46 BRITISH BIRDS. 



Oxen and Kine,* Seapies,t Puffins, Pewets,t Meawes, 

 Murres,§ Creysers, Curlewes, Teal, Widgeon, Burranets,|| 

 Shags, Ducke, and Mallard, Gull, Wild-goose, Heron, 

 Crane, and Barnacle, These content not the stomacke, 

 all with a like savorinesse, but some carry a rancke 

 taste, and require a former mortification : and some are 

 good to be eaten while they are young, but nothing 

 tooth-some, as they grow elder. The Guls, Pewets, and 

 most of the residue, breed in little desert Islands, border- 

 ing on both Coastes, laying their Egges on the grasse, 

 without making any nests, from whence the owner of 

 the land causeth the young ones to be fetched about 

 Whitsontide, for the first broode, and some weekes after 

 for the second. Some one, but not everie such Rock may 

 yeeld yeere-ly towards thirtie dozen of Guls. They are 

 kept tame and fed fat, but none of the sea kind will breed 

 out of their naturall place : yet at Caryhayes, Master 

 Trevanion's house, which bordereth on the Cliffe, an old 

 gull did (with an extraordinarie Charitie) accustome, for 

 divers yeares together, to come and feede the young ones 

 (though perhaps none of his alliance) in the Court where 

 they were kept. It is held that the Barnacle breedeth 

 under water on such ships sides, as have been verie long 

 at Sea, hanging there by the Bill, untill his full growth 

 dismisse him to be a perfect f owle : and for proofs hereof, 

 many little things like birds, are ordinarily found in such 



* Oxen-and-kine was, according to Swainson {Provincial Names of 

 British Birds, p. 195), the name given to the Ruff and Reeve at the 

 end of the sixteenth century. In the present case, as Carew is here 

 dealing with Sea-fowl, it probably means the " Oxbird " or Dunlin 

 (c/. Harting's edition of Rodd's Birds of Cornwall, p. 17). 



t Oyster-catcher, 



% The Pewit Gull, Larus ridibimdus {cf.. Plot's Natural History of 

 Staffordshire, Oxford, 1686, p. 231), Willughby calls it the Pewit 

 or Black-cap, 



§ Murre, the Cornish name of the Common Guillemot, also the 

 Razorbill {cf., Swainson, p, 218), 



li Probably the Shelldrake. The Shelldrake is called Burgander or 

 Bergander {i.e.. Burrow Gander) by Turner. Cf. also Charleton, 

 Onomasticon Zoicon, London, 1668, 1 vol., folio, p, 98, " The 

 Bergander or Burrow Duck." Willughby says the " Shelldrake or 

 Borough Duck. ... it is called Burrow-duck from building in Coney 

 Burrows" {The Ornithology, p. 28). 



