other Islands to the south, which the ships are unable to visit because
this strong current prevents their return, is found the bird _Gryphon_,
which appears there at certain seasons. The description given of it is,
however, entirely different from what our stories and pictures make it.
For persons who had been there and had seen it, told Messer Marco Polo
that it was for all the world like an eagle, but one indeed of enormous
size; so big in fact, that its wings covered an extent of 30 paces, and
its quills were 12 paces long, and thick in proportion. And it is so
strong that it will seize an Elephant in its talons, and carry him high
into the air, and drop him so that he is smashed to pieces: having so
killed him, the bird gryphon swoops down on him, and eats him at
leisure. The people of those isles call the bird _Ruc_, and it has no
other name. So I wot not if this be the real gryphon, or if there be
another manner of bird as great. But this I can tell you for certain,
that they are not half lion and half bird, as our stories do relate;
but, enormous as they be, they are fashioned just like an eagle.
“The Great Kaan sent to those parts to enquire about these curious
matters, and the story was told by those who went thither. He also sent
to procure the release of an envoy of his who had been despatched
thither, and had been detained; so both those envoys had many wonderful
things to tell the Great Kaan about those strange islands, and about the
birds I have mentioned. They brought (as I heard) to the Great Kaan, a
feather of the said Ruc, which was stated to measure 90 Spans, whilst
the quill part was two palms in circumference, a marvellous object! The
Great Kaan was delighted with it, and gave great presents to those who
brought it.”
This quill seems rather large; other travellers, however, perhaps not so
truthful as Ser Marco, speak of these enormous quills. The Moa of New
Zealand (_Dinornis giganteus_) is supposed to have been the largest bird
in Creation--and next to that is the _Æpyornis maximus_--_whose bones
and egg have been found in Madagascar_. An egg is in the British Museum,
and it has a liquid capacity of 2.35 gallons, but, alas, for the quill
story--this bird was wingless.
The Condor has been put forward as the real and veritable Ruc, but no
living specimens will compare with this bird as it has been
described--especially if we take the picture of it in Lane’s “Arabian
Nights,” where it is represented as taking up _three_ elephants, one in
its beak, and one in each of its claws.
The Japanese have a legend of a great bird which carried off men--and
there is a very graphic picture now on view at the White Wing of the
British Museum, where one of these birds, having seized a man,
frightens, very naturally, the whole community.
THE PHŒNIX.
Pliny says of the Phœnix:--“Æthiopia and India, more especially produce
birds of diversified plumage, and such as quite surpass all
description. In the front rank of these is the Phœnix, that famous bird
of Arabia; though I am not sure that its existence is not a fable.
“It is said that there is only one in existence in the whole world, and
that that one has not been seen very often. We are told that this bird
is of the size of an eagle, and has a brilliant golden plumage around
the neck, whilst the rest of the body is a purple colour; except the
tail, which is azure, with long feathers intermingled, of a roseate hue;
the throat is adorned with a crest, and the head with a tuft of
feathers. The first Roman who described this bird, and who has done so
with great exactness, was the Senator Manilius, so famous for his
learning; which he owed, too, to the instructions of no teacher. He
tells us that no person has ever seen this bird eat, that in Arabia it
is looked upon as sacred to the Sun; that it lives five hundred and
forty years. That when it is old it builds a nest of Cassia and sprigs
of incense, which it fills with perfumes, and then lays its body down
upon them to die: that from its bones and marrow there springs at first
a sort of small worm, which, in time, changes into a little bird; that
the first thing it does is to perform the obsequies of its predecessor,
and to carry the nest entire to the City of the Sun near Panchaia, and
there deposit it upon the altar of that divinity.
“The same Manilius states also, that the revolution of the great year is
completed with the life of this bird, and that then a new cycle comes
round again with the same characteristics as the former one, in the
seasons and the appearance of the stars; and he says that this begins
about midday of the day in which the Sun enters the sign of Aries. He
also tells us that when he wrote to the above effect, in the consulship
of P. Licinius, and Cneius Cornelius, (B.C. 96) it was the two hundred
and fifteenth year of the said revolution. Cornelius Valerianus says
that the Phœnix took its flight from Arabia into Egypt in the Consulship
of Q. Plautius and Sextus Papinius, (A.D. 36). This bird was brought to
Rome in the Censorship of the Emperor Claudius, being the year from the
building of the City, 800, (A.D. 47) and it was exposed to public view
in the Comitium. This fact is attested by the public Annals, but there
is no one that doubts that it was a fictitious Phœnix.”
Cuvier seems to think that the bird described above was a Golden
Pheasant, brought from the interior of Asia--at a time when these birds
were unknown to civilised Europe.
Du Bartas, in his metrical account of the Creation, mentions this winged
prodigy:--
“The Heav’nly Phœnix first began to frame
The earthly _Phœnix_, and adorn’d the same
With such a Plume, that Phœbus, circuiting
From _Fez_ to _Cairo_, sees no fairer thing:
Such form, such feathers, and such Fate he gave her
That fruitfull Nature breedeth nothing braver:
Two sparkling eyes; upon her crown, a crest
Of starrie Sprigs (more splendent than the rest)
A goulden doun about her dainty neck,
Her brest deep purple, and a scarlet back,
Her wings and train of feathers (mixed fine)
Of orient azure and incarnadine.
He did appoint her Fate to be her Pheer,
And Death’s cold kisses to restore her heer
Her life again, which never shall expire
Untill (as she) the World consume in fire.
For, having passed under divers Climes,
A thousand Winters, and a thousand Primes;
Worn out with yeers, wishing her endless end,
To shining flames she doth her life commend,
Dies to revive, and goes into her Grave
To rise againe more beautifull and brave.
With Incense, Cassia, Spiknard, Myrrh, and Balm,
By break of Day shee builds (in narrow room)
Her Urn, her Nest, her Cradle, and her Toomb;
Where, while she sits all gladly-sad expecting
Some flame (against her fragrant heap reflecting)
To burn her sacred bones to seedfull cinders,
(Wherein, her age, but not her life, she renders.)
* * * * *
And _Sol_ himself, glancing his goulden eyes
On th’ odoriferous Couch wherein she lies,
Kindles the spice, and by degrees consumes
Th’ immortall _Phœnix_, both her flesh and plumes.
But instantly, out of her ashes springs
A Worm, an Egg then, then a Bird with wings,
Just like the first, (rather the same indeed)
Which (re-ingendred of its selfly seed)
By nobly dying, a new Date begins,
And where she loseth, there her life she wins:
Endless by’r End, eternall by her Toomb;
While, by a prosperous Death, she doth becom
(Among the cinders of her sacred Fire)
Her own selfs Heir, Nurse, Nurseling, Dam and Sire.”
THE SWALLOW.
“And is the swallow gone?
Who beheld it?
Which way sailed it?
Farewell bade it none?”
(_W. Smith, Country book._)
[Illustration]
Olaus Magnus answered this question, according to his lights, and when,
discoursing on the Migration of Swallows he says:--“Though many Writers
of Natural Histories have written that Swallows change their stations;
that is, when cold Winter begins to come, they fly to hotter Climats;
yet oft-times, in the Northern Countries, Swallows are drawn forth, by
chance by Fishermen, like a lump cleaving together, where they went
amongst the Reeds, after the beginning of Autumn, and there fasten
themselves bill to bill, wing to wing, feet to feet. For it is observed,
that they, about that time ending their most sweet note, (?) do so
descend, and they fly out peaceably after the beginning of the Spring,
and come to their old Nests, or else they build new ones by their
natural care. Now that lump being drawn forth by ignorant young men (for
the old Fishermen that are acquainted with it, put it in again) is
carryed and laid on the Sea Shore, and by the heat of the Sun, the Lump
is dissolved, and the Swallows begin to fly, but they last but a short
time because they were not set at liberty by being taken so soon, but
they were made captive by it. It hapneth also in the Spring, when they
return freely, and come to their old Nests, or make new ones, if a very
cold Winter come upon them, and much snow fall, they will all dye; that
all that Summer you shall see none of them upon the Houses, or Banks,
or Rivers; but a very few that came later out of the Waters, or from
other Parts, which by Nature come flying thither, to repair their Issue.
Winter being fully ended in _May_; For Husband-Men, from their Nests,
built higher or lower, take their Prognostications, whether they shall
sowe in Valleys, or Mountains or Hills, according as the Rain shall
increase or diminish. Also the Inhabitants hold it an ill sign, if the
Swallows refuse to build upon their houses; for they fear those
House-tops are ready to fall.”
This is proper, and good, and what we might expect from Olaus Magnus;
but it is somewhat singular to see, printed in _Notes and Queries_ for
October 22, 1864, the following:--
“The Duke de R---- related to me, a few days ago, that in Sweden, the
swallows, as soon as the winter begins to approach, plunge themselves
into the lakes, where they remain asleep and hidden under the ice till
the return of the summer; when, revived by the new warmth, they come out
from the water, and fly away as formerly. While the lakes are frozen, if
somebody will break the ice in those parts where it appears darker than
in the rest, he will find masses of swallows--cold, asleep, and half
dead; which, by taking out of their retreat, and warming, he will see
gradually to vivify again and fly.
“In other countries they retire very often to the Caverns, under the
rocks. As many of these exist between the City of Caen, and the Sea, on
the banks of the river Orne, there are found sometimes, during the
winter, piles of swallows suspended in these vaults, like bundles of
grapes. I witnessed the same thing, myself, in Italy; where, as well as
in France, it is considered (as I have heard) very lucky by the
inhabitants when swallows build nests on their habitations....
_Rhodocanakis._”
Of course, these stories of curious hybernation were pooh-poohed,
although it could not be denied that the subaqueous hybernation of
swallows is given in Goldsmith’s “Animated Nature,” and many other
Natural Histories, which succeeded his.
The wintering of swallows in caverns, has another eye-witness in Edward
Williams (_Iolo Morganwg_), who in his “Poems, Lyrics, and Pastorals,”
published 1794, says:--“About the year 1768, the author, with two or
three more, found a great number of swallows in a torpid state, clinging
in clusters to each other by their bills, in a cave of the sea-cliffs
near Dunraven Castle, in the County of Glamorgan. They revived after
they had been some hours in a warm room, but died a day or two after,
though all possible care had been taken of them.”
THE MARTLET, AND FOOTLESS BIRDS.
Of the Martin, or, as in Heraldry it is written, _Martlet_, Guillim thus
writes:--“The Martlet, or Martinet, saith Bekenhawh, hath Legs so
exceeding short, that they can by no means go: (_walk_) And thereupon,
it seemeth, the _Grecians_ do call them _Apodes, quasi sine pedibus_;
not because they do want Feet, but because they have not such Use of
their Feet, as other Birds have. And if perchance they fall upon the
Ground, they cannot raise themselves upon their Feet, as others do, and
prepare themselves to flight. For this Cause they are accustomed to make
their Nests upon Rocks and other high places, from whence they may
easily take their flight, by Means of the Support of the Air. Hereupon
it came, that this Bird is painted in Arms without Feet: and for this
Cause it is also given for a Difference of younger Brethren, to put them
in mind to trust to their wings of Vertue and Merit, to raise
themselves, and not to their Legs, having little Land to put their foot
on.”
The Alerion is a small bird of the eagle tribe, heraldically depicted as
without beak or feet.
Butler in “Hudibras” writes--
“Like a bird of paradise,
Or herald’s Martlet, has no legs,
Nor hatches young ones, nor lays eggs.”
The Bird of Paradise was unknown to the ancients, and one of the
earliest notices of this bird is given in Magalhaen’s voyage in
1521:--“The King of Bachian, one of the Molucca Islands, sent two dead
birds preserved, which were of extraordinary beauty. In size they were
not larger than the thrush: the head was small, with a long bill; the
legs were of the thickness of a common quill, and a span in length; the
tail resembled that of the thrush; they had no wings, but in the place
where wings usually are, they had tufts of long feathers, of different
colours; all the other feathers were dark. The inhabitants of the
Moluccas had a tradition that this bird came from Paradise, and they
call it _bolondinata_, which signifies the ‘bird of God.’”
By-and-by, as trade increased, the skins of this bird were found to have
a high market value, but the natives always brought them, when they came
to trade, with their legs cut off. Thence sprang the absurd rumour that
they had no legs, although in the early account just quoted, their legs
are expressly mentioned. Linnæus called the emerald birds of Paradise
_apoda_ or legless; whilst Tavernier says that these birds getting drunk
on nutmegs, fall helpless to the ground, and then the ants eat off their
legs.
“But note we now, towards the rich _Moluques_,
Those passing strange and wondrous (birds) _Manueques_.
(Wond’rous indeed, if Sea, or Earth, or Sky,
Saw ever wonder swim, or goe, or fly)
None knowes their Nest, none knowes the dam that breeds them;
Foodless they live; for th’ Aire alonely feeds them:
Wingless they fly; and yet their flight extends,
Till with their flight, their unknown live’s-date ends.”
SNOW BIRDS.
But we must leave warm climes, and birds of Paradise, and speak of
“Birds shut up under the Snow.”
[Illustration]
“There are in the Northern Countries Wood-Cocks, like to pheasant for
bigness, but their Tails are much shorter, and they are cole black all
over their bodies, with some white feathers at the end of their Tails
and Wings. The Males have a red Comb standing upright; the Females have
one that is low and large, and the colour is grey. These Birds are of an
admirable Nature to endure huge Cold in the Woods, as the Ducks in the
Waters. But when the Snow covers the Superficies of the Earth, like to
Hills, all over, and for a long time presse down the boughs of the Trees
with their weight, they eat certain Fruits of the Birch-Tree, called in
_Italian_ (_Gatulo_) like to a long Pear, and they swallow them whole,
and that in so great quantity, and so greedily, that their throat is
stuffed, and seems greater than all their body.
“Then they part their Companies, and thrust themselves all over into the
snow, especially in _January_, _February_ and _March_, when Snow and
Whirlwinds, Storms, and grievous Tempests, descend from the Clouds. And
when they are covered all over, that not one of them can be seen, lying
all in heaps, for certain weeks they live, with meat collected in their
throats, and cast forth, and resumed. The Hunter’s Dogs cannot find
them; yet by the Cunning of the crafty Hunters, it falls out, that when
the Dogs err in their scent, they, by signs, will catch a number of
living Birds, and will draw them forth to their great profit. But they
must do that quickly; because when they hear the Dogs bark, they
presently rise like Bees, and take up on the Wing, and fly aloft. But,
if they perceive that the Snow will be greater, they devour the foresaid
Fruit again, and take a new dwelling, and there they stay till the end
of March: or, if the snow melt sooner, when the Sun goes out of _Aries_;
for then the snow melting, by an instinct of Nature (as many other
Birds) they rise out of their holes to lay Eggs, and produce young ones;
and this in Mountains where bryars are, and thick Trees. Males and
Females sit on the Eggs by turns, and both of them keep the Young, and
chiefly the Male, that neither the Eagle nor Fox may catch them.
“These Birds fly in great sholes together, and they remain in high
Trees, chiefly Birch-Trees; and they come not down, but for propagation,
because they have food enough on the top of their Trees. And when
Hunters or Countreymen, to whom those fields belong, see them fly all
abroad, over the fields full of snow, they pitch up staves obliquely
from the Earth, above the Snow, eight or ten foot high; and at the top
of them, there hangs a snare, that moves with the least touch, and so
they catch these Birds; because they, when they Couple, leap strangely,
as Partridges do, and so they fall into these snares, and hang there.
And when one seems to be caught in the Gin, the others fly to free her,
and are caught in the like snare. There is also another way to catch
them, namely with arrows and stalking-horses, that they may not suspect
it....
“There is also another kind of Birds called _Bonosa_, whose flesh is
outwardly black, inwardly white: they are as delicate good meat as
Partridges, yet as great as Pheasants. At the time of Propagation, the
Male runs with open mouth till he foam; then the Female runs and
receives the same; and from thence she seems to conceive, and bring
forth eggs, and to produce her young.”
THE SWAN.
The ancient fable so dear, even to modern poets, that Swans sing before
they die--was not altogether believed even in classical times, as saith
Pliny:--“It is stated that at the moment of the swan’s death, it gives
utterance to a mournful song; but this is an error, in my opinion; at
least, I have tested the truth of the story on several occasions.” That
some swans have a kind of voice, and can change a note or two, no one
who has met with a flock or two of “hoopers,” or wild swans, can deny.
[Illustration]
Olaus Magnus relates the fable--and quotes Plato, that the swan sings at
its death, not from sorrow, but out of joy, at finishing its life. He
also gives us a graphic illustration of how swans may be caught by
playing to them on a lute or other stringed instrument, and also that
they were to be caught by men (playing music) with stalking-horses, in
the shape of oxen, or horses; and, in another page, he says, that not
far from London, the Metropolis of England, on the River Thames, may be
found more than a thousand domesticated swans.
THE ALLE, ALLE.
[Illustration]
“There is also in this Lake (_the White Lake_) a kind of bird, very
frequent; and in other Coasts of the _Bothnick_ and _Swedish_ Sea, that
cries incessantly all the Summer, _Alle, Alle_, therefore they are
called all over, by the Inhabitants, _Alle, Alle_. For in that Lake such
a multitude of great birds is found, (as I said before) by reason of the
fresh Waters that spring from hot springs, that they seem to cover all
the shores and rivers, especially Sea-Crows, or Cormorants, Coots, More
Hens, two sorts of Ducks, Swans, and infinite smaller Water Birds. These
Crows, and other devouring birds, the hunters can easily take, because
they fly slowly, and not above two or four Cubits above the Water: thus
they do it on the narrow Rocks, as in the Gates of Islands, on the Banks
of them, they hang black nets, or dyed of a Watry Colour upon Spears;
and these, with Pulleys, will quickly slip up or down, that in great
Sholes they catch the Birds that fly thither by letting the Nets fall
upon them: and this is necessary, because those Birds fly so slowly, and
right forward; so that few escape. Also, sometimes Ducks, and other
Birds are taken in these Nets. Wherefore these black, or slow Birds,
whether they swim or fly, are always crying _Alle, Alle_, which in
Latine signifies _All, All_, (_Omnes_) and so they do when they are
caught in the Nets: and this voyce the cunning Fowler interprets thus,
that he hath not, as yet, all of them in his Nets; nor ever shall have,
though he had six hundred Nets.”
THE HOOPOE AND LAPWING.
Whether the following bird is meant for the Hoopoe, or the Lapwing, I
know not. The Latin version has “De Upupis,” which clearly means
Hoopoes--and the translation says, “Of the Whoups or Lapwings”--I follow
the latter. “_Lapwings_, when at a set time they come to the Northern
Countries from other parts, they foreshew the nearnesse of the Spring
coming on. It is a Bird that is full of crying and lamentation, to
preserve her Eggs, or young. By importunate crying, she shews that Foxes
lye hid in the grasse; and so she cries out in all places, to drive away
dogs and other Beasts. They fight with Swallows, Pies, and Jackdaws.
[Illustration]
“On Hillocks, in Lakes, she lays her Eggs, and hatcheth her young ones.
Made tame she will cleane a house of Flyes, and catch Mice. She
foreshews Rain when she cries; which also Field Scorpions do, called
Mares, Cuckows; who by flying overthwart, and crying loudly, foreshew
Rain at hand; also the larger Scorpions, with huge long snouts, fore
signifie Rain; so do Woodpeckers. There is a Bird also called Rayn, as
big as a Partridge that hath Feathers of divers colours, of a yellow,
white, and black colour: This is supposed to live upon nothing but Ayr,
though she be fat, nothing is found in her belly. The Fowlers hunt her
with long poles, which they cast high in the Ayr to fright her, so that
they may catch the Bird flying down.”
THE OSTRICH.
[Illustration]
Modern observation, and especially Ostrich farming, has thoroughly
exploded the old errors respecting this bird. We believe in its powers
of _swallowing_ anything not too large, but not in its _digesting_
everything, and certainly not, as Muenster would fain have us believe,
that an Ostrich’s dinner consists of a church-door key, and a
horse-shoe. As matters of fact, we know that, when pursued, they do not
bury their heads in the sand, or a bush; and instead of covering their
eggs with sand, and leaving the sun to hatch them, both the male and
female are excellent, and model parents.
Pliny, however, says differently:--“This bird exceeds in height a man
sitting on horseback, and can surpass him in swiftness, as wings have
been given to aid it in running; in other respects Ostriches cannot be
considered as birds, and do not raise themselves from the earth. They
have cloven talons, very similar to the hoof of the stag (_they have but
two toes_); with these they fight, and they also employ them in seizing
stones for the purpose of throwing at those who pursue them. They have
the marvellous property of being able to digest every substance without
distinction, but their stupidity is no less remarkable: for although the
rest of their body is so large, they imagine when they have thrust their
head and neck into a bush, that the whole body is concealed.”
Giovanni Leone Africano writes that “this fowle liveth in drie desarts
and layeth to the number of ten or twelve egges in the sand, which being
about the bignesse of great bullets weigh fifteen pounds a piece; but
the ostrich is of so weak a memorie, that she presently forgetteth the
place where her egges were laid, and, afterwards the same, or some other
ostrich hen finding the said eggs by chance hatched and fostereth them
as if they were certainely her owne. The chickens are no sooner crept
out of the shell but they prowle up and downe the desarts for their
food, and before theyr feathers be growne they are so swifte that a man
shall hardly overtake them. The ostrich is a silly and deafe creature,
feeding upon any thing which it findeth, be it as hard and indigestible
as yron.”
THE HALCYON.