jy8 The Statural Hijlory 



gratorU, betide Swallows, and fome well known winter Fowl: 

 The Cormorant has been obferved to come hither about Harvefi 

 time, whereof there was one killed from St. Maries fteeple (ti- 

 red with a long flight) An.i6j$. and another young one taken up 

 in Arncot-fielh fallen down in the Corn,and brought me to Oxford. 



12. But what is fom what ftranger, in the year 1644. the Pi- 

 ca Brafdienfis, or Toucan, whofe beak, is near as big as its whole 

 body, was found within two miles of Oxford, and given to the 

 Repofitory in the Medecine-Schcol, where it is ftill to be feen ; which 

 argues it a Bird of a very rank, wing, there being a neceffity of 

 its flying from America hither, except we (hall rather fay it might 

 be brought into England by Ship, and afterwards getting away 

 might fly hither. 



13. Of Birds welljmown of unufua I colours, I have met with 

 two remarkable examples : the one a white Linnet, given me by 

 Mr. Lane of Deddington ; and the other a fort of white, zndpy- 

 td Phefants, kept by the Right Honorable James Lord Norreys of 

 Ricot 1 Whereof how fome happen to be of different colours from 

 the reft of their ffecies, efpecially when they have deviated from 

 their kind by whitenefi, hath been a queftion thought worthy of fe- 

 vere examination. In the profecution whereof, it hath been ob- 

 ferved (as before in the Chapter of Plants, .38.) that whitenefi 

 often proceeds from a defeft of moifture or nourifhment ; and it 

 hath been a received opinion concerning Birds, that they may 

 become white by plucking off their firft feathers, which will caufe 

 their new ones to come forth of that colour. But befide thefe 

 ways of art and privation, it is manifeft that Nature her felf fom- 

 times positively defigns fuch a colour, even in ftecies too that 

 feldom are of it, many other Animals as well as Birds, having 

 been produced of that colour unufual to the (pedes, as brisk and 

 well liking as any others whatever, fuch as white Moles, Rats, Mice^ 

 and fomtimes white Fawns, where there has been neither Buck. 

 nor Doe of that colour in the Park. 



14. And this Iguefs (lie does by giving fome certain Indivi- 

 duals of each fpecies a fkin of finer and more contrafted/wrs than 

 others, which will caufe -whitenefi in feathers, hair, Isrc. by not 

 permitting of the fulphureout particles to expire, which give varie- 

 ty of colours q ; thus we fee in the cicatrization of wounds where 



1 Vtd. Willi fium de Ferment, cap. 2. 



the 



