y>6_ 0^3>£lTH0L0gj. Book ill. 



of a lead colour, bare a little above the knee. The inmoft Toe hath a lateral mem- 

 brane appendant. The Claws are black. 



The ftomach is furniihed with thick and ftrong mufcles : The Guts have eight or 

 nine revolutions, and are large. The Wind-pipe in this kind enters not the Breaft- 

 bone. Wherefore Aldrovand doth not rightly infer that Ariftotle never differed this 

 Fowl, becaufehe makes no mention of this ingrefs, and of theftrange figure of the 

 Wind-pipe. For this is proper to the wild Swan, not common to both kinds ; we 

 having not obferved fuch a conformation of the Wind-pipe in any of thofe tame 

 Swans we have diflecred. Aldrovandus therefore thinking there was but one kind of 

 Swan, viz,, that which hedilTe&ed, did erroneoufly attribute what was proper to that 

 one kind, to the Swan in general. We have opened two wild Swans, and in both 

 have obferved the Wind-pipe fo to enter the cavity of the Breaft-bone,and to be there 

 fo reflected as Aldrovandus hath expreiTed both in words and figures: Of tame Swans 

 we have anatomized many, and in all have obferved the w r ind-pipe to defcend ftreight 

 down into the Lungs without any fuch digreffion or reflection. 



It is a Very long-lived fowl, fo that it is thought to attain the age of three hundred 

 years : Which ( faith Aldrovandus ) to me feems not likely. For my part, I could 

 eafily be induced to believe it :. For that I have been affured by credible perfbns that 

 a Goofe will live a hundred years or more. But that a Swan is much longer-lived than 

 stGoofe, if it were not manifeft inexperience, yet are there many convincing argu- 

 ments to prove, viz,, that in the fame kind it is bigger: That it hath harder, firmer, 

 and more folid flefh : That it (its longer on its Eggs before it hatches them. For, that 

 I may mvenPlmies words, Thofe creatures live longeft that arelongeft born in the 

 Womb. Now incubation anfwers to geftation. For the Egg is as it were an expo- 

 fed Womb with the young enclofed, which in viviparous Animals are cherifhed, and, 

 as I may lb fay, hatched within tne body, in oviparous Animals without the body, by 

 the warmth of the old one fitting upon them. 



The Svpan feeds not upon fifn, but either upon herbs growing in the water, and 

 their roots and feeds, or upon Worms, and other Infects, and fhell-fifh. Albert us 

 writes truly, that its flefh is black and hard. As the Bird it felf is far bigger than a 

 Goofe, foits fleih is blacker, harder, and tougher, having groffer fibres, hard of di- 

 geftion, of a bad and melancholic juice : Yet for its rarity ferves as a difh to adorn 

 great mens Tables at Feafts and entertainments, being elfe in my opinion no defirable 

 dainty. It lays feven or eight Eggs, and fits near two months before its young ones 

 be hatcht. 



They make ufe of the skin, thegroiTer feathers pluckt off, and only the Down 

 left, and fo dreft, as a defenfative againft cold, efpecially to cover and cherifh the 

 Breaft and Stomach. 



i. ii. 



A wild Swan, called alfo an Elk, and in fome places a Hooper. 



T T weighs lefs than at awe Swan, not exceeding two hundred fixty five ounces, or 

 J fixteen pound three quarters, Its length from the tip of the Bill to the end of the 

 Feet was fixty inches, to the end of the Tail fifty fix. The figureof the body is the 

 fame with the tame Swans : The colour white, yet not all over fo white as the tame 

 Swans : For the middle of the Back, and the fmaller covert-feathers of the Wings are 

 cinereous: Sometimes alfo here and there a brown feather is mixt with the white ones 

 in the Back. Each Wing hath thirty eight quils. The firft feather of the baftard-wing 

 is longer than ordinary, as in the tame Swan : The quils much lefs than in that. The 

 Bill towards the tip, and as far as the Nofthrils, is black : Thence to the Head covered 

 with a yellow membrane. [ Mx.Willughby describes the Bill a little differently thus. 

 The upper Mandible is moveable, from the Eyes to the Nofthrils bare, and of a fair 

 yellow colour, beyond the Nofthrils black. The lower Mandible is black ? but the 

 membrane under the Chin yellow.] The Legs are bare of feathers a little above the 

 knees, of a dusky yellow, as are alfo the Feet. The Wind-pipe after a ftrange and 

 wonderful manner enters the Breaft- bone in a cavity prepared for it, and is therein 

 reflected, and after its egrefs at the divarication is contract, ed into a narrow compafs 

 by a broad and bony cartilage, then being divided into two branches goes on to the 

 Lungs. Thefe branches before they enter the Lungs are dilated, and as it were fwoln 

 out into two cavities* 



On 



