i6z 



0^3\ClTH0L0g7. Book II. 



And when it hath occafion to go into any Room, if the door be {hut, it knocks at it 

 with its Bill. If it can, and be permitted, it follows its Matter 5 and when he comes 

 home, receives him with great expreffionof joy and clapping its Wings. 



Aldrovandus * defcribes and fets forth the figure of this Bird under the title of Ano- 

 ther Indian Cock: The whole body ( faith he ) of this Bird was of a deep black: It 

 wanted both Spurs and Tail, as alfb the Comb : Inftead of which it had on its Head 

 curled feathers. Its Bill was of two colours, partly yellow, to wit, toward the 

 Head, partly black. The upper Chap of its Bill hooked. Where in other Cocks 

 the holes of the Nofthrils are,there this Bird had a certain yellow protuberance, of the 

 bignefs of a Cherry. The Legs and Feet were covered with whitifh * annulary fcales. 

 Alfb fome fmall feathers near the vent were white. 



If this Bird be rightly defcribed by Aldrovandus, it feems fo to differ from the Mi- 

 tuporanga of Marggrave, as his Indian Hen above defcribed doth from the Mitu, viz,. 

 by the Cherry-like protuberance on its Bill. Moreover, it differs alio in that it 

 wants a Tail, whereas the Mituporanga hath a tufficient long one. But Aldrovandus 

 faw not the bird it felf, but only its Pi&ure, which whether or no it were exacl:, and 

 not taken when the bird had loft its Tail, there is fome reafon to doubt. 



* Lib. 14. 



* TabeU* he 

 calls them. 



* So Dr. Kjy 

 called it,who 

 fenc him this 

 defcription. 



* Very fteep 

 behind,and 

 much inclin- 

 ing before. 



* Lacinite. 



J. VI. 



The Gxxmy Hen. 



F T is for bignefs equal to a common Hen : But its Neck longer and fiend erer. The 

 I figure of its body almoftlike a Partridges, It is of an afh-colour, all over che- 

 quered with white fpots. A black ring compaiTes the Neck: The Head is reddilh. 

 On the Crown or top of the Head grows a hard horny cap, [ a horn Mr. Willughby 

 calls it ] of a dusky red colour. The Cheeks beneath the Eyes are blue, and bare of 

 feathers, under which is a red Gill. They fay, that thefe Birds are gregarious, and 

 feed their Chickens in common. So far Mr. Willughby. But becaufe this defcription 

 is very fhort and fuccmft, ( though fufficient for the knowledge of the bird ) J (hall 

 prefent the Reader with a full and exact one out of Gefner. The * Mauritanian Cock 

 is a very beautiful bird, in bignefs and fhape of body, Bill, and Foot like a Pheafant. 

 {_ Thofe that we have feen, as alfb thole defcribed by Bellom us and Marggrave were 

 as big as ordinary Hens, ~] armed with a horny Crown, riling up into a point, on the 

 backfide* perpendicularly, on the forefide with a gentle afcent or declivity. Nature 

 feems to have intended to fatten and bind it down to the lower part by three as it 

 were * Labels or flips proceeding from it 5 between the Eye and the Ear on both fides 

 one 5 and in the middle of the forehead one, all of the fame colour with the Crown 5 

 fo that it fits on the head after the fame manner as the Ducal Cap doth upon the head 

 of the Duke of Venice, if that fide which now ftands foremoft were turned back- 

 ward. This Crown below is wrinkled round about : Where it rifes upright in the top 

 of the Neck, at the hinder part of the head grow certain erecl: hairs ( not feathers ) 

 turned the contrary way. The Eyes are wholly black, as alfo the Eye-lids round 

 about, and the Eye-brows, excepting a fpot in the upper and hinder part of each 

 Eye-brow. The bottom of the Head on both fides all along is taken up by a kind of 

 callous flefh of a fanguine colour, which that it might not hang down like Gills or 

 Wattles, Nature hath taken care to turn backward and fold up, lo that it ends in two 

 acute procefles. From this flefh arife up on both fides certain Caruncles, wherewith 

 the Nofthrils are inverted round, and the Head in the forepart feparated from the 

 Bill, which is palccoloured j of thefe alfo at the Bill the lower edges are lightly re- 

 flected back under both Nofthrils. What is between the Crown and this flefh on the 

 right and left fide is marked with a double fcaly incifure, but behind with none. 



Its colour under the Jaws or Throat is exactly purple, in the Neck a dark purple: 

 In the reft of the body fuch as would arife from black and white fine powder, 

 fprinkled or lifted thin upon a dusky colour,- but not mingled therewith : In 

 this colour are difperfed and thick-fet all over the body oval or round white 

 fpots, above lelTer, below greater, comprehended in the intervals o£ lines obliquely 

 interfering one another, as is feen in the natural pofition of the feathers 5 in the up- 

 per part of the body only, not in the lower. [ I fuppofe he means, if we fhould fan- 

 cy lines to be drawn in the manner of Network all over the back, the fpots would 

 ftand in the middle of the Meifhes of that Network.] This you may find to be fo, 

 not only from viewing the whole body, but even fingle feathers plucked off. For the 



upper 



