An Ingenious Theory. 
191 
author of the Summary on the Poem of Du Bartas —a 
commentary which was published in England in 1637:— 
“ There is found (saith Cardan) in the Moluques, both upon the 
sea, and on the land, a dead bird, which the ilanders call manucodiata, 
and never was he seene living, because he hath no feete. I have seene 
such a dead bird three times, and I suppose the cause why he hath no 
feete, is for that he liveth very high in the ayre, and far severed from 
the sight of men. He hath a body and beake almost like a swallow : 
his wings, and taile containe more widenesse then those of the hawke, 
and almost equall those of the eagle. His plumes are very soft, and 
very much resemble the feathers of a pea-hen. The backe of the male 
manucodiata is hollow, and within the same the female hatcheth and 
layeth her egges, which by this meanes are kept as it were in a box. 
The male hath in his tayle a long thred, more then three hands 
breadth in length, blacke; neither square, nor round, nor thicke : but 
small, and resembling a coblers grosse thred: which seemeth to serve to 
tye and joyne the male with the female when she sitteth, to the end to 
defend her from the winds and other accidents. So likewise it seemeth 
to serve them for a grapple, or counterpoize, according to the changes 
of the aire. It is not to be wondred at that this bird remaineth alwaies 
in the aire: for his tayle and wings are spred so properly in a round 
that this maketh an equal counterpoize, which sustaineth the bird 
perpetually. I suppose that he liveth on no other thing but on dew.^ 
This explanation is all the more ingenious as the writer 
admits that he had no opportunity of studying a living 
specimen. He must be, therefore, indebted to his own 
imagination or to a careful anatomical examination of the 
bird’s structure. 
A distinction seems early to have been made between 
the Swallow and the Martin. Lyly rather g 
confuses the two: “But thou, Euphues, dost 
rather resemble the swallow, who in the summer creepetli 
under the eaves of every house, and in the winter leaveth 
nothing but dirt behind hir ” ( Euphues , 91). 
Chester describes:— 
“ The artificial! nest-composing swallow. 
That eates his meate flying along the way, 
Whose swiftnesse in our eyesight doth allow, 
That no imperial bird makes her his pray : 
