Fulica 77 



Germany, who will have it that the Fulica is their Kywit, 

 possibly resting their opinion on what they have read in 

 Pliny of a tuft being attributed to the bird Fulica. The 

 Kywit of the Germans is, however, smaller than a Cornix, 

 with the plumage almost green and black on the whole back 

 and head and neck, the belly white, a long and always 

 upright feathery crest upon the head, and somewhat rounded 

 wings, which during flight make a great hurtling, whence it 

 is even named by foreigners Vannellus. It approaches waters 

 for the sake of worms, on which alone it feeds, but does not 

 enter them. It mostly lives in open country, and in places 

 overgrown with heather. Our people often keep this bird in 

 gardens, to destroy the worms. 



And yet what Vergil in this manner writes in the first 

 book of his Georgics of the Fulica will not permit this bird 

 to be his Fulica : 



"And now the waters scarce restrain themselves from the ships' 

 curving keels, while the swift Mergi wing their way once more out of the 

 Ocean's midst, bringing their noisy voices to the shore, and while the 

 Fulicae, frequenters of the sea, disport themselves on land." 



Hence it is clear enough that the Kywit is not the Fulica, 

 since it is not a sea-bird nor a water-bird. There are not 

 wanting those who would have that black Water Hen, with 

 a white frontal patch, to be the Fulica 1 . But on the strength 

 of Vergil and Aristotle such are easily convicted of mistake, 

 for one of these makes it a sea-bird, and the other, namely 

 Aristotle in the eighth book of his History of Animals, bears 

 witness that it lives about the sea. Wherefore, since that 

 Marsh Hen is neither a sea-bird nor seeks its food about 

 the sea, but constantly haunts pools, and marshes, and fresh 

 waters, it can neither be the Fulica of Vergil nor the /ee7r<o9 

 of Aristotle. But it still remains that I should shew what bird 

 I judge the Fulica to be. 



There is a sea-bird 2 , like a Daw in size, but with the wings 

 sharper and longer, wholly white in colour, save for a black 

 patch which it bears on the head, and with the beak and feet 

 of purplish red. I often, journeying upon the sea, have had 



1 I.e. the Coot (Fulica afro). 



2 The Black-headed Gull (Larus ridibundus). 



