A rdea — Aurivittis — A ttagen 4 1 



Shovelard'- Stellaris is that kind which Englishmen denomi- 

 nate buttour or bittour, and the Germans call pittour or 

 rosdom. Now it is a bird like other Herons in its state 

 of body generally, living by hunting fishes on the banks 

 of swamps and rivers, very sluggish and most stupid, so that 

 it can very easily be driven into nets by the use of a stalking 

 horse. So far as I remember, it is nearly of the colour of 

 a Pheasant, and the beak is smeared with mud ; it utters 

 brayings like those of an ass. Of all birds it aims at mens' 

 eyes most readily. Wherefore if anything hinders this kind 

 from being the Stellaris (which is not yet given to me to see) 

 it ought to be the Phoix, inasmuch as Aristotle testiiies that 

 it aims chiefly at the eyes, though other Ardeac also often 

 seem to do the same. 



Of the Aurivittis. 



X/3uo-o/itTjOi? (not as some texts have it 'pv<TOfji,r)Tp-q<;), 

 aurivittis, in English a gold finche, in German eyn distel- 

 finck or eyn stigelitz. 



The Aurivittis is one of the small birds that feed on 

 seeds of thistles, and do not touch worms even when offered 

 to them. Some will have it that the Goldfinc or the Distel- 

 vinc is but the Spinus*, some the Carduelis. But if anyone 

 can shew another of the thistle-eating birds save this, girt 

 with a golden band, to which the name of Aurivittis is more 

 fitting than to this, I gladly will allow my opinion to be 

 ignored, but otherwise, I do not see why it should not be 

 worthy of approval. 



Of the Attagen. 



'ATTaryrjv, aTrdya(;, attagen, attagena. 



The Attagen, as Aristotle writes, is like the Gallinago 

 in colour. And Aristophanes bears witness in these lines 

 that the Attagena is marked with varied spots : — 



" If any of you be a runaway and branded with the 

 marks, he shall assuredly be called with us the spotted 

 Attagen." 



1 That is, the Spoonbill of modern books {Platalea leucorodid), while 

 the buttour is of course the Bittern {Botaurus stellaris) 



2 Turner himself considered Spinus to be the Greenfinch (cf. p. 85 of 

 the original). 



