LIFE AND DP: A Til. 329 



the truth is utterly lost, if any such bird there be. As for 

 that which was so much admired, that she was ever seen 

 abroad with a great troop of birds about her, it is no such 

 wonder ; for the same is usually seen about an owl flying 

 in the daytime, or a parrot let out of a cage. 



30. The parrot hath been certainly known to have lived 

 threescore years in England, how old soever he was before 

 he was brought over ; a bird eating almost all kind of meats, 

 chewing his meat, and renewing his bill : likewise curst 

 and mischievous, and of a black flesh. 



31. The peacock lives twenty years, but he comes not 

 forth with his argus eyes before he be three years old ; a 

 bird slow of pace, having whitish flew. 



32. The dunghill cock is venereous, martial, and but of 

 a short life ; a crank bird, having also white flesh. 



33. The Indian cock, commonly called the turkey cock, 

 lives not much longer than the dunghill cock; an angry 

 bird, and hath exceeding white flesh. 



34. The ringdoves are of the longest sort of livers, inso 

 much that they attain sometimes to fifty years of age; an 

 airy bird, and both builds and sits on high. But doves and 

 turtles are but short lived, not exceeding eight years. 



35. But pheasants and partridges may live to sixteen 

 years. They are great breeders, but not so white of flesh 

 as the ordinary pullen. 



36. The blackbird is reported to be, amongst the lesser 

 birds, one of the longest livers ; an unhappy bird, and a 

 good singer. 



37. The sparrow is noted to be of a very short life; and 

 it is imputed in the males to their lasciviousness. But the 

 linnet, no bigger in body than the sparrow, hath been ob 

 served to have lived twenty years. 



38. Of the ostrich we have nothing certain ; those that 

 were kept here have been so unfortunate, that no long life 

 appeared by them. Of the bird ibis we find only that he 

 liveth long, but his years are not recorded. 



39. The age of fishes is more uncertain than that of 

 terrestrial creatures, because living under the water they 

 are the less observed ; many of them breathe not, by which 

 means their vital spirit is more closed in ; and, therefore, 

 though they receive some refrigeration by their gills, yet 

 that refrigeration is not so continual as when it is by 

 breathing. 



40. They are free from the desiccation and depredation 

 of the air ambient, because they live in the water, yet there 



