EARLY 0BNITH0L0GJST8, 381 



Conrad Gesner fully shared Belon's love of wild birds. He 

 was a student of the anatomy of birds — as much so as Belon, and 

 more perhaps than Aidrovandi, because Aldrovandi generally 

 persuaded a professional anatomist to act as his prosector. But 

 Conrad was also a good field-observer, with eyes and ears trained 

 to detect the passage of migrating flocks. He took a great 

 interest in the rarer birds of the Swiss cantons. He was cog- 

 nizant of two or three breeding stations of the Black Stork, one 

 of which was in the neighbourhood of Lucerne. 



Gesner was well informed regarding the habits of the Black 

 Stork, which he describes as nesting in trees, usually pine-trees. 

 He dissected one of these birds which had been procured near 

 Zurich. It had been feeding upon beetles and other insects. 

 He remarks that this Stork had a fishy smell ; such a bird 

 should first be boiled, and then stufted with herbs. The flesh 

 was good and sweet, but the skin proved tough. Very pleasant 

 reading is afforded by Gesner's account of the Bustard. The 

 Great Bustard was not a common bird in Switzerland in the 

 sixteenth century. Nevertheless, sevei-al of the birds which 

 Gesner examined had been killed near Zurich, or near Coire, in 

 the Tyrol. Conrad had the curiosity to weigh a couple of Bus- 

 tards. One of these birds scaled nine pounds twelve ounces ; 

 the other turned the scales at thirteen pounds and a half. The 

 stomachs of these birds were filled with vetches, but Bustards 

 which had been killed in heavy snow contained pebbles and the 

 bark of trees. Conrad Gesner was told that Bustards were 

 "permultos in Anglia," but whether he owed this piece of in- 

 formation to John Falconer, Thomas Gybson, John Estwyck, to 

 Turner, or Dr. Caius, has not apparently been solved. Gesner 

 corresponded with all five of these British naturalists. 



Gesner examined many other birds of local interest — such, for 

 example, as a Spoonbill killed near Zurich in the month of 

 September. The early nesting proclivities of the Crossbill were 

 as well known to this great Swiss as its variations of plumage. 

 He studied the seasonal changes of the Ptarmigan. Friends at 

 a distance often sent birds to be described by Gesner — e. g. the 

 Stilt, the Purple Waterhen, the Pin-tailed Sand- Grouse. The 

 most remarkable perhaps of all his discoveries was that the rare 

 Bald-headed Ibis, now lost to Europe, nested on the lofty walls 



