The FLYING SQUIREL, qu. Sciurel, from Sciurus. Not described, unless by Scaliger. The colour of his Body a dark grey. Of his Tail, almost that of straw. Lesser than the common Squirel, not above five Inches and ½ from his Nose end to his Buttocks. His Skin, from his Sides, Thighs and Legs (almost as the wings of a Bat) is stretched out about an Inch in breadth, or more or less at his pleasure: by means whereof he leaps further, and alights the more safely; and is therefore called The flying Squirel. In other respects, like the Europæan kind. It was sent from Virginia, its breeding place.

He seems to be the same Animal which Scaliger describes under the Name of the Flying Cat. Exercit. 217. S. 9.

The Squirel, when he hath a mind to cross any water(a) Gesner, out of the Author of the Book, de Naturâ Rerum; out of Vincentius, Beluacensis, and Olaus Magnus. for a good Nut-Tree, picks out, and sits on some light piece of Barque for a Boat, and erecting his Tail for a Sail, he makes his Voyage. (a)

A STAGS TEARS. A thicken'd Excretion from the inward Angle of his Eye. In colour and consistence almost like to Mirrh; or Ear-wax that has been long harden'd in the Ear. Of a strong stinking smell, like that of the Animal's sweat. They are generally affirmed to be sudorifick, and of an Alexipharmick nature. And if they were as easie to be had, as some Womens, it were worth the trying.

They are quite a different thing from that little round and hard Bone, which Scaliger describes (a)(a) Exerc. 112. by the Name of Lachryma Cervina, and which he affirms to grow in the great Corner of a Stags Eye to the Bone, after an hundred years old. I doubt a stranger sight, than the Ludus Secularis; such as no man (but himself) ever saw, or shall see.

The MUSK DEER. Capreolus Moschi. Gesner reckoning up the Names, tells us, That the English call him a Musk Cat. But is better at other Languages. He breeds in China, and the East Indies. Not ill pictur'd in Calceolarius's Musæum. That in Kircher's China Illustrata faulty as to the Snout and Feet. That of Johnston absurd. Almost every where worse describ'd. That he is a two-horn'd Animal, says Aldrovandus, all agree, except Simeon Sethi, who saith he hath but one. Neither of which is true. The Description likewise given by Scaliger, and out of him by Chiocco in Calceolarius's Musæum is false, and very defective. The best I find is amongst the German Transactions. To which I would have refer'd the Reader, but that comparing it with That I had drawn up before I met with it, I see some differences.

From his Nose end to his Tail, a yard and ½ a foot long. His Head above ½ a foot. His Neck ¼ of a yard. His Forehead three inches broad. His Nose end scarce ¾ of an inch, being very sharp, like that of a Grey-Hound. His Ears like a Coneys, about three inches long, and erect. As also his Tail or Scut, which exceeds not two inches. His fore- Leg a foot and two inches long, taking in Foot and Thigh. Near an inch over: the Foot deeply cloven; with two fore-Hoofs, an inch and ¼ long, each ¼ of an inch over; and two Heels, almost as big, and therefore conspicuous. His hinder feet are here wanting.

His hair on his Head and Legs about ½ inch long, and rateably small. On his Belly an inch and ½ long, and somewhat thicker. On his Back and Buttocks three inches long: thicker in proportion, than in any other Animal, except perhaps some of the Deer kind, sc. three or four times as thick as Hogs Bristles: consisting of brown and white portions alternately from the Root to the top. On the Head and Legs, brown; On the Belly and under the Skut, whitish. As it were frizled, especially on the Back and Belly, by a kind of undulation. Softer than in most Animals, and exceeding light and rare. For being split, and view'd with a Glass, they appear to be made up of little Bladders, like those in the Plume or Stalk of a Quill: so that it is a thing betwixt a common Hair and a Quill. On each side his lower Chap, almost under the corners of his mouth, there is a peculiar Tuft (about ¾ of an inch long) of short, thick and hard hairs, or rather Bristles, of equal length, as in a scrubing-Brush.

The Musk Bladder or Bag is about three inches long, two over, and swelling out from his Belly one and ½. Standing before his Groin about as much. I find it cut open, whereby the observation of its natural Aperture (which I suppose it hath as the Castor-Bag) is prevented.

He hath 26 Teeth. In his lower Chap, sixteen; of which there are eight little Cuters before; behind, four Grinders on each side, rugged and continuous. As many like Grinders in the upper Jaw. About an inch and ½ from the Nose end, in the same Jaw, on each side a Tusk, two inches and ½ long, hooked downward, and backward, and ending in a point. Not round, but flat, the breadth of ½ an inch; thin, and having a sharp edge behind: so as it may not unfitly be liken'd to a Sithe. There are no Horns.

The Hair of this Animal, by its softness and rarity, are a singular contrivance of Nature to keep him warm. For all Garments, the softer and rarer they are, (cæt. par.) they are the warmer. For the same cause, the Hair on his Back, is also the longest; sc. for the better protection of the Spinalis Medulla, His two Tusks, by the Figure, appear to serve for fighting partly, and partly for feeding; by the help whereof he is able either to stub up edible Roots out of the ground, or to tear off the Barques, or break down the Boughs of Trees. By the help of his great Ears, he hears his approaching enemy the further off, to make his flight. So also the Hare, being a fearful Animal, hath the like. Nature hath furnished him with great heels, both to enable him to make the greater leaps, and to light also upon his Feet the more safely, for by their means, the force of his weight is gradually broken.

Scaliger's mistakes (a) (a) Exercitat. 21. about this Animal, are principally these two; In saying his Tusks grow out of his nether Jaw; and in calling the Musk, A postemated Blood. For he might as well call Civet and Castor the Blood of those Animals that yield them. And if it were apostemated, it would not be separated from the Flesh, but contiguous to it: whereas it is plain, that the Musk was here inclosed on all sides, in an entire Cystis or Bag made by nature for that purpose.

The BIRD of PARADISE. By the Natives of the Molucca Islands (where they breed, and by whom they are worshipped,) called MANUCODIATA, i. e. The Bird of God. Because they know not from whence they come; and for their beauty. From his swift flight to and again, the Indians, in their Language, call him a Swallow. Marggravius reckons up several sorts of them, and describes them all. The least kind, Clusius calls the King. Because (as he saith, from the report of the Dutch Mariners) as they fly together, about 30 or 40 in a flock, he always keeps higher than the rest.) Besides the smallness of his Body, in respect to what his copious Plumes shew him; the long Feathers which grow upon his sides under his Wings, and are extended thence a great way beyond his Tail; and the two long Strings or Quills which grow upon his Rump, do most remarkably distinguish him from all other Birds. He is elegantly figur'd in Calceolarius's Musæum, with the Title of Chamæleon Æreus.

Antonius Pigafeta was the first that brought this Bird, or any certain knowledge of him into Europe. (c) (c) Clusius. Before which, he was believed, not only by the Vulgar, but by Naturalists, (amongst whom Scaliger (d) See Exerc. 228. S. 2.(d) was one) that they had no Legs, but always flew up and down suspended in the Air, by the help of their Wings and Tail spread all abroad. According to which silly fancy, he is also pictur'd in Gesner.

Agreeable to this conceit, it is likewise commonly thought, and by Georgius de sepibus, who describes the Musæum Romanum, is affirmed, that those two long Quills that grow upon the top of this Birds Rump, being at his pleasure twined or wrapped round about the boughs of Trees, serve quietly to suspend him. Whereas, as Mr. Wray hath also rightly observed, (a) (a) Willoughb. Ornith. not being Muscular, it is impossible they should be of any such use. His hooked Claws shew him to be a Bird of Prey; and he ordinarily flys at Green-Finches, and other little Birds, and feeds on them. (b) (b) Bont. H. N. l. 5. The Tarnacenses shoot them down with Darts. (c)

The GREAT RED and BLEW BLUE PARROT. Psittacus Erythrocyaneus. All the great kind called also MACCAW and Cockatoone. It was sent hither from Java. See his Description in Willoughby's Ornithologia. There are of these greater, the middlemost called Popinjayes, and the lesser called Perroqueets, in all above twenty sorts. Their more remarkable Parts, are their hooked Bills, whereby they catch hold of Boughs, and help to raise themselves up in the climbing of Trees. Their broad, thick, and muscular Tongues, for which they are called ἀνθρωπόγλωττοι and by which they are the better enabled to speak, and to rowl their meat from side to side under the edges of their Bills: and their Feet, which, like those of the Woodpecker, have two Toes before and two behind, with which they bring their meat to their mouths; and that after an odd way, sc. by turning their foot outward. (d) (d) Willoughb. Ornith.

The Parret only, saith Scaliger, (e) with the Crocodile, moves the upper Jaw: Yet the same is affirmed of the (e) Exercit. 236. S. 1. Hippopotamus, by Columna; of the Lizard, by Wormius; and of the Phænicopter, by Cardan. Which confirms what I have said under the Description of the Skeleton of a Crocodile, and in what sense it is absurdly said of them all. In their Cheeks, saith Piso, (f) (f) Hist. N. I. Occid. in each Nostril, and on the top of their Heads, in a certain Tumor, there lies, about August, a thick Worm; all which, in a little time, fall out of their own accord, without any sign left of their ever being there. They are a gregarious sort of Birds. (g) (g) Bart. 118. They breed very numerously in both the Indies. In Barbados, fly in flocks like Clouds. In Calechut they are forced (h) Gesner out of Ludov. Romanus. to set people to watch their Rice-Fields, least they should spoil them. (h) The flesh of their Chickens eats just like a Pigeon. (i)(i) Piso.

The SKULL of the MORSE: so called by the Muscovites; by the Danes, Rosmarus. He hath four feet, and his Body shapen not much unlike the SEA-CALF. But groweth sometimes to be bigger than an Ox. In his upper Jaw, he hath two remarquakble TUSKS, bended a little inward. In this Skull, the exerted part is five inches long, and four round about at the Root. His other Teeth are undescrib'd. They are sixteen, eight on each Jaw. Not Grinders but Punchers, or somewhat answer able in shape to the Tusks of a Dog. In the upper Jaw, the longest; standing on each side, two or three of them, within side of the Tusks. They have a small flat on their insides, against which the Teeth of the under Jaw work; which are much smaller, and flat-sided. The shape of these Teeth seems no way fitted, and their strength very superfluous, for the eating of green Leaves at the bottom of the Sea, as this Animal is supposed to do.

The Figure which Olaus Magnus gives of this Animal, is fictitious. But that in Joh. de Læt (as to the Head at least) is a very good one: from whom Wormius borrows his. One of the Cubs is accurately described by Everh. Vorstius, quoted by John de Læt, by Wormius, and by Terzagi in Septalius's Musæum. This Animal, when he goes, drags his hinder part after him, as the Seal. They always, saith Scaliger, (a) (a) Exer. 218. S. 4. come on Land in Companies; and when they sleep, one of them, as among Cranes, is set to watch. They climb upon the Rocks on the Sea-side by the help of their great Tusks, wherewith, as with two Hooks, they hold themselves from sliping. They breed numerously near St. Lawrence Isle.

Their Tusks are used by the Turks and Tartars for the (b) Musæum Wormianum. making of Sword-Handles. (b) I have a Girdle, saith Wormius, (c) composed of Plates made of these Tusks; which being worn, is an infallible Remedy against the Cramp: (c) Ibid.. Spasmo proculdubio immunes reddit.

A STURGEON. Acipenser. Sturio, because one of the greatest of edible Fishes; for Stur, in the Danish-Tongue, signifies Great. (a) (a) Wormius. See Wormius his Description. Especially that of Salvianus, with his curious figure. The like in Besler. The parts by which he is best distinguished, are his very long and sharp Snout, his little Mouth, to be seen only when he lies on his back, and his thick and bony Scales; which stand in Rows so, as to make the Fish almost Pentangular. The figure of most of the side Scales is Rhomboidal. It is affirmed by Moufet, (a) (a) L. de Re Cibaria. That the Scales of a Sturgeon turn towards the Head; borrowing his Error herein of Pliny.

Lately, a piece of a Sturgeons Gut was shewed me by Dr. Edward Tyson, which he had cut off of a great One sent to my Lord Major. It is very thick, strong and Muscular. And the inner Coat made of Fibers, so loosely woven together, as to look like a Net; and that above the eighth of an inch in thickness. In which a plenteous Chyle is conveniently lodged, and thence gradually transmitted to the Lacteal Veins.

Scaliger saith (b) (b) Exerc. 182. S. 2. of the Guts of a Sturgeon, that being taken out and cut all to pieces, those pieces will still move. Which may partly depend upon their great thickness and muscularity; the like being observable in cutting the Heart and other Muscular parts of divers Animals.

The Sturgeon is taken in most great Rivers, as well as in the Sea. He hath sometimes been seen, saith Bellonius, six yards long. The bigger he is, as all other Fish, the better meat. The Italians (c) (c) Salvian. prefer the Belly before the Jole. His Liver very delicate. At Hamburge and Dantsick they eat (or did in Moufet's time, who reports it, eat) Sturgeon roasted. In the same Author, see a most excellent Pickle for this Fish. The Eggs being salted and made up into a Mass, were first brought from Constantinople by the Italians, and called Caveare. Of the way of making it, see Gesner. The pickled pieces made of the Chine, are by some called Schinalia. Of the long Bag (d) (d) Salvian. which grows next the Chine, the people that live near Tanais make Glew.