OF NATURE. 
107 
of lakes amongft the reeds and rufties ; from 
whence by the wonderfull appointment of na- 
ture they come forth again. The periftaltic 
motion of the bowels ceafes in all thefe ani- 
mals, while they are obliged to fall, whence 
the appetite is diminifhed, and fo they fuffer 
lefs from hunger. To this head may be re- 
ferred the obfervation of the celebrated Lifter 
concerning thofe animals *, that their blood, 
when let into a bafon, does not coagulate, as 
that of ail other animals, and fo is no lels fit 
for circulation than before. 
The moor-fowls work themfelves out walks 
under the very inow. They moult in the fum- 
mer, fo that about the month of Auguft they 
appear. He quotes a paflage from that author concerning 
the appearance of a vaft number of kites at the mouth of 
the Bofphorus, but this happened at the latter end of May, 
and feems to prove nothing ; for the time marked for their 
appearance by Calippus, who obferved near the Hellefpont, 
is the month of March. Willughby fays that kites are fup- 
pofed to be birds of paflage, and then quotes from Bello- 
nius the place abovementioned. 
From what has been faid it appears evident, that nothing 
certain is known by the moderns about the difappearance 
of thefe remarkable birds,' yet their coming was regularly 
noted by the antient writers, and coincided with that- of 
fwallows, as appears by the old calendars of Geminus, 
and Ptolemy from the obfervations of Eudoxus, Euftemous, 
Calippus, and Dofitheus. 
can- 
