268 BRITISH BIRDS. 



PERDICES. 



Partridges . . . are thought by Sethe* to have an extra- 

 ordinary weakness in them, causing them to go as if their 

 back or ridg-bone were parted in sunder, whereupon perhaps 

 they had their name, and were called Part-ridges. 



Rall.e Terrestres. 



Railes of the land (for there is also a water-rail ...)... 

 are not without cause preferred to Noble mens Tables. 



Gallinagi:n^es akd Rusticfl^. 



Woodcocks and Suites t . . . especially at their first 

 coming in, or rather . . . when they have rested themselves 

 after their long flight from beyond the Seas are fat, . . . 

 AvicenJ and Albertus§ dreamed that Woodcocks and Suites, 

 fed upon seeds ; whereas indeed no bird with a long piked, 

 crooked, and narrow bill can pick them up ; but where they 

 perceive a worms hole (as I have seen Suites to do) there they 

 thrust in their bill as far as th.ey can, and if the worm lie deep, 

 they blow in such a breath or blast of wind, that the worms 

 come out for fear as in an Earthquake . . . There is a kind 

 of Wood-Snite in Devonshire greater than the common suite. 



^ Petricol.e 



COLUMB.E i^^""^'^ 



I Palumbes 

 ^ Turtures 



Wild-Doves be specially four in number, Rock-Doves, 

 Stock-Doves, Ring-Doves and Turtle-Doves. Rock-Doves 

 breed upon Rocks by the Sea-side, but never far from Corny 

 Downs, whether in Seed and Harvest-time thej^ fly for meat, 

 living all the year besides upon Mast and Ivy-berries. 



CORTUNICES. 



Quails . . . 



Pluviales. 

 Plovers . . . and the gray Plover is so highty esteemed, 

 that this Proverb is raised of a curious and malecontented 

 stomach ; a gray Plover cannot please him. Yet to some the 

 green Plover . . . [i.e. the golden plover] seemeth more 

 nourishing and to others the Lapwing . . . 



* Simon Sethus, author of de Alimentis, 1561. 



t i.e. Snipes. 



X Avicenna (980-1037) the famous Arabian physician and author. 



§ Albertus Magnus (1193-1280). 



