450 



KOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 210. 



notion, unless better substantiated than by the 

 French saying from their Salic[ue law, which I 

 here give for P. P.'s information : " Nunquam 

 corona a lance transibit ad fusum." I am willing 

 to admit the antiquity of this notion ; for while 

 the shape of the man's shield is traced by Sylvanus 

 Morgan to Adam's spade, he takes the woman's 

 from Eve's spindle ! 



" When Adam delved, and Eve span, 

 Who was then the gentleman ? " 



In Geoffry Chaucer's time the lozenge appears 

 to have been an ornament worn by heralds in 

 their dress or crown. In describing the habit of 

 one, he says : 



" They crowned were as kinges 

 With crowns wrought full of lozenges 

 And many ribbons and many fringes." 



As for the difference between the lozenge and 

 fusil, I could multiply opinions and examples, but 

 hope those given will be sufficient. 



I cannot conclude these few hasty remarks 

 without expressing a wish that one of your corre- 

 spondents in particular would take up this sub- 

 ject, to handle which in a masterly manner, his 

 position is a guaranty of his ability. I refer to 

 the gentleman holding the office of York Herald. 



JBroctuna. 



Bury, Lancashire, 



THE MTETIiE BEE. 



(Yol. viii., p. 173.) 



From a very early period, and throughout life, I 

 have been accustomed to shooting, and well re- 

 member the bird in question, but whether the term 

 was local or general, I am unable to state, never 

 having met with it save in one locality; and 

 many years have elapsed since I saw one, although 

 in the habit of frequenting the neighbourhood 

 where it was originally to be seen. I attribute its 

 disappearance to local causes. I met with it 

 during a series of years, ending about twenty-five 

 years since, at which period I lost sight of it. It 

 was to be met with during the autumn and winter 

 in bogs scattered over with bog myrtle, on Chob- 

 ham and the adjacent common ; I never met with 

 it elsewhere. It is solitary. I am unacquainted 

 with its food, and only in a single instance had I 

 ever one in my hand. Its tongue is pointed, sharp, 

 and appearing capable of penetration. Its colour 

 throughout dusky light blue, slightly tinged with 

 yellow about the vent. Tail about one inch, 

 being rather long in proportion to the body, 

 causing the wings to appear forward, with a mi- 

 niature pheasant-like appearance as it flew, or 

 rather darted, from bush to bush, with amazing 

 quickness, its wings moving with rapidity, straight 

 in its flight, keeping near the ground, appearing 



loth to wing, never passing an intervening bush if 

 ever so near ; and I never saw one fly over eight 

 or ten yards, and never wing a second time, which 

 induced our dogs (using a sporting phrase) to 

 puzzle them, causing a belief that they were in 

 most instances trodden under the water and grass 

 in which the myrtle grew, and which nothing but 

 a dog could approach. I never saw one sitting 

 or light on a branch of the myrtle, but invariably 

 flying from the base of one plant to that of an- 

 other. I am not aware that any cabinet contains 

 a preserved specimen, or that the bird has ever 

 been noticed by any naturalist as a British or 

 foreign bird. 



Should W. R. D. S. covet farther information as 

 to the probable cause of its disappearance, and my 

 never having met with it elsewhere, perhaps he 

 will favour me with his address. I cannot think 

 the bird extinct. C. Brown. 



Egham, Surrey. 



CAPTAIN JOHN DAVIS. 



(Vol. viii., p. 385.) 



The earliest memoir of captain John Davis, the 

 celebrated arctic navigator, is that given by the 

 reverend John Prince in his Danmonii orientales 

 iLLTJSTRES, or the worthies of Devon, Exeter, 1701, 

 folio. It is, however, erroneous and defective in 

 important particulars, and has misled some eminent 

 writers, as Campbell, Eyries, Barrow, &c. 



Despite the assertions of master Prince, I ques- 

 tion if captain Davis married a daughter of sir 

 John Fulford ; I am sure he was not the first pilot 

 who conducted the Hollanders to the East-Indies ; 

 I am sure the journal of the voyage is not printed 

 In Hakluyt ; I am sure the narrative of his voyage 

 with sir Edward Michelborne Is neither dedicated 

 to the earl of Essex nor printed in Hakluyt ; I am 

 sure he did not write the Rutter, or brief directions 

 for sailing into the East-Indies ; I am sure he wrote 

 two works of which Prince says nothing ; I am 

 sure he did not make ^ce voyages to the East- 

 Indies ; and I am sure, to omit other oversights, 

 that he did not "return home safe again." To 

 the latter point I shall now confine myself. 



In 1604 king James, regardless of the charter 

 held by the East-India company, granted a license 

 to sir Edward Michelborne, one of his gentlemen- 

 pensioners, to discover and trade with the " coun- 

 tries and domynions of Cathaia, China, Japan," 

 &c. This license, preserved in the Rolls-chapel, 

 Is dated the twenty-fifth of June. On the fifth of 

 December sir Edward set sail from Cowes with 

 the Tiger, a ship of 240 tons, and a pinnace — 

 captain Davis being, as I conceive, the second in 

 command. In December 1605, being near the 

 Island of BIntang, they fell in with a junk of 

 70 tons, carrying ninety Japanese, most of them 



