail is three inches and an half long, made up of sixteen feathers, from the outmost by degrees longer, yet is not the Tail sharp, but rather round-pointed, all of one uniform black colour.

The Legs are very short, of a Saffron or yellowish red colour, as are also the Feet. The Toes are long, dusky about the joynts; the outmost the longest; the inmost hath a broad appendant membrane. The membranes connecting the Toes, and the Claws are black. The back-toe is small, having also a broad appendant membrane or sin. The Wind-pipe hath a labyrinth at the divarication, and besides, above swells out into a Belly or puff-like cavity.

Its weight was about two pounds, its length from Bill to Claws nineteen inches: its breadth thirty one.

These Birds are very common at Venice in Italy, and not rare upon our Sea∣coasts.

Our smaller reddish-headed Duck, which it seems is no other than the Female of the precedent: Perchance the Anas Schollent of Gesner, or the Anas fera fusca alia of Aldrovand, p. 222.

It is about the bigness of the Anas fuligula prima of Gesner: Weighs twenty four ounces; is from Bill to Claws seventeen inches long. It hath a great Head, of a for∣did red colour: A short Neck of a grey or hoary: A white Breast and Belly: Its Back, Tail, most of the covert-feathers and ten outmost quills of the Wings are of a dark brown or black. The quil-feathers from the tenth to about the twentieth are white. In the lesser rows of covert-feathers is also a great spot of white. [The second row of Wing-feathers, as many as are incumbent on the white quils, are white, but tipt with black.] In the lesser rows of wing-feathers there is also a large white or ash-coloured spot: So that in some the whole Wing almost seems to be white. The Wings are small for the bigness of the Bird, their feathers being short. The Tail is made up of sixteen feathers, and is for this kind long. The Bill is shorter and narrower than that of the tufted Duck, thick at the head, sharper toward the tip, the extreme hook or nail being black, and encompassed by a broad yellow space, very elegant to behold; the rest of the Bill black. The Eyes were of a lovely yellow or gold-colour. The Feet large, situate backwards, of a yellowish red colour, the Web of the Feet dusky; the soal black. I observed no labyrinth on the Wind-pipe, It hath a small Gall-bladder of an oval figure. In the Craw we found a Crab∣fish.

Since the finishing of the Latine History we have been informed that this Bird is no distinct kind, but only the Female Golden-eye. And truly, the shape of the body, the make of the Bill, the length, number of feathers, figure and colour of the Tail, the fashion and colour of the Feet, and other accidents induce us to think so, neither is there more difference in weight than is usual between different Sexes. Besides that, this was a Female the want of the labyrinth proves; but in the next Article I shall shew some reason to doubt whether of the Golden-eye or not. Mr. Willughby also was suspicious that it might be the Hen Golden-eye.

§. XIV. The greater reddish-headed Duck, perchance the same with the last described, or the Male thereof: An Anas Schellent dicta Gesnero? Aldrov. p. 223.

IT weighed twenty four ounces, being in length from the tip of the Bill to the end of the Tail eighteen inches and an half, to the end of the Toes nineteen; in breadth the Wings being spread out, thirty, The Bill two inches long, yellow, not only about the tip, like the precedents, but also of a fordid or dark yellow all along the middle beyond the Nosthrils, The Irides of the Eyes are of a bright lovely yellow: The Head of a fordid red: the Neck grey. For that chesnut or red colour of the Head extends not to the middle of the Throat. The Back and whole upper side are of a dark brown or black. The Throat, Breast, Belly to the very Tail white; but at the Vent is a cross bar of brown.

Each Wing hath about twenty six quils; of which the outmost ten are black, the tip of the eleventh white; in the succeeding the white increases, till after three or four it reaches to the bottom. The twentieth or twenty first hath its exteriour half white, its interiour black. [There is some variety in several Birds in the colours of these feathers.] The feathers immediately above the white feathers are also white: Besides, in the lesser covert-feathers is a great spot of white in some birds, of grey in others. The Legs and Feet are of an obscure, fordid yellow, but about the joynts black. The web of the Foot is also black. The Legs are situate backwards, as in the rest of this kind, feathered down almost to the knees, the Shanks short, but the Feet large: The inmost Toe hath a membrane bordering on the outside of it. The hind∣toe hath also its membrane annext. The Tail is three inches and an half long, made up of sixteen feathers, of the same colour with the Back.

I should take this Bird to be the very same with the precedent, not only in Species, but in Sex, notwithstanding its difference in bigness, were it not that it had a labyrinth on the Wind-pipe, which I suppose is proper only to the Males. So that either this is the Male of the precedent, and both different in species from the Golden-eye: Or, which I rather incline to believe, this must be a young Cock-Golden-eye, that had not moulted its chicken-feathers; and the precedent an old Hen-Golden-eye: And so these two supposed Species are reduced to the Golden-eye; they being all three the same.

§. XV. The Shoveler. Anas platyrhynchos altera sive clypeata Germanis dicta: Taschenmul * 1.177 Aldrov. Anas latirostra major, Gesner. Aldrov. p. 227. Breitschnabel Germanis.

IT is something less than the common tame Duck, weighs twenty two ounces, being in length from the tip of the Bill to the end of the Tail twenty one inches. Its Bill is three inches long, coal-black, much broader toward the tip than at the base, exca∣vated like a Buckler, of a round Circumference. At the end it hath a small crooked hook or nail. Each Mandible is pectinated or toothed like a comb, with rays or thin plates inserted mutually one into another when the mouth is shut. The Tongue is fleshy, thick, broad, especially toward the tip; but the tip it self is thinner and semicircular. The Eyes are of a deep yellow: The Legs and Feet of a Ver∣milion colour: The Claws black: The hind-toe little. The membrane con∣necting the Toes serrate about the edges. The Feet are less than inothers of this kind.

The Head and Neck almost half-way are of a fair blue. [In the Bird which I de∣scribed at Rome, and in another which Mr. Willughby saw at Crowland it was very * 1.178 dark, lightly tinctured with a deep shining green.] The under-side of the Neck and region of the Craw are white; the upper-side and Shoulders particoloured of white and brown. The rest of the Breast and the whole Belly to the Vent are red. Be∣hind the Vent the feathers under the Tail are black. The Back is brown, with a light dash of a shining green, blue or purple colour. The feathers covering the outside of the Thighs are adorned with transverse dusky lines, as in many others.

The number of quils in each Wing is about twenty four: The ten or twelve out∣most whereof are wholly brown: The next nine have their outer edges of a deep shining green: The four next the body are varied in the middle and about their edges with white lines. The feathers of the second row incumbent on the green quil-feathers have white tips, which together taken make a cross line of white in the Wing. The lesser covert-feathers of the Wing, excepting those on the outmost bone, are of a pleasant pale blue, inclining to ash-colour. The Tail is about three inches and an half long: consists of fourteen feathers, particoloured of white and black, the out∣most feathers being wholly white, the middlemost, except the extreme white edges, wholly black, the rest black in their middle parts, white about the borders or out∣sides.

At the divarication of the Wind-pipe it hath a small labyrinth: A large Gall: Ob∣long Testicles: A small musculous Stomach or Gizzard: Guts many times reflected, very long. The Female in respect of colours both in the Head and Neck, and also in the whole body, upper-side and under-side, excepting only the Wings, is very like to a wild Duck. The Wings are of the same colours with the Wings of the Male, but more dull, and not so bright and pleasant. The Fowlers affirm, that these Birds change their colours in Winter. Gesner and Aldrovand set forth this kind twice or

thrice under several titles. It is sufficiently characterized and distinguished from all others of this kind by the breadth and bigness of its Bill.

§. XVI. * 1.179 The broad-bill'd, red-footed Duck of Aldrovand, which I take to be the Hen-Shoveler.

THe Legs and Feet wholly are of a deep red. The Bill is almost three inches long, very broad, and * 1.180 turning up after the fashion of a Buckler, of a dark chesnut colour; yet the lower Mandible, which almost enters the upper [being re∣ceived into it] is in some places of a spadiceous colour, and hath a remarkable strake running through its middle long-ways. The Bill hath such teeth on both sides as Gesner attributes to his * 1.181 Muggent. The colour of the feathers, almost the whole body over, comes near to that of pulveratricious birds [Partridge and Quail, &c.] called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, that is, testaceous or pot-sheard colour. [Their pots were paler than ours now adays.] The whole Head and middle of the Neck were of a * 1.182 Wea∣sel colour, sprinkled with greater and lesser spots, partly white, and those very small and scarce conspicuous, partly brown, and those most in the crown and hinder part of the Head. The Neck underneath is of a pale whitish cinereous colour, with se∣milunar brown spots. The same spots, but greater, are dispersed over the fore-part of the Back, the Breast, the Belly, the Rump, and the Tail, all which parts are of the same colour with the Head, or yellowish. The middle and lower part of the Back are covered with feathers of a dark spadiceous colour, only white about the outmost edges. The ridges of the Wings are of a Woad colour. A line of the same colour crosses the middle of the Wings, above which is likewise seen a transverse white line. The remaining parts of the Wings are of a dark spadiceous colour.

§. XVII. * A broad-bill'd Duck with yellow Feet, of Aldrovand.

IT differs little from the precedent in magnitude, unless perchance it be somwhat bigger. Its Bill is partly brown, partly yellowish. Over the whole body, which is of a yellowish ash-colour, are brown spots disseminated, thick-set, and little in the Head, greater, and thinner, or more scattering in the Neck, Breast, Belly, Rump, and Tail, but much greater yet and thicker in the whole Back. The Wings to the middle part are brown. A white line crosses them in the middle; after which is seen a * 1.183 square blue spot, three angles whereof end in a black line: To this succeeds a white line. Its Legs are yellow; its Toes also yellow, but connected by dusky membranes.

This seems to be some Hen-bird of the Duck-kind, not hitherto observed by us.

CHAP. III. Pond-Ducks, frequenting chiefly fresh waters.

§. I. The common wild Duck and Mallard: Boscas major; Anas torquata minor * 1.184 Aldrov.

IT weighs from thirty six to forty ounces; being about twenty three inches long, measuring from the tip of the Bill to the end of the Tail. The Wings stretcht out reacht thirty five inches. The Bill is of a greenish yellow, from the angles of the mouth produced two inches and an half, of about an inch breadth, not very flat. The upper Mandible hath at the end a round tip or nail, such as is seen in most Birds of this kind. The lower Eye-lids are white: The Legs and Feet of a Saffron∣colour; the Claws brown; but that of the back-toe almost white: The inmost fore∣toe is the least. The membranes connecting the Toes are of a more sordid colour than the Toes. The Wind-pipe at its divarication hath a vessel we call a labyrinth.

The Legs are feathered down to the Knees. In the Mallard the Head and upper part of the Neck are of a delicate shining green: then follows a ring of white, which yet fails of being an entire circle, not coming round behind. From the white ring the Throat is of a Chesnut colour down to the Breast. The Breast it self and Belly are of a white ash-colour, bedewed or sprinkled with innumerable dark specks, as it were small drops. Under the Tail the feathers are black. The upper side of the Neck from cinereous is red, sprinkled in like manner with spots. The middle of the Back between the Wings is red, the lower part black, and still deeper on the Rump, with a gloss of purple. Thesides under the Wings, and the longer feathers on the Thighs are adorned with transverse brown lines, making a very fair shew. In them the white colour seems to have a mixture of blue.

The lesser rows of Wing-feathers are red: The long scapular feathers are silver∣coloured, elegantly variegated with transverse * 1.185 brown lines. In each Wing are twenty four quils, the outmost ten of a dusky or dark brown: The second decad have white tips, then their outer Webs are of a shining purplish blue colour: But between the white and blue intercedes a border of black. The tip of the twenty first is white, the exteriour Web of a dark purple: The middle part of the twenty second is a little silver-coloured: The twenty third is wholly of a silver-colour, yet the edges on each side are black: The twenty fourth is likewise of a silver-colour, only the exteriour border black. The outmost covert-feathers are of the same colour with the quils; but those immediately incumbent on the purple-blue quils have black tips, and next the tips a broad line or cross bar of white, so that the blue spot is ter∣minated with a double line, first black, and above that white. The Tail hath twen∣ty feathers, ending in sharp points. The four middle of these are reflected circularly toward the Head, being black, with a gloss of purple. The eight next to these on each side are white, especially the outer ones, and on their exteriour Webs, the nearer to the reflected ones, the greater mixture of brown have they. The covert-feathers of the inside of the Wing, and the interiour bastard Wing are white.

In Winter time they company together, and fly in flocks; in the Summer by pairs, Duck and Mallard together. They build their Nests among Heath or Rushes, not far from the water, seldom in trees; laying twelve, fourteen, or more Eggs before they sit. The Female or Duck hath neither green head, nor ringed Neck, but both particoloured of white, brown, and dark red. The middle parts of the Back-fea∣thers are of a dark brown, the edges of a pale red.

As for the great Ring-Duck of Gesner, he being very brief in describing of it, and using only general notes, and my self having never seen any such bird, I know not what to make of it, and do doubt whether there be any such Bird in nature; especi∣ally because the description he brings of it, made by a certain German, doth in all things answer to our Mallard above described.

In the Fens in the Isle of Ely, Norfolk, and Lincolnshire, about Crowland, and else∣where, Ducks, Wigeons, Teal, and other birds of this kind, at what time they moult their feathers and cannot fly, are taken yearly in great numbers in Nets placed after this manner.

[illustration]

AB, CD are Nets extending a great length in form of a wall or hedge, inclining one to another, at the further end of which, before they concur in an angle are placed 1, 2, 3, or more conoideal Nets, like tunnelling Nets for Partridges. Which things being so prepared, and the day for fowling set, there is a great concourse of men and boats. These drive the Birds, now unable to fly, into the grounds enclosed in the Nets with long Staves and Poles, and so by degrees into those Conoideal Tunnels, 1, 2, 3, disposed, as we said in the angle. By the way many are knocked down by the Boatmen and other Rabble with their Poles, others and more are driven upon the side Nets AB, CD. These belong to them who own the Nets (for the Nets for the most part have several owners) those fall to their shares that killed them. Those which are cooped up, and driven into the end-tunnels 1, 2, 3, belong to the Lord of the Soil. To one Fowling sometimes you shall have four hundred Boats meet. We have heard that there have been four thousand Mallards taken at one driving in Deeping Fen.

The Mallards change their feathers (we call it Moulting, a word derived from the Latine, muto, signifying to change) when the Hens begin to sit; the Ducks not be∣fore their young ones are grown up and ready to fly, at what time they come hither for that purpose, viz. the Mallards about the end of May, the Ducks not before the end of June, when the Mallards have recovered their feathers and begin to fly again. The Cock-Teal and Wigeons accompany the Ducks, and moult together with them. The Hens of these Birds moult something later. So that this kind of sport or (if you please) exercise lasts from the middle of June till the end of August. In a Weeks time all the old feathers fall off; the new ones come not to their full growth in less than three Weeks space. When they begin to moult they are all very fat and fleshy; but before their feathers be perfectly grown, they become lean. The Ducks and Mal∣lard are called whole fowl; the Wigeons and Teal half fowl, because they are sold for half the price of the other.

Here it may be worth the while to enquire, why Birds do yearly moult their fea∣thers? Mr. Willughby supposes that there is the same cause of the casting the feathers in Birds, that there is of the falling off of the hair in Men and other Animals upon recovery from a Fever or other disease, or upon refection after long abstinence. For in Cock-birds the heat and turgency of lust, is, as it were, a kind of Fever, and so in the Spring-time their bodies being exhausted by the frequent use of Venery, they be∣come lean: But in the Hens the time of sitting and bringing up their Young answers to a disease or long abstinence, for at that time they macerate themselves by hunger and continual labour. When these times are over, both Sexes returning to mind their own bodies and feed for themselves, do in a short time recover their flesh and grow fat again, whereupon the pores of the skin being dilated the feathers fall off.

Our Country-men (imitating, as I suppose, the Low Dutch, who were Authors of the invention) in maritime and fenny places, in Pools prepared by a new Artifice and fitted with their Channels and Nets, and stored with Coy-Ducks, take yearly in, the Winter-time Duck and Mallard, Wigeon, Teal, and other Birds of the Duck-kind in great numbers.

A place is to be chosen for this purpose far remote from common High-ways, and all noise of people, and in which those Birds are wont in great numbers to frequent. Having pitch'd upon a convenient place, prepare a large Pool A, set round with Willows and Reeds. On the South side N, or

[illustration]

the North side S of this Pool draw as many Ditches or Channels 1 1 1 (Pipes they call them) as you please or think needful; let them be broad at the Pool, and by degrees narrower till they end in a point. Along these Channels on each side at little distances thrust into the banks rods or wands of wood, and bending them over-head bind them two together by pairs all along in form of an Arch or Vault from the beginning of the Channel to the end. As the Channels grow nar∣rower and narrower so the bows are made lower and lower. The Poles thus bent in fashion of Bows are to be covered with Nets cast over them, and so the Pipes are made: These Arches or Vaults end in long Cylindrical Nets kept stretcht by hoops like bow-nets, that end which respects the Arch being open, the other shut. Along the banks of the Pipes are made many hedges or walls n n n of Reeds woven thick toge∣ther, parallel to each other, but standing obliquely to the Bank, the acute angles re∣specting the Pool, and along the bank of the Pool, at the exit of the Pipes is likewise a

hedge of Reeds (l m) to be drawn. The Coy-Ducks are to be fed at the mouth or entrance of the Pipes, and to be accustomed at a token given them by a whistle to ha∣sten to the Fowler. The Fowler first walks about the Pool, and observes into what Pipe the Birds gathered together in the Pool may most conveniently be enticed and driven, and then casting Hemp-seed, or some such like thing at the entrance thereof, calls his Coy-ducks together by a whistle. The wild fowl accompany them, and when the Fowler perceives them now entred into the Pipe, he shews himself behind them through the interstices of the hedges n, n, n, which being frightned, and not daring to return back upon the man, swim on further into the Pipe, then by other interstices the Fowler shews himself again behind them, till at last he hath thus driven them into the Cylindrical Nets. If any Birds rise and endeavour to fly away, being beaten back by the Nets spread over the Pipe they fall down again into the Channel. The whole art consists in this, that the Birds within the Pipes may see the Fowler, those in the Pool not seeing him. So those only seeing him, these notwithstanding often enter the Pipes, and so sometimes besides those the Fowler drives before him there are others taken the second or third time. The Coy-ducks go not into the Cylindrical Nets, but stay without and entice others. Some train up a Whelp for this sort of fowling, teaching him to compass the hedges, and shew himself behind the Birds, to which purpose there are holes made in the hedges for him to pass freely. The Whelp in compassing the hedges ought always to keep his tail directed toward the Pool, his Head toward the Pipe, and so he terrifies the Birds before him, and drives them for∣ward: Those behind him he allures and tolls forward, they following him to gaze at him as a new and strange object. When the wind blows sideways the Birds are more easily driven whither the Fowler pleases, than when its blows * 1.186 directly contrary to them, or with them. For when it is directly contrary the Birds are very hardly dri∣ven to bear up against it: When it blows just behind them, it brings the sent of the Man or the Whelp into their Nosthrils. Wherefore (as we said) the Channels are drawn either on the North or South end of the Pool, because the West-wind with us as it is the most boisterous, so is it by far the most frequent of all.

Of the Coy-ducks some fly forth and bring home with them wild ones to the Pool, others have the outmost joynt or pinion of their Wings cut off, so that they cannot, fly, but abide always in the Pool. The Fowlers house is to be covered with trees and reeds, and hid as much as possible.

§. II. The Gadwall or Gray, perchance the * 1.187 Mitelenten of Gesner: Anas platyrhynchos rostro nigro & plano. Aldrov. p. 233. fortè Anas strepera Gesneri, Aldrov. p. 234.

IN bigness it equals or exceeds the Pochard, and comes very near the Duck. Its length from Bill to Tail was nineteen inches: Its breadth thirty three: Its Bill from the tip to the corners of the mouth two inches long. It is long-bodied: Its whole Rump black: Its Back brown, the edges of the feathers being of a whitish red: Its Chin and Cheeks white, speckled with small brown specks. Its head from blue in∣clines to black, the edges of the feathers being of an ash-colour in the Throat, and of a whitish red near the Breast. The lower part of the Neck and upper part of the Breast and Shoulders are covered with a most beautiful Plumage particoloured of black and white. The extreme edges and as it were fringes of the feathers are red∣dish, then a black line of a semicircular figure encompasses the tip of the feather, running parallel to its edges; within this is included another semicircular white line parallel to it, and in the white again a black. The Breast is white: The Belly darker, with transverse black spots. Under the Tail the feathers are crossed with brown. The lesser covert-feathers under the Wings and the interiour bastard Wing are purely white. The sides are curiously variegated with alternate black and white lines. The Tail is short, scarce appearing beyond the feathers incumbent on it, round-pointed, made up of sixteen feathers with sharp tips, of a white colour, especially on the un∣der side, for the two middle ones above are of a dark ash-colour: In the rest, espe∣cially the outmost, there is something of red mingled with the white: The edges of all are whitish.

Each Wing hath twenty six quils, of which the first ten are brown; the three next tipt with white: The four following have their outer Webs black, their tips also being whitish: In the three succeeding the inner Web of the feather is wholly white:

The four next the body are of a cinereous or reddish brown. The feathers of the second row, incumbent on the white quils, have their exteriour Webs of a black pur∣plish shining colour. In the third row are spots of red scattered.

Its Bill is like that of the common Duck or Teal, flat, broad, with a hook or nail at the end: The lower Mandible inclines to a Saffron colour; of the upper the sides are of the same colour, the middle part black: The Nosthrils great.

The Legs are feathered to the Knees: The Feet whitish: The hind-toe small: The inner fore-toe shorter than the outer: The membranes connecting the Toes black. It hath a huge Gall-bladder.

The Female hath the same spots in the Wings, but far duller colours; wants the black colour on the Rump, the feathers there growing having pale red edges; as have also those on the Back and Neck. It wholly wants those elegant semicircular black and white lines and spots in the Neck and Breast feathers, and the strakes under the Wings.

This Bird may be distinguished from all others of the Duck-kind by this characte∣ristic note, that it hath on the Wings three spots of different colour, one above ano∣ther, viz. a white, a black, and a red one.

§. III. * Gesners Muggent: Anas muscaria, Aldrov. lib. 19. cap. 41.

IT is so called because it catches flies flying upon [or above] the water. It is of the bigness and shape almost of a tame Duck. The Bill is broad and flat, its upper Chap being wholly of a Saffron-colour, in length beyond the feathers two inches: it is serrate on both sides with broad and in a manner membranaceous teeth, pretty high or deep; but those of the nether Chap are lower, and * 1.188 rise not much, making long striae. The Plumage almost all the body over is particoloured of blackish, fiery colour, and white, with a mixture of Weasel colour in some places, or in short almost like that of the Partridge, that is, testaceous, as of most of the pulveratricious kind, but yet differing. Its Feet are yellow: Its Toes joyned by blackish membranes: Its Neck both on the upper and under side is speckled [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉] with the colours we mentioned. The crown of the Head is blacker than the other parts, which colour also is seen in the Wings, which are shorter than the Tail. Thus far Gesner. This Bird, if it be different from the Gadwall, as the colour of the Bill and Feet might perswade one, is to me unknown.

§. IV. The common Wigeon or Whewer: Penelope Aldrovandi, tom. 3. p. 218. lin. 30. Anas fistularis, Argentoratensibus Ein Schmey.

IT weighs twenty two ounces: Its length from Bill to Feet is twenty inches. The Head and upper end of the Neck are red. The crown towards the Bill is of a di∣lute colour, from red inclining to a yellowish white. The upper part of the Breast and sides as far as the Wings is beautified with a very fair tincture of a red Wine co∣lour, with small transverse black lines. The scapular feathers, and those on the sides under the Wings are very curiously varied with narrow transverse black and white waved lines. The middle of the Back is brown, the edges of the feathers being cine∣reous, especially towards the Tail. The feathers behind the Vent, next the Tail are black: The Breast and Belly white, with a little mixture of yellow. On both sides under the Legs are spots of a reddish brown: Under the Tail are white feathers alike spotted, mingled with the black. The Tail is sharp pointed, and consists of four∣teen feathers, of which the six outer on each side are brown, their exteriour edges being whitish; the two middle ones are black, with a mixture of ash-colour.

Of the quil-feathers the ten outmost are brown: The next ten have white tips, and among them the fifteenth, sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth have their outer webs first of a black purplish colour, then as far as they appear beyond the covert-feathers of a lovely blue. In the eighteenth feather the exteriour half of the outer web is of a purplish black, the interiour toward the bottom is cinereous: But along the border of the black are small white spots from the white tip to the bottom. The twentieth feather is all of a pale or white ash-colour: The twenty first and

twenty second are white about the edges, black in the middle along the shaft. The small covert-feathers of the Wings are of a light brown or dark ash-colour; but those that cover the quils from the tenth to the twentieth are particoloured of brown, white, and cinereous.

Mr. Willughby in this and other Birds is, in my opinion, more particular and minute in describing the colours of each single feather of the Wings and Tail than is need∣ful; sith in these things nature doth as they say sport her self, not observing exactly the same strokes and spots in the feathers of all Birds of the same sort.

In the structure of the Mouth, Tongue, and Head, it differs little from the com∣mon wild Duck, unless perchance the Head be less in proportion to the body. The upper Mandible of the Bill is of a lead-colour, with a round black nail at the end. The Feet from a dusky white incline to a lead-colour. The Claws are black: The outmost Toe longer than the inmost: The back-toe short.

It feeds upon grass and weeds growing in the bottoms of Rivers, Lakes, and Chan∣nels of water, also upon Whilks, Periwinkles, &c. that it finds there. The Males in this kind at Cambridge are called Wigeons, the Females Whewers.

The flesh of it for delicacy is much inferiour to that of Teal, or indeed Wild-Duck.

§. V. The Sea-Pheasant or Cracker: Anas caudacuta, Aldrov. tom. 3. pag. 234. Coda lancea at Rome.

IT is of the bigness of the common Wigeon; of twenty four ounces weight: twenty eight inches long from Bill to Tail: From tip to tip of the Wings extended thirty seven inches broad.

Its Head is slender, its Neck long for this kind: Its Bill from the tip to the angles of the mouth two inches and an half, of equal breadth almost throughout; the nether Mandible wholly black, the upper partly blue, partly black, viz. black in the middle, on the sides beneath the Nosthrils blue: Black also at the corners of the mouth, at the very tip, and in the lower edges near the tip. The colour of the Plumage on the whole Head is ferrugineous or brown, behind the Ears tinctured with a light pur∣ple. Beyond the Ears on each side from the hinder part of the Head begins a line of white which passes down the sides of the Neck to the Throat. All the feathers between or adjacent to these lines are black: Under the black the Neck is ash-coloured, then curiously varied with transverse black and white lines, as is also almost the whole Back. The long scapular feathers are black in their middle parts, but the exteriour have their outer Webs almost to the shafts black, their inner (which are much the narrower) varied with white and black [brown] lines. All the nether part, Neck, Breast, Belly, to the very Vent is white. Yet in the lower Belly the white is a little darkned with a mixtue of cinereous. The feathers under the Tail are black.

As for the Wings, the ten outmost quils and most of the covert-feathers are of a dark cinereous [In some Birds the interiour edges of the seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth quils are white.] The second decad of quils is particoloured; for the tips of all are white, [or from white red] then in the outer Web succeeds a black line, the remaining part thereof, as far as appears beyond the incumbent feathers being of a glistering purple, or purplish blue colour: The interiour Webs of all are of the same colour with the rest of the feathers. Of the following the exteriour Webs are cine∣reous, the interiour black. The covert feathers of the second row immediately in∣cumbent on the second decad of quils have their tips of a fair red or Lion-colour. The long feathers covering the Thighs are elegantly varied with black and white transverse lines, beneath which the Plumage is yellow.

The Tail is made up of sixteen feathers, all ash-coloured excepting their exteriour edges, which are whitish. The two middlemost run out into very long and sharp points, being produced two inches and an half beyond the rest: Whence also this Bird is in some places of England called the Sea-pheasant.

Its feet are of a lead-colour, darker about the joynts. It hath a small Labyrinth, and a great Gall.

The Hen is like in colour to the common Wild-Duck, but fairer, and variegated with more full and lively white and brown colours. The Wing-feathers agree in co∣lour with those of the Cock, save that they are duller and less lively. The Belly is

reddish, the middle part of each single feather being black. The Chin is white, with a tincture of red. The Back of a dark brown, with transverse lines and beds of a pale red. The Breast of a sordid white, and the Belly yet darker.

This Bird may be distinguished from all others of the Duck-kind by the length of the middle feathers of its Tail as by certain and characteristic note.

§. VI. The Teal, Querquedula secunda, Aldrov. p. 209.

THis, next to the Summer-Teal, is the least in the Duck-kind; weighing only twelve ounces, extended in length from the tip of the Bill to the end of the Feet fif∣teen inches; in breadth, measuring between the ends of the Wings spread, twenty four. Its Bill is broad, black, at the end something reflected upwards: The Eyes from white incline to hazel-coloured. The Nosthrils are of an oval figure. The top of the Head, Throat, and upper part of the Neck of a dark bay or spadiceous co∣lour. From the Eyes on each side to the back of the Head is extended a line of a dark, shining green. Between these lines on the back of the Head a black spot inter∣venes. Under the Eyes a white line separates the black from the red. The feathers investing the lower side of the Neck, the beginning of the Back, and the sides under the Wings are curiously varied with transverse waved lines of white and black. The region of the Craw in some is yellowish, elegantly spotted with black spots, so situate as somewhat to resemble scales. The Breast and Belly are of sordid white or grey colour. Under the Rump is a black spot encompassed with a yellowish colour.

Each Wing hath above twenty five quils. Of these the outmost ten are brown; the next five have white tips; under the white the exteriour Web of the Feather is black: In the sixteenth begins the green, and takes up so much of the feather as we said was black in the precedent three, The exteriour Web of the twenty third is black, with some yellowness on the edges. The covert-feathers of the black quils have white tips, of the green ones have tips of a reddish yellow: Else the Wings are all over brown [dusky.] The Tail is sharp-pointed, three inches long, made up of sixteen feathers, of a brown or dusky colour.

The Legs and Feet are of a pale dusky colour, the membrane connecting the Toes black: The inmost Toe the least. The Back-toe hath no fin annexed. The Wind∣pipe in the Cock is furnished with a Labyrinth: in the Hen we found none.

The Female differs from its Male in the same manner almost as the wild Duck does from the Mallard, having neither red nor green on the Head, nor black about its Rump: Nor those sine feathers variegated with white and black lines on the back and sides.

This Bird for the delicate taste of its flesh, and the wholsom nourishment it affords the body, doth deservedly challenge the first place among those of its kind.

§. VII. The Garganey: Querquedula prima Aldrov. t. 3. p. 209. Kernel at Strasburgh.

IN bigness it something exceeds the common Teal; yet that Mr. Willughby described weighed no more than the common Teal. viz. twelve ounces. Its length from Bill to Claws was seventeen inches: Its breadth from tip to tip of the Wings ex∣tended twenty eight. For the shape of its body it was very like to the common Teal: Its Bill also black: Its Legs and Feet livid with a certain mixture of green, [Mr. Wil∣lughby hath it from dusky inclining to a lead-colour.] The back-toe small.

The crown of the Head is almost wholly black, but the Bill besprinkled with small reddish-white specks. From the inner corner of the Eye on each side begins a broad white line, which passing above the Eyes and Ears is produced to the back of the Head, till they do almost meet. The Cheeks beneath these white lines and the be∣ginning of the Throat were of a lovely red colour, as if dashed with red wine, ha∣ving white spots or lines along the middle of each feather about their shafts. Under the Chin at the rise of the lower Mandible is a great black spot. The whole Breast is curiously varied with black and dusty, transverse, arcuate [elliptical] waved lines in each feather. The Belly in some is white, in others tinctured with yellow: But

toward the Vent are brown lines, and bigger spots under the Tail. The colour of the Back is brown, with a purplish gloss. The Thighs are covered with feathers handsomly variegated with transverse black and white lines. The scapular feathers next the Wings are ash-coloured, the rest are of a very beautiful purple colour, with white lines in the middle.

Each Wing hath twenty five quils, the outmost ten of which are brown on the out∣side the shaft, on the inside of a Mouse-dun: The eleven next have white tips, be∣neath the tips, as far as they appear beyond the covert-feathers, their exteriour Webs of a * 1.189 shining green, the interiour and the bottoms of the feathers being of a dusk or Mouse-dun. The rest are brown, only the exteriour Webs edged with white. The lesser rows of Wing-feathers are ash-coloured excepting those immediately incumbent on the quils, some of which have white tips.

The Tail is short [three inches] and when closed ending in a sharp point, of a dusky or dark brown colour, consisting of fourteen feathers; the outmost feathers are varied with spots of a pale or whitish red. The soal of the foot is black.

The Cock had a Labyrinth at the divarication of the Wind-pipe, the Hen none.

The Hen is less than the Cock, and duller-coloured, wants the black spot under the Chin, and the red colour of the Cheeks. The Wings underneath are as in the Cock, above more brown. The Back coloured like the Cocks; but the scapular fea∣thers have not those beautiful colours.

§. VIII. * Of the Summer-Teal, called by Gesner Ana circia.

GEsner takes that Duck they call Circia to be of the kind of the lesser * 1.190 Querquedulae: A certain German renders it in High Dutch, Ein Birckilgen, and saith it is so cal∣led from the sound of its voice; that it is like a small Duck, but differs in the colour of the Wings and Belly. For the Wings want those glistering feathers, and the Belly is more spotted.

This kind (so he proceeds) I think is also found in our Lakes, for I saw not long since a small sort of Duck taken in the beginning of January, little bigger than a Dob∣chick, brown all over, having the Bill of a Duck, that is broad and brown: Also dusky coloured Legs and Feet; the Neck an hand-breadth long, the rest of the body six inches. But it was a Hen, and had Eggs in the Belly. The Cock, I guess, hath more beautiful colours. In the Stomach I found nothing but small-stones, and the seeds of some water-plants, almost of the fashion of Lentiles (but lesser and thicker) and reddish. Thus far Gesner.

From this short description, and that too of a Hen bird, we cannot certainly ga∣ther, whether it be a distinct Species from the precedent. But we suspect it was of that bird which our Country men call the Summer-Teal, which Mr. Johnson informs us is of that bigness; for we have not as yet seen it.

Its Bill is black: The whole upper side of a dark grey or light brown; the edges [or extremes] of the feathers in the Back are white. In the Wings is a line or spot of an inch breadth, partly black, partly of a shining green, terminated on both sides with white. In the Tail the feathers are sharp-pointed. The whole under side seems to be white, with a slight tincture of yellow; but on the Breast and lower Bel∣ly are many pretty great black spots. The Legs are of a pale blue, the membranes be∣tween the Toes black. This is the least of all Ducks. In its stomach dissected I found nothing but grass and stones. This description we owe to Mr. Johnson.

§. IX. * A wild Brasilian Duck of the bigness of a Goose. Marggrave.

IT hath a black Bill, dusky Legs and Feet. It is all over black except the beginnings [setting on] of the Wings, which are white; but that black hath a gloss of shi∣ning green. It hath a crest or tuft on it heads consisting of black feathers, and a cor∣rugated red mass or bunch of flesh above the rise of the upper Mandible of the Bill. It hath also a red skin about the Eyes. It is very fleshy, and good meat. They are com∣monly shot sitting on high trees: For after they have washt themselves in cold water, they fly up high trees, for the benefit of the fresh air and Sun.

§. X. * A Wild Brasilian Duck, called, Ipocati-Apoa, by the Portughese, Pata, that is, A Goose. Marggrav.

IT is of the bigness of a Goose of eight or nine months, of the very shape and figure of our common Ducks: The Belly, lower part of the Tail, the whole Neck and Head are covered with white feathers; the Back to the Neck, the Wings and top of the Head with black, having a mixture of green, as in the Necks of our Ducks. In the Neck and Belly are black feathers, all about sparsedly mingled with the white. It differs from our Country Ducks in these particulars: 1. That it is bigger. 2. It hath indeed a Ducks Bill, but black and hooked at the end. 3. Upon [or above] the Bill it carries a fleshy crest, broad, and almost round, of a black colour, remarkably spotted with white. The Crest is of equal height. Between the Crest and the Bill (viz. on the top of the Bill) is a transverse hole of the bigness of a Pease, conspicu∣ous on both sides, which serves instead of Nosthrils. 4. The colour of the Legs and Feet is not red, but of a dusky ash-colour. It is full of flesh, and good meat. It is found every where about the Rivers.

I had another in all things like this, excepting that those long feathers in the Wings were of a shining brown colour. I suppose this is the Male, the other the Female.

§. XI. * The first Brasilian wild Duck, called Mareca, of Marggrave.

IT hath a Ducks Bill, of a brown colour, at the rise whereof on each side is a red spot. The Head above is of a grey Hare-colour: The sides of the Head under the Eyes all white. The whole Breast and lower Belly hath an obscure resemblance of the colour of Oaken boards; and is besides variegated with black points [specks.] The Legs and Feet are black; the Tail grey. The Wings elegant, at the setting on of a dark grey colour. * 1.191 The quil-feathers on one side are of the former colour, but all the outer half of them [medietas extrema] of a pale brown: In the middle they are of a shining green, with a border of black; like the colour of the Mallards Neck. Its flesh is very good meat. The outmost of a light brown, and the middlemost of a shining green, with a fringe or border of black.

§. XII. * The second Brasilian wild Duck, called Mareca, of Marggrave.

IT is of the same bigness and figure with the precedent, hath a black shining Bill. The top of the Head, the upper part of the Neck, and the whole Back are of an Umber colour mixed with brown [fusco.] Under the Throat it is white. The Eyes are black, and before each Eye is a small round spot of a yellowish white colour. The whole Breast and lower Belly are of a dark grey, with a mixture of golden. The Tail is black: The Wing-feathers dusky, with a gloss of shining green, and the middle feathers of the Wings are of a rare green and blue shining in a dusky: Here also they have a waved line of black: But the * 1.192 end [extremitas] of the quil-feathers is wholly white. The Legs and Feet are of a bright red or vermilion colour. The Bird roasted colours the hands of those that touch it, and linnen cloth with a sanguine colour. It hath well tasted flesh, but a little bitter.

CHAP. IV. Of Tame Ducks.

§. I. The common Tame Duck: Anas domestica vulgaris.

IT is called by the Greeks, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 or 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, from the Verb 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, signifying, to swim: As Anas also by Varro is derived from no, nas, to swim. It is a Bird every where known, and therefore it would not be worth while to bestow many words in ex∣actly describing it. It is less than a Goose, almost as big as a Hen, but much lower, ha∣ving a broad, flat Bill, a broad Back, short Legs, situate backward, that in swimming it may more strongly strike the water with the finny oars of its Feet: As Aristotle rightly. Hereupon they become less convenient for walking, so that this Bird goes but slowly, and not without some difficulty. Ducks vary infinitely in colours, as do Hens, and other tame fowl.

Between the Duck and the Drake there is this difference, that he hath growing on his Rump certain erect feathers reflected backwards toward the Head, which she hath not. The Duck lays twelve, fourteen, or more Eggs as big as Hens Eggs, and white, with a light tincture of blue or green, the Yolk being of a deeper and redder colour.

The best Physicians (saith Aldrovand) disallow the flesh of these Birds, because they are hard and of difficult concoction, and agree not with the stomach: We rather think them disagreeable to the stomach, for their moistness and clamminess than for their hardness, whence also they are apt to produce excrementitious, gross, and me∣lancholic humours. The flesh of wild Ducks is preferred before that of tame, as be∣ing more savoury and wholsom.

The Drake hath a certain bony vessel or buble at the divarication of its Wind∣pipe, which we are wont to call a labyrinth; of the use whereof we have said as much as we thought fit, in the first Book at the end of the second Chapter.

Of the vertues and use of the Duck, and its parts in Physic, out of Schroder.

1. A live Duck asswages Colic pains, the feathers being pluckt off, and the naked part applied to the Belly.

2. The Fat heats, moistens, mollisies, digests, discusses. Therefore is of use in inward and outward pains, viz. of the sides and joynts, in the cold distempers of the Nerves, &c.

Note. This Fat is preferred before all others, especially that of the wild Duck.

3. The bloud is * 1.193 Alexipharmacal, and hereupon is sometimes received into Anti∣dotes. It is a known history which A. Gellius in the seventeenth Book of his Noctes Atticae, Chap. 16. relates. The Pontic Duck is said to maintain her self by feeding commonly upon Poisons. It is also written by Lenaeus Cn. Pompeys * 1.194 libertus, that Mithridates, that King of Pontus, was skilful in Physic, and cunning in remedies of that kind: And that he was wont to mingle their bloud in Medicaments, which were of force to digest and carry off Poisons; and that that bloud was the most effectual ingredient in such Confections. Moreover that the King himself by the use of such Medicines did secure himself against the secret practices of such as sought to poison him at Feasts and Banquets. Yea, that he would wittingly and willingly for ostentation sake often take a draught of violent and quick poyson, and yet received no harm by it. Wherefore afterwards when he was overthrown in battel by the Romans, and had fled into the furthest parts of his Kingdom, and resolved to die, and had in vain made trial of the strongest Poisons to hasten his death, he ran himself through with his own Sword.

4. Its dung is applied to the bites of venemous beasts.

§. II. The hooked-bill'd Duck.

IN shape of body and outward lineaments it is very like the common tame Duck; differs chiefly in the Bill, which is broad, something longer than the common Ducks, and bending moderately downward. The Head also is lesser and slenderer than the common Ducks. It is said to be a better layer.

§. III. The Muscovy Duck: Anas moscata, an Cairina, Aldrov?

IT is in this kind the biggest of all we have hitherto seen. The colour both of Male and Female is for the most part a purplish black. Yet I once saw a Duck of this kind purely white. About the Nosthrils and the Eyes it hath red * 1.195 Caruncles. It hath a hoarse voice; and scarce audible, unless when it is angry. Its Eyes are rounder than ordinary: Those of the young ones at first are of a sordid green, afterwards become continually whiter and whiter.

§. IV. The Cairo-Duck of Aldrovand.

THese Ducks Aldrovand thus briefly describes. They exceed ours in bigness of body. The Male also in this kind is bigger than the Female. It Bill where it joyns to the Head is very thick and tuberous; thence to the very tip it is continuedly narrower, till it ends in a sharp and crooked hook: It is of a black colour excepting toward the end, where it hath a good large red spot, and in its beginning another small one of the same colour, but more dilute. Its Head was black and tufted: Its Throat just under the Bill was powdered with whitish specks. The Eyes yellow, wherein appeared many little sanguine veins. The whole body almost was also black. The fea∣thers of the Back in the beginning, and also in the middle, were black, in the end green, or at least black, with a tincture of green. In the Wings also and in the Tail were some green feathers to be seen, and one or two white ones, which made a kind of white spot. The Legs were very strong, but short, coming near to a Chesnut colour, as did also the feet. The Female was less than the Male, and had a less tube∣rous Bill, where it was joyned to the Head, marked with a pretty broad line, partly white, and partly red. Besides, that spot we mentioned, which in the Bill of the Male was red, in the Bill of this was of an ash-colour, wherewith something of red was mixt: Else it was of a colour from black inclining to cinereous, if you except two whitish spots, which in the middle of the Bill turning one to another, each by it self formed the letter C. It had no tuft on its black Head. Its Breast also was of the same colour, spotted with white pricks. The Back as in the Male, but the Wings were much greener than his, and spotted also with two white spots. In other particulars it diffe∣red little or nothing from him.

§. V. * The Guiny Duck: Anas Libyca, Aldrov. and Bellon. which we take to be the same with the Muscovy and Cairo Duck.

THis kind of Duck Bellonius thus describes. A few years agone a certain kind of Ducks began to be kept in France, of a middle size, between a Goose and a Duck, having a broken voice, as if it had distempered or ulcerated Lungs. Now there is so great plenty of them in our Country, that they are every where kept in Ci∣ties, and publicly exposed to sale: For at great entertainments and Marriage Feasts they are sought for and desired. They have short Legs: The Male is bigger than the Female; and, as is usual in other Birds, of a different colour, so that it is hard to ascribe any certain colour to it, unless one would say that it comes near to a Duck-colour. They are for the most part either black or particoloured. They have a Bill in a

manner different from Geese and Ducks, hooked at the end, also short and broad. In the Head rises up something of a red colour like a Crest, but much different from a Cocks Comb. For it is a certain tuberous eminency, situate between the Nosthrils, exactly resembling the figure of a red Cherry. The Temples near the Eyes are without feathers, the skin shewing like a red hide; of the same substance with that Cherry-like bunch between the Eyes: By which Marks I think it may be certainly known and distinguished from other Birds. But this one thing may seem very strange in this Bird, that it hath so great a privy member, that it is an inch thick, and of four or five inches length, and red like bloud. If it were not very chargeable many more of them would be kept than are: For if you give them but meat enough they will lay many Eggs, and in a short time hatch a great number of Ducklings. Their flesh is neither better nor worse than that of a tame Goose or Duck.

This seems to me to be the very same Bird with Aldrovands Cairo-Duck, for most of the marks do agree, as will appear to him who will take the pains to compare the descriptions; and also the same with our Muscovy Duck. For Scaligers Indian Duck, which Aldro∣vand makes the same with his * 1.196 Libyc, is the same with our Muscovy-Duck, or we are very much deceived. So that I strongly suspect our Muscovy-Duck, the Guinny Duck of Bellonius, and Aldrovands Cairo-Duck, yea, and Gesners Indian Duck too, to be all one and the same bird, more or less accurately described. Perchance also the Birds themselves may differ one from another in those tuberous eminencies and naked skin about the Bill, and upon the Bill between the Nosthrils.

§. VI. * Gesners Indian Duck, which perchance may be also the same with our Muscovy.

THere is with us (saith he who sent us [Gesner] the figure and description of this Bird out of England) a Duck brought out of India, of the same shape of bo∣dy, the same Bill and Foot with the common Duck, but bigger and heavier by half than it. Its Head is red like bloud, and so is a good part of the Neck adjoyning, on the back-side. All that red is a callous flesh, and divided by incisures; and where it ends at the Nosthrils, it lets down a Caruncle of a different figure from the rest of the flesh, like that of a Swans, contiguous [or joyned] to the Bill. Its Head is bare of feathers, and that part also of the Neck which is red, save that on the top of the Head, through the whole length of it, there is a crest or tuft of feathers, which when it is angry it sets up. Under the Eyes at the beginning of the Bill the skin is spotted with black spots placed in no order: Above the Eye also are one or two spots tending up∣ward. The Eye is yellow, separated from the rest of the Head by a circle of black. Under the further end of the Eye backwards is a singular spot separated from the rest. The whole Bill is blue, only it hath a black spot at the tip. The feathers all along the rest of the Neck are white. At the setting on of the Neck is a circle of black, spotted with a few white spots, and unequal, narrower below, broader above. Behind this circle the Plumage of all the lower Belly is white, of the upper side of body brown, but the white Plumage is divided at the top by that black circle. The ends of the Wings and the Tail are of a shining green like Cantharides. The skin of the Legs is brown, with light, circular incisures. The membrane between the inter∣vals of the Toes is more pale, sprinkled with two or three brown spots, placed in no order, except in the left foot, where there are six set in arrow alongst the outmost Toe. It walks softly by reason of the heaviness of its body. Its voice is not like that of other Ducks, but hoarse, like a mans that hath his Jaws and Throat swoln with a cold. The Cock is bigger than the Hen. The Hen is like the Cock, but hath not such variety of colours. It gets its living out of muddy waters, and delights in such other things as the common Duck doth.

There are many things in this description, which do perswade me, that this Bird also is no other than our Muscovy Duck: As, equal bigness, naked tuberous flesh about the Bill, a hoarse voice, the Cock being bigger than the Hen, &c. Nor is the diversity of colours a sufficient argument of the contrary: For that they (as we have often said) in tame Birds of the same kind vary infinitely.

§. VII. The Brasilian Ipeca-guacu of Piso.

IT is a domestic, whole-footed bird, reputed for the goodness of its flesh. As to the bulk and shape of its body it is of a middle proportion between our Country Ducks and Geese; but in the beauty of its feathers and colours excells them both. Its Bill from the end to the middle is yellow: The middle of its Head is curiously tinctu∣red with red; the whole body from the crown to the Tail being of a delicate white colour like a Swans. It hath Ducks Feet, of a yellowish red. It feeds fat as well upon Land, as in Pools. For the goodness of its flesh it is not inferiour to our Ducks, and had in esteem by persons of quality. It is a fruitful bird, lays great Eggs, and a great many, almost all seasons of the year, dispatching its sitting in a short time. It is also salacious; its penis and other internal parts serving for generation, being more than usually strong and great. As for its bowels and entrails, they are of like consti∣tution and make with those of our Ducks.

Notes

• * 1.1

  That seed upon fish.
• † 1.2

  That seed on Insects.
• * 1.3

  Excepting those on the utmost joynt.
• * 1.4

  Exot. lib. 5. cap. 11.
• * 1.5

  Or Lobe of flesh.
• * 1.6

  Clusius makes them also of a yel∣low colour.
• * 1.7

  I do not well appre∣hend our Au∣thors mean∣ing in these words, there∣fore I have put them down in the Language he wrote them in.
• * 1.8

  Spurs they may more properly be called.
• * 1.9

  Lenticula aquatica tri∣sulca.
• * 1.10

  In another place Mr. wil∣lughby puts it among his queries, whe∣ther the five upper verte∣bres in the Neck of a He∣ron be refle∣cted the con∣trary way.
• * 1.11

  I suppose he means Italian measure, not an hand breadth.
• * 1.12

  The word is Poplit. s, which may be Englished Hams.
• * 1.13

  Ornithol. lib. 19. cap. 57.
• * 1.14

  Sawed of toothed.
• * 1.15

  The word is miniaceus, which signifies the colour of red lead,
• * 1.16

  Ornithoi. tom. 3. p. 400.
• * 1.17

  Sguacco & Squaiotta.
• * 1.18

  Bending like a Bow.
• * 1.19

  Of the same kind or Fa∣mily.
• * 1.20

  Bending like a Bow.
• * 1.21

  The gall∣duct or vein conveying gall from the Liver.
• * 1.22

  I suppose he means the Pupil black, and the Iris golden.
• * 1.23

  This part of the legs others call the thighs, though in∣deed it an∣swers most properly to the legs in man, being the second in∣ternodium from the foot.
• * 1.24

  Of a red lead colour.
• * 1.25

  In his An∣notations on Recchus his Animals.
• * 1.26

  In his An∣notations up∣on Recchus his Animals.
• † 1.27

  The Latine word is Spi∣tha••ae.
• * 1.28

  Resembling the minium of the Ancients, or our Cin∣nabar.
• * 1.29

  Eloritis.
• * 1.30

  i. e. Two for one.
• * 1.31

  As if it were carved or graven.
• * 1.32

  Tom. 3. pag. 439.
• * 1.33

  A small Curlew.
• * 1.34

  Tom. 3. pag. 430.
• * 1.35

  Ash-colou∣red, or grey.
• * 1.36

  Others call the Oedicne∣mus of Belloni∣us the Stone Curlew.
• * 1.37

  In some five inches and an half. in some above six.
• * 1.38

  Porus bila∣rius.
• * 1.39

  The word is russus, 〈◊〉〈◊〉 may be rendred russet.
• * 1.40

  Taraniolo and Tarangolo in Italian.
• * 1.41

  Airon negro in Italian.
• * 1.42

  ••asseae.
• * 1.43

  Numenius Indicus.
• * 1.44

  The Latine word is Costae.
• * 1.45

  Patella.
• * 1.46

  Ornithol. lib. 20. cap. 66.
• * 1.47

  Lead colour
• * 1.48

  Ornithol. Book 20. Chap. 26.
• * 1.49

  Understand it of the first row of coverts
• * 1.50

  Gallinula erythropus major.
• * 1.51

  Lib. 20. c. 25.
• * 1.52

  Fuscis, i. e. dark or dusky.
• * 1.53

  Tom. 3. pag. 481.
• * 1.54

  Aldrov. Or∣nithol. tom. 3. p. 461.
• * 1.55

  Or brown, with a tin∣cture of green.
• * 1.56

  Ornithol. tom. 1. p. 492.
• * 1.57

  Tom. 3. p. 413.
• * 1.58

  Lib. 20. cap. 45.
• * 1.59

  Caesio.
• † 1.60

  Longiuscula, i. e. rather of the longest.
• * 1.61

  Or black with a purple gloss.
• * 1.62

  Lib. 20. cap. 56.
• * 1.63

  Lib. 13. c. 15.
• * 1.64

  The Charadri∣os of Gesner.
• * 1.65

  It winks not.
• * 1.66

  〈◊〉〈◊〉 spa∣di••••ae.
• * 1.67

  That black ring, repre∣senting a cre∣scent, we spake of.
• * 1.68

  Grey.
• * 1.69

  Flemmings.
• * 1.70

  Or grey.
• * 1.71

  That on the right side.
• * 1.72

  Book 10. Chap. 55.
• * 1.73

  Are of a dark brown.
• * 1.74

  i. e. Little Hens.
• * 1.75

  The Bill.
• * 1.76

  The Tongue, Eyes,
• * 1.77

  Legs, Claws, Toes,
• * 1.78

  The colour of the feathers.
• * 1.79

  Rusty.
• † 1.80

  Ash-colou∣red or grey.
• * 1.81

  The Liver and Gall. Its flesh good meat. Its food.
• * 1.82

  Its breeding,
• * 1.83

  Eggs,
• * 1.84

  Manners,
• * 1.85

  Place.
• * 1.86

  The Latine is in anum, but I suppose it is misprinted for in acutum.
• * 1.87

  In minore ala, by which words and the following I do not well ap∣prehend what our Author means.
• * 1.88

  The lesser grey footed Water-hen.
• * 1.89

  Ornithol. tom. 3. p. 455.
• * 1.90

  Of about two inches length.
• * 1.91

  Tom 3. p. 470.
• * 1.92

  I wish Ces∣ner had seen the bird from which the Pi∣cture was ta∣ken, we should have had a better and truer descri∣ption of it.
• * 1.93

  i. e. The Land Runner.
• † 1.94

  Genus.
• * 1.95

  Out of Marg∣grave
• * 1.96

  Or red-lead colour.
• * 1.97

  The horned bird.
• * 1.98

  Gallinae Nu∣midicae, per∣chance he may mean Turkeys.
• * 1.99

  I suppose he was herein mistaken, for no bird we ever saw hath an equal num∣ber of joynts in every toe save the Swift.
• * 1.100

  The Latine words are an∣teriùs acumi∣natum.
• * 1.101

  Ornithol. book 19. chap. 16.
• * 1.102

  Coot.
• * 1.103

  Calvities.
• * 1.104

  Lib. 19. cap. 55.
• † 1.105

  Here he is mistaken, for the Flammant hath longer.
• * 1.106

  Or such as have but three toes, and such as have four.
• * 1.107

  Elated.
• * 1.108

  Musei, lib. 3. cap. 19.
• * 1.109

  But the ele∣ven outmost.
• * 1.110

  Tom. 3. pag. 240.
• * 1.111

  The Coot.
• * 1.112

  It is another Bird which the Scots about the Bass Island, and the Northum∣bers about the Farn Islands call a Skout, viz. the Alka of Hoier.
• * 1.113

  Tom. 3. pag. 215.
• † 1.114

  Ash-colou∣red.
• * 1.115

  Black and blue, the co∣lour in the skin after a stroke or con∣fusion.
• * 1.116

  This Island is not far distant from the Pro∣montory of Carnarvanshire
• * 1.117

  Bare of fea∣thers.
• * 1.118

  See his An∣notations on Recchus his Animals.
• * 1.119

  He so calls this bag un∣der the Bill.
• * 1.120

  Os hyoides.
• * 1.121

  In his An∣notationsupon Recchus his Animals.
• * 1.122

  Lib. 10. chap. 54.
• * 1.123

  This mark agrees also to the Cormo∣rant.
• * 1.124

  Auctar. ad lib. 5. cap. 6. exotic.
• * 1.125

  Mergi aqua∣tici.
• * 1.126

  The word is Hamuli, signi∣fying little hooks.
• * 1.127

  In Germany the women wear great round fur∣caps as big and round al∣most as Tur∣bants.
• * 1.128

  Or their be∣ginning per∣chance he may mean near the ridge.
• * 1.129

  The Earl of Darby.
• * 1.130

  The same is reported of the French Macreuse, per∣ch ance the same bird with the Puffin.
• * 1.131

  The Cor∣morant.
• * 1.132

  Ornithol. book. 16. chap 63.
• * 1.133

  Or grey, for they are made up as it were of innumera∣ble little black points or specks.
• * 1.134

  Diver of the River Rhine.
• * 1.135

  Have the Tail.
• * 1.136

  Rusty.
• * 1.137

  Coalitis. i. t. growing together.
• * 1.138

  Internodia. i. e. bones be∣tween joynt and joynt.
• * 1.139

  I suppose our English name Loon is borrowed of them.
• * 1.140

  Zona, a bor∣der or fringe,
• * 1.141

  Prasini, i. e. a leck colour.
• * 1.142

  Nefuc.
• * 1.143

  This is true especially of the greater Gulls.
• * 1.144

  Feeding upon fish.
• * 1.145

  Or but a very small one.
• * 1.146

  Larus ingens marinus.
• * 1.147

  Sweet∣bread.
• * 1.148

  Sure the Picture is false in this, for no∣thing of green appears in any Gull we ever yet saw.
• † 1.149

  A Strasburgh yard is not much above half a yard English.
• * 1.150

  Or Adams Apple.
• * 1.151

  Tom. 3. pag. 73.
• * 1.152

  I suppose it should have been upon the Wings.
• * 1.153

  Ornithol. Book 19. Chap. 4.
• * 1.154

  Cinereous.
• † 1.155

  Reach be∣yond.
• * 1.156

  Dusky,
• * 1.157

  The word extremitatibus, which may as well signifie edges or ex∣tremities.
• * 1.158

  Tom. 3. pag. 81.
• * 1.159

  Ornithol. t. 3. p. 19.
• * 1.160

  Masae. book 3. chap. 13.
• * 1.161

  Breast∣bone.
• * 1.162

  Ornithol. tom. 3. p. 166.
• † 1.163

  Kind.
• * 1.164

  Fleshy pro∣tuberance.
• * 1.165

  Bottom.
• * 1.166

  The soft∣feathered Duck.
• * 1.167

  Upper part of the Neck.
• * 1.168

  A back-toe he means.
• * 1.169

  Bone••
• * 1.170

  Gilvo.
• * 1.171

  Or dusky, fascil.
• * 1.172

  Ruffus.
• * 1.173

  Ornithol. c. 3. p. 217.
• * 1.174

  Ornithol. p. 227.
• * 1.175

  Corvus aqua∣ticus.
• * 1.176

  That is, four eyes.
• * 1.177

  Tom. 3. pag. 224.
• * 1.178

  Blackish.
• * 1.179

  Anas pla∣tyrhynchos ery∣thropus.
• * 1.180

  Recurvum.
• * 1.181

  Anati mus∣cariae.
• * 1.182

  Mustilin•• coloris.
• * 1.183

  Or four corner'd.
• * 1.184

  Tom. 3. pag. 212.
• * 1.185

  Fuscis, dusky.
• * 1.186

  Lies in their faces, or on their backs.
• * 1.187

  Anas mediae magnitudinis.
• * 1.188

  Stand up or out but very little.
• * 1.189

  Mr. Willughby describes them to be of a purplish co∣lour, with a mixture of cinereous.
• * 1.190

  Teal.
• * 1.191

  I suppose he means, that the inner quils, or those next the bo∣dy are of a dark grey as was before in∣timated.
• * 1.192

  Or border, or perchance outside.
• * 1.193

  Good against poison and infection.
• * 1.194

  A freed man.
• * 1.195

  Tuberous naked flesh.
• * 1.196

  African or Guinny Duck.