A ttagen— Atricapilla 45 



waste open places, and especially those covered with heather. 

 They feed on grain and on the topmost buds of heather. 

 They have short wings and take short flights. This bird, 

 if it be not the Attagen, appears to be Varro's Gallina 

 rustica. Erasmus in his proverb of " the Attagena's new- 

 moon" makes his Attagena a marsh-bird, marked with 

 varied spots. If this approved itself sufficiently to me 

 I confidently would venture to affirm that the Attagena was 

 what the English call the Godwitt or Fedoa 1 . Furthermore 

 the bird is so much like the Woodcock, that, if it were not 

 a little larger, and did not the breast verge upon ash-colour, 

 the one of them could hardly be distinguished from the 

 other. It is found in marshy places and on river banks. 

 The beak is long ; but in captivity it feeds on wheat, just as 

 our Pigeons do. With us it sells for thrice as much again 

 as any Woodcock, so much does its flesh tickle the palates 

 of our magnates. Of these two, if neither be the Attagena, 

 then I have nowhere seen the Attagena. 



Of the Atricapilla. 



Me\ayfc6pv(f)o<;, atricapilla, in German, as is supposed, 

 eyn grasmuklen. 



Aristotle. 



The Atricapilla, as some report, lays the most 

 eggs of all, next to the Struthio of Africa. No fewer 

 than seventeen eggs of the Atricapilla have been 

 found, but it lays even more than twenty and, as 

 some narrate, in number always odd. It also nests 

 in trees and feeds upon small worms. It is peculiar 

 to this and the Luscinia beyond all other birds that 

 they have no point to the tip of the tongue. Fice- 

 dulae and Atricapillae change in turn. For when 

 autumn sets in the bird becomes a Ficedula, from 

 autumn onwards it becomes an Atricapilla, nor is 



1 See Prof. Newton's Diet. Birds, p. 24S. 



