Part 20

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.”

“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.

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.

“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.

“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.

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.

Of this bird, the Kingfisher, Aristotle thus discourses:--“The halcyon is not much larger than a sparrow; its colour is blue and green, and somewhat purple; its whole body is composed of these colours as well as the wings and neck, nor is any part without every one of these colours. Its bill is somewhat yellow, long and slight; this is its external form. Its nest resembles the marine balls which are called halosachnæ (probably a Zoophyte, Alcyonia) except in colour, for they are red; in form it resembles those sicyæ (cucumbers) which have long necks; its size is that of a very large sponge, for some are greater, others less. They are covered up, and have a thick solid part, as well as the cavity; it is not easily cut with a sharp knife, but, when struck or broken with the hand, it divides readily like the halosachnæ. The mouth is narrow, as it were a small entrance, so that the sea water cannot enter, even if the Sea is rough: its cavity is like that of the Sponge. The material of which the nest is composed is disputed, but it appears to be principally composed of the spines of the belone, for the bird lives on fish.”

Pliny says:--“It is a thing of very rare occurrence to see a halcyon, and then it is only about the time of the setting of the Vergiliæ, and the summer and winter solstices; when one is sometimes to be seen to hover about a ship, and then immediately disappear. They hatch their young at the time of the winter solstice, from which circumstance those days are known as the ‘halcyon days;’ during this period the sea is calm and navigable, the Sicilian sea in particular.”

“Halcyon days” is used proverbially, but the Kingfisher had another very useful trait. If a dead Kingfisher were hung up by a cord, it would point its beak to the quarter whence the wind blew. Shakespeare mentions this property in King Lear (ii. 1):--