The Hijlory of 



Book 1 



ikin being fill 'd with Cotton or dry'd leaves , finds a place 

 among rarities j but it loles much of its luftre when the fifti 

 is dead. 



BECVNE. 



AMong the ravenous Monfters that are greedy of mans flefti, 

 found on the Coafts of thefe Iflands, the Becune is one of 

 the moft dreadful : It is in figure much like a Pike, but in length 

 leven or eight foot, and proportionably big : He lives by prey, 

 and furioufly faftens like a Blood-Hound on the men he per- 

 ceives in the water : He carries away whatever he once faftens 

 021, and his teeth are fo venemous, that the leaft touch of them 

 becomes mortal if fome fovereign remedy be not immediately 

 apply'd to abate and divert the poyfon. 



SEA-WOOD-COCKS. 



THere is another kind of Becune s , by fbme called Sea* 

 Wood-Cocks from the figure of the beak, which is fbme- 

 what like a Wood-Cocks bill , faving that the upper part is 

 much longer then the lower, and that this fifti moves both jaws 

 with like facility : Some of them are fobig and long, that they 

 are above four foot between the head and the tail, and twelve 

 inches broad neer the head, meafuring fide-wife: The head is 

 fomewhat like that of a Swine, but enlightned by two large 

 eyes which are extreamly mining : It hath two fins on the fides, 

 and under the belly a great plume rifing higher and higher by 

 degrees, like a Cocks-comb, reaching from the head almoft to 

 the tail, which is divided into two parts : Befides the long and 

 folid beak it hath, for which it is remarkable among all fifties, 

 it hath two forts of horns, hard, black, and about a foot and a 

 half in length, which hang down under his throat, and are par- 

 ticular to this kind of fifti * and thefe he can eafily hide in a hol- 

 low place under his belly, which ferves them for a (heath : It 

 hath nofcales, but is cover 'd with a rough Ikin, which on the 

 back is black, on the fides grey ifti, and under the belly white.* 

 It may be eaten without any danger, though the meat of it be 

 not fo delicate as that of feveral other fifties. 



SEA-VKCHIN. 



'""Jp He Fifti found on thefe Coafts, and called the Sea-Vrchin, 

 ! well deferves that name : It is round as a ball, and full of 

 fharp prickles, for which it is feared : Some call it the Armed 

 Fijh. They who take of them, having dried them, fend them 

 as Prefents to the Curious, who for rarity hang them up in their 

 Clofets. 



CHAP. 



