Book III. O^D^lT HO LOqT. 319 



Perphyrio as they pifture, akin to the Coots or Water-hens. Let others, who have the 

 hap to fee it, defcribeit more exadtly, and fo remove all doubt and fcruple concern- 

 ing this matter out of the minds of the learned and curious. 



§. ii. 



* The Quaehilto or American Porphyrio of Nieremberg. 



THe guachiltodoth. imitate the watching and crowings of a Cock- Some call it 

 Tacacintli. Late at night, and early in the morning it crows after the manner 

 of Cocks. It is of a dark purple colour, with fome white feathers intermixt. The 

 Bill is pale at the beginning. In the young birds the bald part at the rife of the Bill is 

 red. It is like a Coot. Its Legs are yellow, inclining to green, ending in four pale- 

 coloured Toes, without any membrane. The Eyes are black, with a fulvous Irk [or 

 circle about the Pupil. ] It is a Marfh-bird, feeding .upon fifties, it felf being no un^ 

 pleafant or ill-tafted meat. 



Chap. IV. 

 * AUm >an Js kalian <I{aiL ISf 01 ' 



I ' chap.ld. 



s His Rail ( as Gefner defcribes it y is more a Water than a Land Fowl : And at 

 Meftre, a Village not far diftant from Venice, it is taken, not without great 

 toil and expence, vi%. in Falcons, or other Hawks, and a troup of Servants, 

 who wearing Buskins or high-ftioos, do, in the room of hunting Dogs, wade up and 

 down the (hallow waters thereabouts, and putupthofe Birds with certain Clubs they 

 carry, making and beating the fhrubs and bullies where they lie ••> that fo they may 

 afterwards become a prey to the Falcons that wait for them. This is a very noted 

 Bird in that City, but in my judgment much inferiour for tafte both to a ThrnJIo and a 

 g^uail. Aloyfius Mundella, principal Phyfician ztBrefcia, in his Letters to me, writes 

 thus. This Bird differs from our * Fulica, in that it hath more white in the Wings, * C00 ^ 

 and about the Eyes. Its Bill is black , its Legs greeniih. It hath no fuch differed or 

 fcalloped membranes between the Toes,* no baldnels on the Head, as far as I gather 

 from the Picture. 



What Bird this is, and whether we have everleen it, being fo briefly defcribed with 

 a few, and fome of thofe negative notes, we cannot certainly determine. 



Memb. II. 

 Cloven-footed, fin-toed 'Birds, of Km to the Waterhens* 



$. I. 



The Coot: Fulica, 



T weighs twenty four ounces: From Bill-point to Tail-end is fifteen inches long$ 

 to the Claws twenty twol The Bill is an inch and half long, white, with a light 

 tin&ure of blue, {harp-pointed, a little comprefTed or narrow 3 both Mandibles 

 equal. The feet bluifh, or of a dusky green : The back-toe little, with one only 

 membrane adhering, and that notfcallop'd, but extending all the length of the Toe. 

 The inner fore-toe is a little ftiorter than the outer : All the Toes longer than in 

 whole-footed birds. About the joynts of the Toes are femicircular membranes ap- 

 pendant, on the inner Toe two, the middle three, the outer four. Thele circular 

 membranes are bigger, and more diftincl: on theinlide of the Toes, fothat the inters 

 mediate incifures or nicks reach to the very joynts. [This may be thus briefly ex- 

 preffed, The three fore-toes have lateral membranes on each fide, fcalloped, the inner 

 with two, the middle Toe with three, and the outer with four fcallops. ] From the 

 Bill almoftto the crown of the Head arifes an Excrefcency or Lobe of rlefti, bare of 



feathers^ 



