The Digital Ark: Early Modern Collections of Curiosities in England and Scotland, 1580-1700

The Ornithology of Francis Willughby
Brent Nelson editor
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Ray, John and Francis Willughby The ornithology of Francis Willughby...: in three books: wherein all the birds hitherto known ... are accurately described: the descriptions illustrated by most elegant figures, nearly resembling the live birds, engraven in LXXVIII 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 London Printed by A.C. for John Martyn 1678.
The Preface . . . Now because elegant and accurate Figures do much illustrate and facilitate the understanding of Descriptions, in order to the Engraving such Figures for this Work, Mr. Willughby made a Collection of as many Pictures drawn in colours by the life as he could procure. First, He purchased of one Leonard Baltner, a Fisherman of Strasburgh, a Volume containing the Pictures of all the Water-fowl frequenting the Rhene near that City, as also all the Fish and Water-Insects found there, drawn with great curiosity and exactness by an excellent hand. The which Fowl, Fishes, and Insects the said Baltner had himself taken, described, and at his own proper costs and charges caused to be drawn. Which curiosity is much to be admired and commended in a Person of his Condition and Education. For my part, I must needs acknowledge that I have received much light and information from the Work of this poor man, and have been thereby inabled to clear many difficulties, and rectifie some mistakes in Gesner. Secondly, At Nurenberg in Germany he bought a large Volume of Pictures of Birds drawn in colours. Thirdly, He caused divers Species, as well seen in England as beyond the Seas, to be drawn by good Artists. Besides what he left, the deservedly famous Sir Thomas Brown, Professor of Physick in the City of Norwich, frankly communicated the Draughts of several rare Birds, with some brief notes and descriptions of them. Out of these, and the Printed Figures of Aldrovandus, and Pet. Olina, an Italian Author, we culled out those we thought most natural, and resembling the life, for the Gravers to imitate, adding also all but one or two of Marggravius's, and some out of Clusius his Exotics, Piso his Natural History of the West Indies, and Bontius his of the East. The Gravers we employed, though they were very good Workmen, yet in many Sculps they have not satisfied me. For I being at a great di­stance from London, and all advices and directions necessarily passing by Letter, sometimes through haste mistook in my directions, sometimes through weariness and impatience of long Writing sent not so clear and full instructions as was requisite; and they as often neglected their instructions, or mistook my meaning. Notwithstanding the Figures, such as they are, take them all together, they are the best and truest, that is, most like the live Birds, of any hitherto engraven in Brass. It is requisite now that we inform the Reader what compendious ways we sought to avoid unnecessary expences in graving of Figures. 1. Of the same Species of Bird when more Figures than one occurred either in divers Authors, or our own Papers, or both, we caused only one, which we judged to be the best to be engraven. 2. We have for the most part contented our selves with the figure of one Sex only, and that the Male. 3. We have omitted all such dubious Icons as we knew not whether they were of true birds or not, or could not certainly determine of what Species they were. 4. Of such as differ only in bigness, or if otherwise in such accidents as cannot be expressed in Sculpture, we have given only the Figure of the greater. Of this kind are the greater and lesser Curlew, the common Snipe, and Jack-Snipe, or Judcock. And yet some Birds we have caused to be graven twice when the first time the Gravers mist their aim, and shot too wide of their mark: Such are the red-leg'd Partridge, The common Swallow, the Swift, the common Blackbird, the House-Dove, the Royston Crow, the Witwall, and the Dottrel. I might add hereto the Canada Goose in the seventieth Plate, for I now persuade my self that the Bird graven in Plate 71. is the same with it. The lain Sheldrake was through mistake twice figured in Plates 70. and 71. so was the Auk or Rozor-bill in Plates 64. and 65. The figures of the Rock Ouzel, Bittern, and Stone-Curlew first graven, though they were passable enough, yet having afterwards gotten very exact Figures of those Birds, we caused them also to be Engraven. The whole Work we have divided into three Books. In the first we treat of Birds in general; in the second of Land-fowl; in the third of Water-Fowl. The second Book we have divided into two parts: The first whereof contains Birds of crooked Beak and Talons; The second, such whose Bills and Claws are more streight. The third Book is tripartite: The first part takes in all Birds that wade in the waters, or frequent watery places, but swim not; The second, such as are of a middle nature between swimmers and waders, or rather that partake of both kinds, some whereof are cloven-footed, and yet swim; others whole-footed, but yet very long-leg'd like the waders: The third is of whole-footed, or fin-toed Birds, that swim in the water. As for fabulous Birds, such as are confessedly so, viz. Phenixes, Griffins, Harpyes, Ruk, and the like, I have omitted them, as being no part of our sub­ject, and all that can be said of them having been more than once written already. I have also omitted some that I only suspected for fictitious, as the Scythian Bird, the Aquila Heteropus, &c. Yet because I would not rely too much upon my own judgment, I have put in the Appendix the descriptions of some of that nature out of Hernandez, which I refer to the Readers censure. It remains that I make a grateful mention of such of our learned and wor­thy Friends, as have given us any considerable information or assistance; as well to do them right, as to acquaint the Reader whom we mean by some names recorded in this Work. Those were Sir Thomas Brown of Norwich before remembred: Francis Jessop Esq of Broom-hall in Sheffield Parish, Yorkshire, who sent us the Descriptions and Cases of many rare Birds, and discovered and gave us notice of many Species thereabout, which we knew not before to be native of England: Sir Philip Skippon of Wrentham near Bliborough in the County of Suffolk, Knight, who communicated the Pictures of several Birds we wanted: And Mr. Ralph Johnson of Brignal near Greta Bridge in Yorkshire, a Person of singular skill in Zoology, especially the History of Birds, who besides the Descriptions and Pictures of divers uncommon, and some undescribed both Land and Water-fowl, communicated to us his Method of Birds, whereby we were in some particulars informed, in many others confirmed, his judgment concurring with ours in the divisions and Characteristic notes of the Genera. . . . 28 Among the whole-footed Water-fowl we omitted the Recurvirostra or Avosetta Italorum, which in Winter-time often frequents our coasts, the Shear-water of Sir Thomas Brown, and the Mergulus melanoleucos rostro acute brevi of the same. THE SECOND PART OF THE FIRST BOOK. Of Birds with streighter or less hooked Bills. THE FIRST SECTION. OF GREATER BIRDS. . . . 140 CHAP. V. Of several sorts of Woodpeckers §. X. * The Brasilian Aracari of Marggrav. the other Xochitenacatl of Nieremberg. ITIt is of the bigness of a Woodpecker [I suppose he means the common green one] hath a Bill four inches long, an inch and half broad or deep, three inches and an half thick where thickest, [I suppose he means so much by measure round] a little bending downward like a Turkish Scymitar, and sharp-pointed like a Parrots; the upper Chap being a little longer than the lower: Both upper and lower are for above half way reckoning from the end, serrate or toothed. The upper part of the Bill is greater than the lower. The Bill is hollow, very light, [lighter than a Spunge:] The upper Chap white, distinguished by a black line running along the middle or ridge from head to point, the lower Chap wholly black. The whole Bill is inserted into the Head triangle-wise, and where the insertion is, compassed about with a triangu­lar white line. It hath a Tongue four inches long, very light, and plainly resembling a feather to see to: Or else is feathered and black, (if the Tongue may be said to have a feather.) It hath a Head not very big, broad, and compressed; great Eyes, 141 with a black Pupil, yellow Irides, and the * Reliqua ex-
tremitates. *rest of the outsides of the Eyes black. The Neck is not longer than a Parrots. The body from the rise of the Neck to the Tail is about five inches long. The Tail is broad like a tline Woodpeckers, and six inches long, or somewhat more. The Legs and Feet are of a dark green or black, like to those of Parrots, having two fore-toes, whereof the one longer than the other, and two back-toes likewise of unequal length. The Claws crooked, and dusky or black. The length of the upper Legs is two inches, of the lower one and an half. The whole Head and Neck as far as the beginning of the Breast are covered with black feathers, which where they end are terminated in a circle. The Breast, and all the lower Belly elegantly cloathed with yellow feathers mingled with pavonine. Cross the Breast from the one side to the other is a broad line drawn, of a sanguine colour. The whole Back, Wings, Tail, and upper Legs are covered with dark green feathers, [or black with a gloss of green] like the colour usual in our Magpies. The end of the Back above the beginning of the Tail is of a sanguine colour to more than the Circumfe­rence of a Crown piece. The Wings end at the rise of the Tail, and within side are of a dark ash-colour. The Bill is black within. This Bird doth, as it were, pro­nounce its own name, crying with a sharp voice, but not very shril, Aracari. This Bird is very like the Toucan or Brasilian Pie. The conformation of its Feet argues it to belong to the Woodpecker-kind. We saw the Bill of this Bird in the Re­pository of the Royal Society, London, our selves also have one of them: It is much less than the Toucans Bill, not so compressed side-ways, but rounder. The upper Chap wholly white, without any line of black in the top, (wherein it differs from the Ara­cari's Bill described by Marggrave) the lower black. . . . CHAP. VIII. The greatest Land-birds, of a peculiar kind by themselves, which by reason of the bulk of their bodies, and smalness of their Wings cannot fly, but only walk . . . . 153 §. IV. The Dodo, called by Clusius Gallus gallinaceus peregrinus, by Nieremberg Cygnus cucullatus, by Bontius Dronte. THisThis Exotic Bird, found by the Hollanders in the Island called * That is the Swan
Island. Cygnaea or Cerne by the Portugues, Mauritius Island by the Low Dutch, of thirty miles com­pass, famous especially for black Ebony, did equal or exceed a Swan in bigness, but was of a far different shape: For its Head was great, covered as it were with a certain membrane resembling a hood: Beside, its Bill was not flat and broad, but thick and long; of a yellowish colour next the Head, the point being black: The upper Chap was hooked; in the nether had a bluish spot in the middle between the yellow and black part. They reported that it is covered with thin and short feathers, and wants Wings, instead whereof it hath only four or five long, black feathers; that the hinder part of the body is yery fat and fleshy, wherein for the Tail were four or five small curled feathers, twirled up together, of an ash-colour. Its Legs are thick ra­ther than long, whose upper part, as far as the knee, is covered with black feathers; the lower part, together with the Feet, of a yellowish colour: Its Feet divided into four toes, three (and those the longer) standing forward, the fourth and shortest backward; all furnished with black Claws. After I had composed and writ down the History of this Bird with as much diligence and faithfulness as I could, I hapned to see in the house of Peter Pawius, primary Professor of Physic in the University of Leyden, a Leg thereof cut off at the knee, lately brought over out of Mauritius his Island. It was not very long, from the knee to the bending of the foot being but little more than four inches; but of a great thickness, so that it was almost four inches in compass, and covered with thick-set scales, on the upper side broader, and of a yel­lowish colour, on the under [or backside of the Leg] lesser and dusky. The upper side of the Toes was also covered with broad scales, the under side wholly callous. The Toes were short for so thick a Leg: For the length of the greatest or middlemost Toe to the nail did not much exceed two inches, that of the other Toe next to it scarce came up to two inches: The back-toe fell something short of an inch and half: But the Claws of all were thick, hard, black, less than an inch long; but that of the back-toe longer than the rest, exceeding an inch. The Mariners in their dialect gave this bird the name of Walghvogel, that is, a nauseous, or yellowish bird: Partly because after long boyling its fleshbecame not tender, but continued hard, and of a difficult concoction; excepting the Breast and Gizzard, which they found to be of no bad relish; partly because they could easily get many Turtle-Doves, which were much more delicate and pleasant to the Palate. Wherefore it was no wonder that in comparison of those they despised this, and said they could well be content to be without it. Moreover they said, that they found certain stones in its Gizzard: And no wonder, for all other birds as well as these swallow stones, to assist them in grinding their meat. Thus far Clusius. * Hist. Natur.
& Medic. In-
diae Oriental.
lib. 5. cap. 17. *Bontius writes, that this Bird is for bigness of mean size, between an Ostrich and a Turkey, from which it partly differs in shape, and partly agrees with them, especially with the African Ostriches, if you consider the Rump, quils, and feathers: So that it shews like a Pigmy among them, if you regard the shortness of its Legs. It hath a great, ill-favoured Head, covered with a kind of membrane resembling a hood: Great, black Eyes, a bending, prominent, fat Neck: An extraordinary long, strong, bluish white Bill, only the ends of each Mandible are of a different colour, that of the upper black, that of the nether yellowish, both sharp-pointed and crooked. It gapes huge wide, as being naturally very voracious. Its body is fat, round, co­vered with soft, grey feathers, after the manner of an Ostriches: In each side instead of hard Wing-feathers or quils, it is furnished with small soft-feathered Wings, of a yellowish ash-colour; and behind the Rump, instead of a Tail, is adorned with five small curled feathers of the same colour. It hath yellow Legs, thick, but very short; four Toes in each foot, solid, long, as it were scaly, armed with strong, black Claws. It is a slow-paced and stupid bird, and which easily becomes a prey to the Fowlers. The flesh, especially of the Breast, is fat, esculent, and so copious, that three or four Dodos will sometimes suffice to fill an hundred Seamens bellies. If they be old, or not well boyled, they are of difficult concoction, and are salted and stored up for provision of victual. There are found in their stomachs stones of an ash-colour of di­vers figures and magnitudes; yet not bred there as the common people and Seamen 154 fancy, but swallowed by the Bird; as though by this mark also Nature would manifest, that these Fowl are of the Ostrich kind in that they swallow any hard things, though they do not digest them. Thus Bontius. We have seen this Bird dried, or its skin stuft in Tradescants Cabinet. . . . CHAP. XVIII. Birds of the Thrush-kind, that are black of colour. . . . 193 §. IV. The Indian Mockbird, Caeruleus Indicus. WEWe saw this Bird dried in Tradescants Cabinet. It is of the bigness of a com­mon Lark, hath a streight sharp Bill, a long Tail: And is all over of a blue colour. Upon second thoughts, however Tradescant might put the Epithete of Indi­an upon this bird, I judge it to be no other than the Caeruleus or Blue Ouzel of Bellonius, described in the precedent Article. §. V. * Aldrovandus his Brasilian Merula, Book 16. Chap. 16. BElloniusBellonius figures this bird among the Merulae, induced only by this reason, that those who bring it out of Brasil into Europe call it, the Brasilian Blackbird. Where­fore seeing he speaks nothing concerning the nature of the Bird, and it is alike un­known to me, I also adjoyn it to the Merulae, although in the shortness, or rather crookedness, of its Bill it differs much from them. Those (saith Bellonius) who trade in Countries newly discovered, bring back thence such strange rarities as they think will sell dear with us here: But because they cannot bring the birds themselves alive in Cages, therefore they flay off the skins of such as are more beautiful than the rest, as this is, and bringing them over make a great gain of the sale of them; especi­ally of this which they call, the Brasilian Blackbird; though in bigness it differs from a Blackbird. The colour of the whole body, except the Tail and Wings, which 194 are black; is so deep [perchance by the word intensè he may mean bright] a red, that it exceeds all other rednesses. The Tail is long; the Feet and Legs black; The Bill short, as in a Sparrow. The feathers are red to the very bottom. That which Aldrovandus describes, perchance from a picture, was in some things different from Bellonius his bird. For, saith he, the Wings are not all over black, but all the upper feathers by the shoulders of a deep red. Next to them are some black ones, then red ones again; the subsequent, viz. all the great feathers, being black, as is also the Tail. The Bill also is not so short as in Sparrows, yet thick, and remarkably crooked, without of a dusky colour, within yellow, as I conjecture from the colour of the corners of the mouth [rictûs.] Moreover, the Feet are not black, but of an ash-colour, only a little dusky, being great for the proportion of the Legs: The Claws short, but crooked, of the same colour. We have seen in Tradescants Cabinet a red Indian bird dried, of the bigness almost of a Mavis, having a long Tail, which perchance is the same with the bird in this Ar­ticle described. . . . §. VII. The red-breasted Indian Blackbird, perchance the Jacapu of Marggrave. WE saw the Case of this bird in Tradescants Cabinet. It was of the bigness and shape of a Blackbird, as far as I could judge by the dried skin. The colour of the whole upper side was black; only the edges of the feathers about the Rump were ash-coloured. The Breast was of a scarlet colour: The Bill like a Blackbirds: The Tail also long, and like a Blackbirds. I take this to be the same bird, which Marggrave describes under the title of Jacapu of the Brasilians, though he attribute to it only the bigness of a Lark. It hath (saith he) a long Tail, shorter Wings, short and black Legs, with sharp Claws on the four toes: A Bill a little crooked and black, half an inch long. The whole body is cove­red with shining black feathers; yet under the Throat spots of a Vermilion colour are mingled with the black. This bird differs from ours in its smalness, and the shortness of its Bill. 286 BOOK III. PART I. SECTION II. Of Cloven-footed Piscivorous Water-fowl. . . . 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 Herons: 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 four­teen in number. Its Claws are broad, like the nails of a man; so that [...]. 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 * Of a red
lead colour. *red Bill and Legs; the Claws of the Feet like hu­mane 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 * In his An-
notations on
Recchus his
Animals. *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 ap­proach 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. . . . SECTION V. Water-fowl not piscivorous, with slender Bills, of a middle length. . . . 306 CHAP. XIV. The Stone-Curlew: The Oedicnemus of Bellonius: Charadrius of Gesner, Aldrov. called at Rome, Curlotte.* ITsIts * Lib. 13. c. 15. 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 mid­dlemost; 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, Oedic­nemus. 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, ha­ving 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 thir­teen 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 um­bilical 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, 307 Book 13. Chap. 15. I suspect it to be the same with the Oedicnemus, and those diffe­rent notes to be but mistakes of the Painter. The Charadrios of Gesner,* * The Charadri-
os of Gesner. which Aldrovand judges to be the same with our Oedic­nemus, 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. * It winks
not. *It shuts not its Eyes though you put your finger to them. It is ea­sily 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. . . . 311 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 mem­brane as far as the first joynt. It hath the back-toe. The Liver is divided into two Lobes, of which the * That on the
right side. *dexter is much the bigger. I found no Gall, yet dare not say that it wants one. Upon the Western shores of England, about Pensans in Cornwal, and Aberdaren in Merionethshire in Wales, we ob­served 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. PART III. Of WHOLE-FOOTED BIRDS with shorter Legs. . . . SECTION I. Whole-footed Birds that want the Back-toe. 322 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 Hol­landers 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 signi­fies 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 Ra­vens, but not so * Elated. *high; and a very short Tail; black, flat Feet, of the form of Geese­feet, 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 Jour­nals of that Voyage] that they feed only upon fish, yet is not their flesh of any un­grateful relish, nor doth it taste of fish. They dig deep holes in the shore like Cony­burroughs, 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* * Musei, lib. 3.
cap. 19. 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) nei­ther 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 de­scriptions 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. . . . SECTION II. Whole-footed Birds with four fore-toes, or four toes all web'd together. . . . 331 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 toge­ther. 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 conserved 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 332 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. . . . SECTION III. Whole-footed Birds, having the back-toe loose, with a narrow Bill, hooked at the end, and not toothed. . . . 333 CHAP. II. The Puffin of the Isle of Man, which I take to be the Puffinus Anglorum. MRMr. 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 Lap­wings Bill, the upper Chap being hooked at the end, like a Cormorants. Its base is co­vered 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 anhand-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 narrow channel, called the Calf of Man, on which are no habitations, but only a Cottage or two lately built. This Islet is full of Conies, which the Puffins coming year­ly dislodge, and build in their Burroughs. They lay each but one Egg before they sit, like the Razor-bill and Guillem; although itbe 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. What­ever 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 extraordinarily fat. When they are come to their full growth, they who are intrusted by the * The Earl
of Darby. in *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 334 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.* * The same is
reported of
the French
Macreuse, per-
chance the
same bird
with the
Puffin. 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. IV. The Shear-water. OUrOur 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 histo­ry 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 untracta­ble. 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 Cormo­rants, and blackish: Its Wings long, when gathered up reaching to the end of the Tail. . . . SECTION V. Of DOUCKERS or Loons, called in Latine, COLYMBI. . . .339 CHAP. II. Cloven-footed DOUCKERS that have no Tails. . . . §. IV. The grey or ash-coloured Loon of Dr. Brown. THisThis 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. . . . CHAP. III. Whole-footed Douckers with Tails. 341 §. I. The greatest speckled Diver or Loon: Colymbus maximus caudatus; Mergus max. Farrensis five Arcticus, Clus. THisThis 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 big­ger upon the long scapular feathers and coverts of the Wings, and smaller in the mid­dle 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 * Internodia.
i. e. bones be-
tween joynt
and joynt. *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 perpendi­cularly upon the Tail. It hath no Labyrinth upon the Wind-pipe. The Liver is di­vided 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. 342 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 Cawood: 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 an­gles 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 re­presents. [tiny diagram] 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 manifest­ly 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. . . . 343 §. IV. * The small black and white Diver with a short, sharp-pointed Bill. THeThe 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 hind­toe. 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 VII. . . . MEMB. II. Broad-billed Birds of the Duck-kind. . . . CHAP. II. Of Sea-Ducks. . . . 366 §. X. The black Diver or Scoter: Anas nigerminor. ITIt 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 fea­thers 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, with­out 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 pur­ple, 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 ob­served 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, contra­ry 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 itsliving by diving, and is taken in Nets placed under water. In the wash in Lincolnshire it is found plentifully. Its Case 367stuft 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 last­ly, 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.