NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2"^ S. VIII. July 2. '59. 



raptorial bird which is gregarious. " Vultures soli 

 uncunguium gregatim degunt, ita ut aliquando 

 quinquaginta in uno grege appareant, ut in 

 ^gypto se observasse scribit Bellon." Belon in- 

 deed states (Histoire des Oiseaux^ 1585, p. 86.) 

 that he had wondered at seeing troops of vultures 

 in the plains and deserts between Cairo and the 

 Ked Sea; but he explains this circumstance by 

 remarking that this district is traversed by camels, 

 many of which die there, and the vultures col- 

 lect around their dead bodies. Temminck, Oi- 

 seaux, vol. i., states of the vulture : " lis vivent 

 par paire, mais se reunissent en grandes troupes 

 It la curee autour des cadavres qu'ils eventent de 

 tres-loin." This habit of the vulture is alluded to 

 in Isaiah, xxxiv. 15. : "There shall the great owl 

 make her nest, and lay, and hatch, and gather 

 under her shadow. There shall the vultures also 

 be gathered, every one with her mate." Vul- 

 tures are attracted from various quarters to the 

 same spot by the presence of dead bodies ; they 

 are not properly birds of prey, though they feed 

 on carrion : hence they assemble wherever car- 

 rion is to be found : but the vulture is not a gre- 

 garious bird, and does not fly in troops like the 

 swan, the goose, the duck, and the rook. 



In the Oneirocritica of Artemidorus, who lived 

 in 140 — 180 A.D., mention is made of an ancient 

 custom in Italy, not to kill vultures, and to con- 

 sider it impious to hurt them : efiadov Se n kuI eV 

 'iToA^a v6fii.iiJ.ov •iraKai6v' "yvvas oxik avaipovai, koI Touy 

 iviQefxivovs ahrots afff^eiy vo/j-i^ovaiv, i. 8. No Roman 

 writer alludes to this ancient custom, and it ap- 

 pears to be altogether unsuited to Italy. On the 

 other hand, we know that the native Iberian 

 tribes are related to have considered it an hon- 

 ourable and holy mode of sepulture to be de- 

 voured by a vulture. iElian, N. A. x. 22., says 

 that the Vaccaei, a Hesperian tribe, burn the 

 bodies of those who die a natural death, in order 

 to stamp their effeminate end with ignominy ; but 

 honour those who die in war by casting their 

 bodies to the vultures, believing the vulture to be 

 a sacred bird. In this passage, BaKKoioi for BapKcuoi, 

 is evidently the right reading (compare Menage, 

 ad Diog. Laert. vi. 79.). The Vaccsei were a 

 large tribe in the interior of Hispania Tarraco- 

 nensis. Silius says of the Celtiberians : — 



" His pugna cecidisse decus, corpusque cremari 

 Tale nefas : coelo credunt superisque referri, 

 Impastus carpat si membra jacentia vultur." 



iii. 341—3. 



In another passage he characterises this mode 

 of burial as common to all Iberians : — 



•' Tellure (ut perhibent) is mos antiquus IberS, 

 Exanima obscoenus consumit corpora vultur." 



xiii. 471—2. 



Concerning a similar custom of the Caspians in 

 Asia Minor, see Strab. xi. 11. 8. 



Hence it seems probable that for 'iToAi'a, in Ar- 



temidorus, we should read 'iffvavta or 'l/Srjpia. Even 

 at the present day the vulture occurs frequently 

 in Spain. G. C. Lewis. 



VBESTEGAN 8 " BESTITUTION. 



I have a good copy of the edit, princeps of Ver- 

 stegan's Restitution of Decayed Intelligence, 1605. 



In the title-page is the name " Will. Walker," 

 with the canting motto : " W^ill and Walke aright." 

 The initials highly ornamented, and the hand- 

 writing fine, about the date of Charles I. or the 

 Commonwealth. 



The engravings are very fine. Who is the en- 

 graver ? No name, or initial, or mark appears 

 on any one of them. 



The last leaf contains the arms of the Verste- 

 gans, inscribed at the foot : " Insignia vestustas 

 familisB Versteganorum," etc. Upon the back of 

 this leaf is the following manuscript note, in a 

 very difficult running secretary hand of the reign 

 of James I. The Latin is not first-rate : the tran- 

 script is perfectly accurate. 



If Verstegan was the author of the acrostic on 

 "Elizabeth" (2°'* S. vii. 45.), he must have 

 changed his views a good deal after his abode at 

 Brussels. W. P. P. 



" Verstegan was one of that devillish traytor Parsons 

 his agents at Bruxells in the dayes of Q. Eliz., who 

 being a base fellow, and haveing no more gentleman's 

 bloude in his bodie than in a coupeir's son, nor scant so 

 much of high breed may the couper be, yet toke uppoa 

 him to cotize the English nobles and gentles there, 

 affirming that there were not past 3 or 4 in those coasts 

 of all 0"" nation y* were of anie noble or generous blood, 

 coat armo' or ancestrie, viz. The Erie of Westmorlande, 

 the E. Dacres, and as I rememb'' the next was himself or 

 S' Will'm Stanley, I know not whether, but either S' 

 Knight or S"" Knave was in the 3<^ place. Whereuppon 

 followed a foule adoe in the Flemish Court for awhile, 

 sundrie of noble and genrous bloud being mightily dis- 

 graced by this base companion's information giuen to the 

 prince in derogation of o"^ Englishe gentrie. And this 

 untriall gentleman was one of that nobleman ffa'' Par- 

 sons spies, intelligencers, and blazoners of what infamyes 

 as were to be conveyed thence abroad into Italie, Spaine, 

 France, &c. It Theis are the wordes of W. Watson, the 

 Preist, in his Quodlibets of State and Religion, Quodlibet 

 3d, Art. 7, pag. 257. 



" Where allso in the next wordes he showed how 

 Parsons delt seriously with the Pope about the ex- 

 co'icateing of the K. of Scots, James the G, o'' now 

 dread Sovereigne being by Parsons his traytorous 

 sentence denounced an obstinate hereticke, &c. 



" Hsec ad insignia vetustae familiae Versteganorum 

 appendant' remnisci isto tenebrione et Nebu- 

 lone dignissimi," etc. 



NEW CATALOGUE OF SHAKSPEARIANA. 



{Continued from 2"'> S. vii. 438. 490.) 

 In continuation of the list, so well begun by 

 Mb. Wylib and Mb. Reid, I send the following ; 



