THOMAS MUFFETT. 273 



Anates Muscari.^. 



But there is a kind of wild Duck called Anas muscaria 

 because it eats nothing but flies. . . . 



Brants. 



Barnicles both breed unnaturally by corruption . . . 

 [this of course refers to the well-known fable of the generation 

 of Barnacle geese from rotten timber.] 



QUERQUEDUL^. 



Teales and Widgins .... much esteemed above wild 

 Ducks or Geese. 



TOTANI. 



Pool- Suites* live only upon fish . . . 



Merganseres. 

 Shell- drakes, or the Ducks of Italy, are of most pleasant 

 taste . . . sometimes they wax so fat, that their feathers 

 being pul'd off, their body hath weighed twelve pound weight. 



' Urinatricas. 



Divers feed most upon reeds and reed roots and caddis- 

 worms breeding in them. 



Scarboides. 

 Such likewise is the Dobchicks food ; . . . 



FULIC^. 



Coots feed upon reeds, mud, grass, little snails, and small 

 fishes . . . 



NlGRIT^. 



Moor-cocks and moor- hens, as also Pocards, be of like 

 nature with coots . . . 



Pici Marini. 



Sea-pies [i.e. jester- catchers], as Dr. Cajusj writethj 

 resemble other Pies in Colour, but they have whole feet like 

 water fowlj ; they feed upon spawn, frogs, and frie of fish . . . 



Mergi. 

 Comorants, be they gray or black, feed most of fish and 

 frogs, but especially of Eels . . . 



* Possibly the Redshank. 



t John Caius, 1510-73. 



1 Here Muffett is mistaken. 



