CURIOUS CREATURES. 193 



where bryars are, and thick Trees. Males and Females 

 sit on the Eggs by turns, and both of them keep the 

 Young, and chiefly the Male, that neither the Eagle nor 

 Fox may catch them. 



" These Birds fly in great sholes together, and they 

 remain in high Trees, chiefly Birch-Trees ; and they come 

 not down, but for propagation, because they have food 

 enough on the top of their Trees. And when Hunters 

 or Countreymen, to whom those fields belong, see them 

 fly all abroad, over the fields full of snow, they pitch up 

 staves obliquely from the Earth, above the Snow, eight 

 or ten foot high ; and at the top of them, there hangs 

 a snare, that moves with the least touch, and so they 

 catch these Birds ; because they, when they Couple, leap 

 strangely, as Partridges do, and so they fall into these 

 snares, and hang there. And when one seems to be 

 caught in the Gin, the others fly to free her, and are 

 caught in the like snare. There is also another way 

 to catch them, namely with arrows and stalking-horses, 

 that they may not suspect it. ... 



" There is also another kind of Birds called Bonosa, 

 whose flesh is outwardly black, inwardly white : they 

 are as delicate good meat as Partridges, yet as great as 

 Pheasants. At the time of Propagation, the Male runs 

 with open mouth till he foam ; then the Female runs 

 and receives the same ; and from thence she seems to 

 conceive, and bring forth eggs, and to produce her 

 young." 



THE SWAN. 



The ancient fable so dear, even to modern poets, that 

 Swans sing before they die was not altogether believed 

 even in classical times, as saith Pliny : " It is stated that 



