CAPONIZING FOWLS. 339 



so the Capon, which, though ugly, is not half venomous 

 enough, if we can be made to believe all we read, carries a 

 valuable gem in the part that is usually antithetically opposed 

 to the head. 



Extracting a Crystal from a Caporis Liver. 



From a very curious and ancient work on natural history, 

 in my possession, entitled " Ortus Sanitatis," (the Garden of 

 Health,) printed and published at Ausburg, in 1485, by Joan. 

 Cuba, a Dutch botanist, who travelled through Greece and the 

 East, I give above, a fac-simile of a wood engraving, repre- 

 senting the act of extracting a precious stone from the liver of 

 a Capon. " The Allectorius," says the author, " is a stone 

 like a crystal, or limpid water. It is found in the liver of a 

 Capon at the age of three years. It is never larger than a 



