1x8 



Its Feet. 

 Entrails. 



It varies 

 fomerimes in 

 colour. 



They may be 

 taught to 

 fpeak,* 



Its Neft. 



Its Eggs. 



Its bignefs. 

 Bill, 



It wants No- 

 fthrils. 



Its Head. 

 Eyes. 

 Colour. 



Its food Pep- 

 per. 



This ftory 



Tibtr difcre- 

 ditt, becaufe 

 none of his 

 American 

 friends fpake 

 a word of it. 



0^&ClTHOLOgr« Book II. 



inch (horter, and of the reft the exteriour than the interiour in like proportion. The 

 greateftandlong^ft, that is the middle feathers of the Tail, have their bottoms green, 

 their middles blue, and their tops purple. 



The Feet and Claws are black : Theloweft bone of the outmoft fore-Toe is joyned 

 to that of the middle. J 



The length of the Guts was twenty four inches, of the blind Guts half an inch. It 

 hath a Gall-bladder, and a long Spleen : The Stomach not very flefhy, and having 

 its Echinus. 



There are fometimes found of this kind all over white, but rarely. In the Kings 

 Aviary m St. James's Park we faw brown or reddifti ones. 



This Bird is eafily taught to fpeak, and that very plainly. We our (elves have 

 known many, which had learned to imitate mans voice, and fpeak articulately with 

 that exa&nefs, that they would pronounce whole Sentences together fo like to hu- 

 mane Speech, that had you not feen the Birds you would have fworn it had been man 

 that fpoke. 



They build their Nells in Trees with that Art and cunning asis admirable, fencing 

 them round on the outride both above and below with (harp thorns, leaving only one 

 hole 7 aggtthat a very narrow one, for themfelves to pafs in and out. He that defires 

 an exact, defcription of the Neft let him confult Aldrovandus : With us in England they 

 are fo common every where, that we thought it not needful to infill: longer on the 

 defcribing of them. It lays five or fix, and fometimes feven Eggs at once, feldom 

 more} greater and paler than Crows Eggs, and very thick fpotted with black. 



Its Food is the lame with that of thejackdan>._ Its fets upon, kills, and devours 

 Sparrows, and other fmall birds : Yea, we have fometimes feen a Magpie ftrike at a 

 Blackbird. 



§. n. 



The Brazilian Pie of Aldrovandus, lib. 12. cag.19. The Toucan 0/Marggrav. and 

 others, The Xochitenacatl of the Mexicans. Nieremb. 



IT is of a middle fize between a Pie and a Black$mfc~ Thevctus reports, that the 

 Bill is thicker and longer than almoft the whole body befides. The Bill is near 

 two Palms long, and one broad, being\meafured from the beginning of the lower 

 Chap to the end of the upper. The lower Chap where it is thickeft, viz,, near the 

 Eyes, is twice as little as the upper, and near the end, where it is crooked, thrice. 

 It is of a very thin fubftance like Parchment, but bony, (hining, very light, hollow, 

 and inwardly capable of a great deal of Air : For which reafon I think, contrary to 

 the manner of other Birds, its wants Nofthrils : The Bill being fo thin that the Air 

 can eafily penetrate it. And if Nature had made any aperture in it, it would have 

 rendred it obnoxious to fracture. Hence alio perchance it is, that (he hath furnifhed 

 it with certain teeth, fo difpofed that the Bill cannot be {hut exactly clofe, but eafily 

 admits the ingrefs of the Air. The Bill, I fay, is ferrate, and as it were compofed of 

 certain little fcales,which may eafily by the fingers be plucked oft^ [or afunder.] The 

 colour of the Bill is yellowifh, more in the lower than the upper part [inwardly it is 

 of a pleafant red] toward the end (fahhNierembergius) of a Scarlet colour. The 

 Head in proportion to the body is great and thick, as is futable and requifite to fuftain 

 a Bill of that length and bignefs 5 black 3 yet the Crown, whole Back, and Wings 

 (hew fbmething of whitenefs. The Eyes are great, placed in the middle of the Head ; 

 The Fupil very black,encompafl'ed with a white circle, and that again with a yellow. 

 The Neck, Back-, and Wings are black. The Breaft fhines with a moft bright and 

 lovely Gold or Saffron colour, with a certain rednefs near the beginnings the Belly 

 and Thighs with a moft beautiful Vermilion. The Tail again is black, but in the end 

 of a notable red. 



It is made lb tame, as to fit and hatch its Young in Houfes. Thevetus reports, that 

 this bird feeds upon Pepper, which it moft greedily devours, gorging it felf there- 

 with, fo that it Voids it again crudeand unconco&ed 3 and that the Natives make ufe 

 efpecially of that Pepper, preferring it before that which is frefh gathered from the 

 Plant, becaufe they perfuade themfelves that the ftrength and heat of the Pepper is 

 qualified and allayed by the Bird, fo that afterwards it is lefsjaoxious. All this out of 

 Aldrovandus. Faber fufpec~ts the ftory of the Pepper, becaufe his American friends, 

 whom he confulted about this Bird, made no mention of any fuch thing. I fufpeft 



that 



