LONGEVITY. 217 



lived. But the progress to maturity must be slow 

 in this species, compared to the duration of their 

 life ; for towards the end of the first summer, when 

 all the family consort together, it is difficult to dis- 

 tinguish the old from the young, and very probably 

 they are capable of breeding the second year." 



Pigeons are reported to have lived from twenty to 

 twenty-two years ; and even linnets, goldfinches, 

 and other small birds, have been known to live from 

 fifteen to twenty-three years. 



Willoughby says, " We have been assured by a 

 friend of ours, a person of very good credit, that his 

 father kept, a goose, known to be fourscore years 

 of age, and as yet sound and lusty, and like enough 

 to have lived many years longer, had he not been 

 forced to kill her for mischievousness, worrying 

 and destroying the young geese and goslins." In 

 another part of his valuable work, this writer tells 

 us, " that he has been assured by credible persons, 

 that a goose will live a hundred years and more." 



It has been supposed that the pelican derives its 

 great longevity from the peculiar texture of its 

 bones, which are thin, almost transparent, and ex- 

 ceedingly light. Even in captivity it has been ob- 

 served to be more tenacious of life than most other 

 birds. " Of a great number of pelicans kept in the 

 menagerie at Versailles, none died in the space of 

 twelve years ; yet during that time some of almost 

 every other species of animals died.'* 



It was reported, as Aldrovand has stated, by per- 

 sons worthy of credit, that a pelican, eighty years 

 of age (octogenariam), was kept by the emperor 

 Maximilian, and was held as a sort of auspicator in 

 his camp. It was supposed to have been hatched 

 in the time of Philip the emperor's father. It was 

 afterward kept for a long time at the court of the 

 empress, after it was no longer able, through old 

 age, to use its wings, the expense of keeping it be- 

 ing four crowns a day. Turner mentions one which 

 T 



