440 THE CENTURY, 



46. 



How to make an artificial Bird 

 to fly which way and as long as one 

 pleafeth, by or againft the wind, 

 fometimes chirping, other times ho 

 vering, ftill tending the way it is 

 defigned for. 



[An artificial BirdJ] The third article in his list of 

 a portion of his inventions supplies a different reading, 

 thus : u By this (his 4 quint-essence of motion ) I can 

 make an artificial bird to fly which way, and as long 

 as I please.&quot; [Appendix A.] 



The Marquis, not to be behind the curious and in 

 genious men of ancient times, has here and in article 

 No. 18, emulated John Muller of Nuremberg, better 

 known as Eegiomontanus, who was born in 1436. 

 He is celebrated for this species of rara avis ; a self- 

 moving and flying eagle, and an iron fly have afforded 

 much matter for romantic and no doubt exaggerated 

 accounts of their performances; the one flying a 

 good way in the open air and returning ; the other 

 flying from the philosopher round a table and coming 

 back to his hand. He evinced a genius of the first 

 order as a great inventor, and also as a promoter of the 

 advancement of science. 



In Ramelli s great work on various machines, folio, 

 1588, the 187th figure offers a detailed represen 

 tation of a handsomely furnished apartment, in which 

 a large carved sideboard sustains a gigantic vase 

 containing a flowering shrub, in the branches of which 

 six birds appear in the act of singing. The vase being a 

 sectional drawing, various pipes can be seen, also the 

 performer behind, who is blowing through a single 

 pipe into the body of the vase. 



