VOL. viTi.] NOTES. 175 



BELIEFS REGARDING THE MATINO OF 

 BLACKGAME. 



I RECENTLY purchascd a curious old book which, from the 

 facts that it was unknown to the bibliographer Lowndes, 

 and that no copy of it is to be found in the British Museum, 

 I take to be of considerable rarity. The title of the book 

 to which I refer is : — An / History / of the / Wonderful Things 

 of Nature : I .... Written by Johannes J onMonus. / And noiv 

 Jiendred into I English ; / Bi/ I A Person of QvaMty./ | John 

 Rowland.] .... 1657. 



Johannes Jonstonus, otherwise John Johnstone, " of 

 Scottish descent but by birth a J*ole," ' was the author of 

 the IJistoria Naturalis which has been described by Professor 

 Alfred Newton as " little more than an epitome of the work 

 of Aldrovandus."- It is not my object to discuss the 

 originality of Johnstone's labours, but to draw attention 

 to the curious statement which he makes when dealing with 

 the UrogaUus, ' quoting as his authority Christopher Encelius. 



Tlie following is the quotation from Encelius (or Entzelt) : — 



" Gallus hujus speciei spenna ex ore, teimpore coitus in viere, excreal 

 et euomit, et uoce magna adiiocat gallinas ipsas (sicut domesticus 

 gallus aduocat gallinas, inucnto aliquo grano) qua> cum aduenirent, 

 sperma ejectum, et excreatum a gallo in terram, ore legvint, et 

 reglutiunt, et tali modo concipiunt. . . . Nam super (juas gallinas 

 non ascendit, ipsa^ oua Iiypneumia pariunt, ut domesticae gallina'." 

 {De re Metallica, Hoc est, de origine, uarietate, et Natura Corporum . . . 

 Franc [ofurti L5.51], pp. 245/0). 



It is only fair on Ulysses Aldrovandus, who has been desig- 

 nated as Johnstone's prototype, to state that he could not 

 swallow^ the statement, put forward by Encelius, which 

 applied not only to the UrogaUus but to Bonosas . . . . et 

 omnes fere Gallinas sylvestres.'' When writing my Birds of 

 Dumfriesshire I delicately hinted at the " impossible yet 

 deep-rooted l(^^al ideas as to the mating of Blackgame,"" and 

 it was not till 1900, when Blackgame bred in captivity at 

 Oapenoch, Dujiifriesshire, that certain old inhabitants were 

 convinced that Johnstone's allegation was erroneous. I do 

 not wish to imply that these Dumfriesshire sages were 



(1) Dictionary of National Biography, Vol. XXX., pp. 80/1. 



(2) A Dictionary of Birds, 1893/G, p. (i. 



(;j) Historia' Naturalis de Ainbus, Ki.W, p. (il ; Johnstone's Latin 

 has been " rendred " (none too accurately) by Jolin Rowland in liis 

 An History of the Wonderful Things of Nature, Kif)?, p. 192. 



(4) Ulysses Aldrovandus' Or^nthologia', lib., XIII. , 1634, p. 66. 



(5) i.e. lib., XII., 1599, p. 699. 



(6) The Birds of Dumfriesshire, 1910, p. 322, 



