Part 5

The Turkie Buzzard.

The Turkie Buzzard, a kind of Kite, but as big as a Turkie, brown of colour, and very good meat.

What Birds are not to be found in New-England.

Now, by what the country hath not, you may ghess at what it hath; it hath no Nightingals, nor Larks, nor Bulfinches, nor Sparrows, nor Blackbirds, nor Mag{13}pies, nor Jackdawes, nor Popinjays, nor Rooks, nor Pheasants, nor Woodcocks, nor Quails, nor Robins, nor Cuckoes, &c.

Secondly, Of Beasts.

The Bear, which are generally Black.

The Bear, they live four months in Caves, that is all Winter; in the Spring they bring forth their young ones, they seldome have above three Cubbs in a litter, are very fat in the Fall of the Leaf with feeding upon Acorns, at which time they are excellent Venison; their Brains are venomous; They feed much upon water Plantane in the Spring and Summer, and Berries, and also upon a shell-fish called a Horse-foot; and are never mankind, i.e. fierce, but in rutting time, and then they walk the Country twenty, thirty, forty in a company, making a hideous noise with roaring, which you may hear a mile or two before they come so near to endanger the Traveller. About four years since, Acorns being very scarce up in the Country, some numbers of them came down {14} amongst the English Plantations, which generally are by the Sea side; at one Town called Gorgiana in the Province of Meyn (called also New-Sommerset-shire) they kill’d fourscore.

For Aches and Cold Swellings.

Their Grease is very good for Aches and Cold Swellings, the Indians anoint themselves therewith from top to toe, which hardens them against the cold weather. A black Bears Skin heretofore was worth forty shillings, now you may have one for ten, much used by the English for Beds and Coverlets, and by the Indians for Coats.

For Pain and Lameness upon Cold.

One Edw. Andrews being foxt, and falling backward cross a Thought in a Shallop or Fisher-boat, and taking cold upon it, grew crooked, lame, and full of pain, was cured, lying one Winter upon Bears Skins newly flead off, with some upon him, so that he sweat every night.

The Wolf.

The Wolf, of which there are two kinds; one with a round-ball’d Foot, and {15} are in shape like mungrel Mastiffs; the other with a flat Foot, these are liker Greyhounds, and are called Deer Wolfs, because they are accustomed to prey upon Deer. A Wolf will eat a Wolf new dead, and so do Bears as I suppose, for their dead Carkases are never found, neither by the Indian nor English. They go a clicketing twelve days, and have as many Whelps at a Litter as a Bitch. The Indian Dog is a Creature begotten ’twixt a Wolf and a Fox, which the Indians lighting upon, bring up to hunt the Deer with. The Wolf is very numerous, and go in companies, sometimes ten, twenty, more or fewer, and so cunning, that seldome any are kill’d with Guns or Traps; but of late they have invented a way to destroy them, by binding four Maycril Hooks a cross with a brown thread, and then wrapping some Wool about them, they dip them in melted Tallow till it be as round and as big as an Egg; these (when any Beast hath been kill’d by the Wolves) they scatter by the dead Carkase, after they have beaten off the Wolves; about Midnight the Wolves are sure to return again to the place where they left the slaughtered Beast, and the {16} first thing they venture upon will be these balls of fat.

For old Aches.

A black Wolfs Skin is worth a Beaver Skin among the Indians, being highly esteemed for helping old Aches in old people, worn as a Coat; they are not mankind, as in Ireland and other Countries, but do much harm by destroying of our English Cattle.

The Ounce.

The Ounce or Wild Cat, is about the bigness of two lusty Ram Cats, preys upon Deer and our English Poultrey: I once found six whole Ducks in the belly of one I killed by a Pond side: Their flesh roasted is as good as Lamb, and as white.

For Aches and shrunk Sinews.

Their Grease is soveraign for all manner of Aches and shrunk Sinews: Their Skins are accounted good Fur, but somewhat course.

{17} The Raccoon.

The Raccoon liveth in hollow trees, and is about the size of a Gib Cat; they feed upon Mass, and do infest our Indian Corn very much; they will be exceeding fat in Autumn; their flesh is somewhat dark, but good food roasted.

For Bruises and Aches.

Their Fat is excellent for bruises and Aches. Their Skins are esteemed a good deep Fur; but yet as the Wild Cats somewhat coarse.

The Porcupine.

The Porcupine, in some parts of the Countrey Eastward towards the French, are as big as an ordinary Mungrel Cur; a very angry Creature, and dangerous, shooting a whole shower of Quills with a rowse at their enemies, which are of that nature, that wherever they stick in the flesh, they will work through in a short time, if not prevented by pulling of them out. The Indians make use of their Quills, which are hardly a handful long, to adorn {18} the edges of their birchen dishes, and weave (dying some of them red, others yellow and blew) curious bags or pouches, in works like Turkie-work.

The Beaver, Canis Ponticus, Amphybious.

The Beaver, whose old ones are as big as an Otter, or rather bigger, a Creature of a rare instinct, as may apparently be seen in their artificial Dam-heads to raise the water in the Ponds where they keep, and their houses having three stories, which would be too large to discourse. They have all of them four Cods hanging outwardly between their hinder legs, two of them are soft or oyly, and two solid or hard; the Indians say they are Hermaphrodites.

For Wind in the Stomach.