r, 



i 5 6 O^nClTHOLOgi. Book II. 



brooding them under his Wings, with as much care and tendernefs as their Dams are 

 wont to do. And we were told, that he was trained and induced to perform this 

 office, almoft after the fame manner that Jo.Baptifta Porta prefcribes, #£.4. Magi a Nat. 

 cap. 26. Firft, they make him very tame, fo as to take meat out of ones hand, then 

 about Evening-time pluck the feathers off his bread, and rub the bare skin with 

 Nettles, and then put the Chickens to him, which prefently run under his breaft and 

 belly, and ( it is likely ) rubbing his breaft gently with their heads allay the flinging 

 and itching of the Nettles 3 and this they do for two or three nights, till he begin to 

 love and delight in the Chickens. Perchance alio the querulous voice of the Chickens 

 may be pleafant to him inmifery, and invite him to fuccour the miferable. A Capon 

 once accuftomed to this fervice will not give it over, but when one brood is grown 

 up, you may take them away, and put another to him of newly hatcht Chickens, and 

 hefhallbeas kind to them, and take as much care of them as of the former, andfo 

 others, till all being grown up or removed, he hath been for fome time idle and dif- 

 ufed the employment. ( 



I might be infinite ihould I profecuteat large all that might be faid of this bird, or 

 write a full, exact, and particular Hiftory of it. If any Reader defires to know 

 more of it, let him confult Aldrovandus, whofe deftgn was, to omit nothing in his 

 Hiftory which was either known to himfelf, or had been before publifhed by 

 others. 



This fame Author in his Ornithology gives us many kinds, or rather rarities, of Hens. 

 1. A common Hen, but white and copped^. 14. cap.2. 2. A dwarf Hen, orfhort- 

 leg'd Hen : Which variety is alfo found in England, kept by the curious, and called 

 Grigs. 3. A Padua Cock and Hen : Which ought rather to be called a Pulverara 

 Cock and Hen 5 from Pulvevara a Village fome miles diftant from Padua, where they 

 are found. Thefe are larger and fairer Fowl than the common fort, elfe differ in no 

 particular : -Whence alfo if they be removed into other Countries,they do by degrees 

 degenerate, and in afhort time[ in'fome few generations ] come to be of the fizeand 

 and fhape of the Natives of fuch places. 4. A rough-footed Cock and Hen, lib. 14. 

 cap.<$. 5. A Turkj{h Cock and Hen, different from ours efpecially in the variety and 

 beauty of their colours, cap.6. 6. A Perffan Cock and Hen, whofe chara&eriftic is 

 the wanting of a Rump or Tail. This kind is alfo kept by fome among us, and cal- 

 led Rumkjns. The firft five varieties, in my opinion, differ not fpecifically. For 

 thefe Birds by reafon of the difference of Climate, foil, food, and, other accidents, 

 vary infinitely in colours, differ alio in bjgnefs, and in having or wantingtufts on their 

 heads, <&c. Thofe birds which he defcribes and gives figures of in the tenth and 

 eleventh Chapters, under the titles of Another Indian Cock^ and Hen, and in the 

 twelfth Chapter under the title of two other Indian Hens, are the fame with the Mitu 

 and Mituporanga of Marggravius, of which we (hall give an account §. IV. 



The Wool-bearing Hen I take to be altogether fabulous, and its figure in Aldrov. 

 lib.i^. cap. 14. taken out of a certain Map, fictitious. Perchance it was no other 

 than the frilled or Frijland Her), which Odoricus de Forojulii and Sir John Mandevil 

 call the W T ool-bearing Hen. The birds which M. Paulus Venetus makes mention of in 

 thefe words, In the City Quelinfu, in the Kingdom of 'Mangi- are found Hens, which 

 inftead of feathers have hairs like Cats, of ahlack^colour, and lay very good Eggs, ieem to 

 be Cajjowaries. 



Befides thofe fet forth by Aldrovandus, we have often feen, and our felves alfo have 

 now at Middleton another kind or variety of Hen, called in Englijh the Frijland Hen, 

 not (as I fuppofe) becaule it was firft brought to us out of Frijland, but becaufethe 

 feathers of the body are curled or frifled : By which Epithete I believe this Bird was 

 at firft called, the word being afterward by the miftake of the Vulgar corrupted into 

 Frijland,oi like found.For knowing this tobeanoutlandi(hHen,they thought it could 

 not be more fitly denominated than from its Country, and trjereupon imagined it to be 

 called a jFr7/?WHen,infteadofa frifled Hen. Nor did they want a probable argument 

 to induce them to think it to be of a Frijland breed or original, wz..the curling of the 

 feathers, which one would be apt to attribute to the horror of cold. I fuppofe thi: 

 to be the fame bird which Aldrovandus hath put in the Chapter o£ monftrous Hens. 

 in the laft place, whofe figure he faith was fenthim by PompiliusTagliaferrus of Parma, 

 with this defcription. I would have you to underhand, that there are two things cjj>e- 

 cially found in this Co ckp or thy of admiration. Thejirfi and chief is, that the feathers of 

 its Wmgs have a contrary fituation to thofe of other birds, for that fide which in other sis 

 naturally under woft or inmoji, in this is turned outward, fo that the whole Wingfeems to h 



inverted : 



