CURIOUS CREATURES. 20 



Prayse-worthy Payer which pure examples yield 



Of faithfull Father, and Officious Childe : 



Th' one quites (in time) her Parents love exceeding, 



From whom shee had her birth and tender breeding ; 



Not onely brooding under her warm brest 



Their age-chill'd bodies bed-rid in the nest ; 



Nor only bearing them upon her back 



Through th' empty Aire, when their own wings they lack ; 



But also, sparing (This let Children note) 



Her daintiest food from her own hungry throat, 



To feed at home her feeble Parents, held 



From forraging, with heavy Gyves of Eld. 



The other, kindly, for her tender Brood 



Tears her own bowells, trilleth-out her blood, 



To heal her young, and in a wondrous sort, 



Unto her Children doth her life transport : 



For finding them by som fell Serpent slain, 



She rends her brest, and doth upon them rain 



Her vitall humour ; whence recovering heat, 



They by her death, another life do get." 



THE TROCHILUS. 



This bird, as described by Aristotle, and others, is of 

 a peculiar turn of mind : "When the Crocodile gapes, 

 the trochilus flies into its mouth to cleanse its teeth ; 

 in this process the trochilus procures food, and the 

 other perceives it, and does not injure it ; when the 

 Crocodile wishes the trochilus to leave, it moves its neck 

 that it may not bite the bird." 



Giovanni Leone before quoted says, respecting this 

 bird : " As we sayled further we saw great numbers of 

 crocodiles upon the banks of the ilands in the midst of 

 Nilus lye baking them in the sunne with their jawes 

 wide open, whereinto certaine little birds about the 

 bignesse of a thrush entering, came flying forth againe 

 presently after. The occasion whereof was told me to 



