Wild-birds. 
244 NATURAL HISTORY 
reafon I give it, Plate xxiv. Fig. xi. in another and more extended 
attitude than Mr. Ray’s Willughby in his nineteenth Plate ; its legs, 
toes, and bill of a ftrong Vermillion, and the bony fubftances of thefe 
parts clear even to tranfparency : they are always yellow when the bird 
is young, and in the hen yellower than in the cock, which different 
colouring probably made Aldrovandus by miftake ( as in Willughby is 
obferved) think thofe with yellow feet, legs, and bill, to be a dif- 
ferent fpecies from the coracias with red feet 1 : its feathers are of a 
much richer velvet black than thofe of any other crow. It is faid, 
that, having its tongue flit when young, it will thereby be enabled 
to imitate the human voice, a property which Bellonius alfo afcribes 
to this bird d : this is certain, that as it fhrieks aloud at the approach 
of any thing ftrange, frightful, and unufual, its chatter is extremely 
foft and engaging, when it applies for meat, and makes its court 
to thofe who ufually feed and fondle it : its ftrength lies in its bill 
and neck, rather than wings ; it is not therefore fo warlike in the air 
as other crows, but on the ground it is very pugnacious, whetting 
and darting its bill, and though as tame as may be, not admitting 
any ftranger to touch him. Very apprehenflve of danger, it builds 
its neft in the cliffs, but neither in the top, as if all danger was 
from below, nor near the bottom, as if all its fears were from above, 
but in the middle of the moft fteep precipice ; very amuflng when 
kept tame ; docile, regular, and conftant to its hour for meat ; early 
at roof! ; in bad weather fond of fhelter and feldom feen ; but 
prefaging good weather, it enjoys the air on the tops of houfes, if 
tame, if wild, ftrutting ftately along the hills or greens by the fea-flde. 
Of flnging-birds, we have thrufhes, the black-bird, throftle or 
fong-thrufh, and the much larger and better coloured miflel-bird or 
fhrite, ( the Turdus vifcivorus major of Willughby, page 187) which 
we call in Cornwall the holm-thrufh ; the Cornifh call the Holly- 
tree, Holm, and this the holm or hom-thrufh, becaufe, as I ima- 
gine, in the winter it feeds upon holly- berries, each bird taking 
poffeflion of his tree, keeping conftant to it, as long as there is 
fruit, and driving away all other birds. ( See Ray’s Willughby, page 
187). Our linnets are either green or brown; we have gold-finches, 
ruddocks, nopes or buli-finches, and larks. Nightingales I have not 
feen, or heard of any in Cornwall. 
Of wild-birds, driven here by the extremity of the weather, we 
have all forts. 
Ad terram gurgite ab alto 
dam multce glomerantur aves ubi frigidus annus 
Trans pontum fugat et terris immittit apricis e . 
i Aldrovandus Ornith. lib. xn, chap. vm. 
e Virg. Ain. lib. vi. ver. 310. 
Duck* 
