The Martlet, and Footless Birds
Of the Martin, or, as in Heraldry it is written, Martlet, Guillim thus writes: – “The Martlet, or Martinet, saith Bekenhawh, hath Legs so exceeding short, that they can by no means go: (walk) And thereupon, it seemeth, the Grecians do call them Apodes, quasi sine pedibus; not because they do want Feet, but because they have not such Use of their Feet, as other Birds have. And if perchance they fall upon the Ground, they cannot raise themselves upon their Feet, as others do, and prepare themselves to flight. For this Cause they are accustomed to make their Nests upon Rocks and other high places, from whence they may easily take their flight, by Means of the Support of the Air. Hereupon it came, that this Bird is painted in Arms without Feet: and for this Cause it is also given for a Difference of younger Brethren, to put them in mind to trust to their wings of Vertue and Merit, to raise themselves, and not to their Legs, having little Land to put their foot on.”
The Alerion is a small bird of the eagle tribe, heraldically depicted as without beak or feet.
Butler in “Hudibras” writes —
“Like a bird of paradise,
Or herald’s Martlet, has no legs,
Nor hatches young ones, nor lays eggs.”
The Bird of Paradise was unknown to the ancients, and one of the earliest notices of this bird is given in Magalhaen’s voyage in 1521: – “The King of Bachian, one of the Molucca Islands, sent two dead birds preserved, which were of extraordinary beauty. In size they were not larger than the thrush: the head was small, with a long bill; the legs were of the thickness of a common quill, and a span in length; the tail resembled that of the thrush; they had no wings, but in the place where wings usually are, they had tufts of long feathers, of different colours; all the other feathers were dark. The inhabitants of the Moluccas had a tradition that this bird came from Paradise, and they call it bolondinata, which signifies the ‘bird of God.’”
By-and-by, as trade increased, the skins of this bird were found to have a high market value, but the natives always brought them, when they came to trade, with their legs cut off. Thence sprang the absurd rumour that they had no legs, although in the early account just quoted, their legs are expressly mentioned. Linnæus called the emerald birds of Paradise apoda or legless; whilst Tavernier says that these birds getting drunk on nutmegs, fall helpless to the ground, and then the ants eat off their legs.
“But note we now, towards the rich Moluques,
Those passing strange and wondrous (birds) Manueques.
(Wond’rous indeed, if Sea, or Earth, or Sky,
Saw ever wonder swim, or goe, or fly)
None knowes their Nest, none knowes the dam that breeds them;
Foodless they live; for th’ Aire alonely feeds them:
Wingless they fly; and yet their flight extends,
Till with their flight, their unknown live’s-date ends.”
Snow Birds
But we must leave warm climes, and birds of Paradise, and speak of “Birds shut up under the Snow.”
“There are in the Northern Countries Wood-Cocks, like to pheasant for bigness, but their Tails are much shorter, and they are cole black all over their bodies, with some white feathers at the end of their Tails and Wings. The Males have a red Comb standing upright; the Females have one that is low and large, and the colour is grey. These Birds are of an admirable Nature to endure huge Cold in the Woods, as the Ducks in the Waters. But when the Snow covers the Superficies of the Earth, like to Hills, all over, and for a long time presse down the boughs of the Trees with their weight, they eat certain Fruits of the Birch-Tree, called in Italian (Gatulo) like to a long Pear, and they swallow them whole, and that in so great quantity, and so greedily, that their throat is stuffed, and seems greater than all their body.
“Then they part their Companies, and thrust themselves all over into the snow, especially in January, February and March, when Snow and Whirlwinds, Storms, and grievous Tempests, descend from the Clouds. And when they are covered all over, that not one of them can be seen, lying all in heaps, for certain weeks they live, with meat collected in their throats, and cast forth, and resumed. The Hunter’s Dogs cannot find them; yet by the Cunning of the crafty Hunters, it falls out, that when the Dogs err in their scent, they, by signs, will catch a number of living Birds, and will draw them forth to their great profit. But they must do that quickly; because when they hear the Dogs bark, they presently rise like Bees, and take up on the Wing, and fly aloft. But, if they perceive that the Snow will be greater, they devour the foresaid Fruit again, and take a new dwelling, and there they stay till the end of March: or, if the snow melt sooner, when the Sun goes out of Aries; for then the snow melting, by an instinct of Nature (as many other Birds) they rise out of their holes to lay Eggs, and produce young ones; and this in Mountains where bryars are, and thick Trees. Males and Females sit on the Eggs by turns, and both of them keep the Young, and chiefly the Male, that neither the Eagle nor Fox may catch them.
“These Birds fly in great sholes together, and they remain in high Trees, chiefly Birch-Trees; and they come not down, but for propagation, because they have food enough on the top of their Trees. And when Hunters or Countreymen, to whom those fields belong, see them fly all abroad, over the fields full of snow, they pitch up staves obliquely from the Earth, above the Snow, eight or ten foot high; and at the top of them, there hangs a snare, that moves with the least touch, and so they catch these Birds; because they, when they Couple, leap strangely, as Partridges do, and so they fall into these snares, and hang there. And when one seems to be caught in the Gin, the others fly to free her, and are caught in the like snare. There is also another way to catch them, namely with arrows and stalking-horses, that they may not suspect it…
“There is also another kind of Birds called Bonosa, whose flesh is outwardly black, inwardly white: they are as delicate good meat as Partridges, yet as great as Pheasants. At the time of Propagation, the Male runs with open mouth till he foam; then the Female runs and receives the same; and from thence she seems to conceive, and bring forth eggs, and to produce her young.”
The Swan
The ancient fable so dear, even to modern poets, that Swans sing before they die – was not altogether believed even in classical times, as saith Pliny: – “It is stated that at the moment of the swan’s death, it gives utterance to a mournful song; but this is an error, in my opinion; at least, I have tested the truth of the story on several occasions.” That some swans have a kind of voice, and can change a note or two, no one who has met with a flock or two of “hoopers,” or wild swans, can deny.
Olaus Magnus relates the fable – and quotes Plato, that the swan sings at its death, not from sorrow, but out of joy, at finishing its life. He also gives us a graphic illustration of how swans may be caught by playing to them on a lute or other stringed instrument, and also that they were to be caught by men (playing music) with stalking-horses, in the shape of oxen, or horses; and, in another page, he says, that not far from London, the Metropolis of England, on the River Thames, may be found more than a thousand domesticated swans.
The Alle, Alle
“There is also in this Lake (the White Lake) a kind of bird, very frequent; and in other Coasts of the Bothnick and Swedish Sea, that cries incessantly all the Summer, Alle, Alle, therefore they are called all over, by the Inhabitants, Alle, Alle. For in that Lake such a multitude of great birds is found, (as I said before) by reason of the fresh Waters that spring from hot springs, that they seem to cover all the shores and rivers, especially Sea-Crows, or Cormorants, Coots, More Hens, two sorts of Ducks, Swans, and infinite smaller Water Birds. These Crows, and other devouring birds, the hunters can easily take, because they fly slowly, and not above two or four Cubits above the Water: thus they do it on the narrow Rocks, as in the Gates of Islands, on the Banks of them, they hang black nets, or dyed of a Watry Colour upon Spears; and these, with Pulleys, will quickly slip up or down, that in great Sholes they catch the Birds that fly thither by letting the Nets fall upon them: and this is necessary, because those Birds fly so slowly, and right forward; so that few escape. Also, sometimes Ducks, and other Birds are taken in these Nets. Wherefore these black, or slow Birds, whether they swim or fly, are always crying Alle, Alle, which in Latine signifies All, All, (Omnes) and so they do when they are caught in the Nets: and this voyce the cunning Fowler interprets thus, that he hath not, as yet, all of them in his Nets; nor ever shall have, though he had six hundred Nets.”
The Hoopoe and Lapwing
Whether the following bird is meant for the Hoopoe, or the Lapwing, I know not. The Latin version has “De Upupis,” which clearly means Hoopoes – and the translation says, “Of the Whoups or Lapwings” – I follow the latter. “Lapwings, when at a set time they come to the Northern Countries from other parts, they foreshew the nearnesse of the Spring coming on. It is a Bird that is full of crying and lamentation, to preserve her Eggs, or young. By importunate crying, she shews that Foxes lye hid in the grasse; and so she cries out in all places, to drive away dogs and other Beasts. They fight with Swallows, Pies, and Jackdaws.
“On Hillocks, in Lakes, she lays her Eggs, and hatcheth her young ones. Made tame she will cleane a house of Flyes, and catch Mice. She foreshews Rain when she cries; which also Field Scorpions do, called Mares, Cuckows; who by flying overthwart, and crying loudly, foreshew Rain at hand; also the larger Scorpions, with huge long snouts, fore signifie Rain; so do Woodpeckers. There is a Bird also called Rayn, as big as a Partridge that hath Feathers of divers colours, of a yellow, white, and black colour: This is supposed to live upon nothing but Ayr, though she be fat, nothing is found in her belly. The Fowlers hunt her with long poles, which they cast high in the Ayr to fright her, so that they may catch the Bird flying down.”
The Ostrich
Modern observation, and especially Ostrich farming, has thoroughly exploded the old errors respecting this bird. We believe in its powers of swallowing anything not too large, but not in its digesting everything, and certainly not, as Muenster would fain have us believe, that an Ostrich’s dinner consists of a church-door key, and a horse-shoe. As matters of fact, we know that, when pursued, they do not bury their heads in the sand, or a bush; and instead of covering their eggs with sand, and leaving the sun to hatch them, both the male and female are excellent, and model parents.
Pliny, however, says differently: – “This bird exceeds in height a man sitting on horseback, and can surpass him in swiftness, as wings have been given to aid it in running; in other respects Ostriches cannot be considered as birds, and do not raise themselves from the earth. They have cloven talons, very similar to the hoof of the stag (they have but two toes); with these they fight, and they also employ them in seizing stones for the purpose of throwing at those who pursue them. They have the marvellous property of being able to digest every substance without distinction, but their stupidity is no less remarkable: for although the rest of their body is so large, they imagine when they have thrust their head and neck into a bush, that the whole body is concealed.”
Giovanni Leone Africano writes that “this fowle liveth in drie desarts and layeth to the number of ten or twelve egges in the sand, which being about the bignesse of great bullets weigh fifteen pounds a piece; but the ostrich is of so weak a memorie, that she presently forgetteth the place where her egges were laid, and, afterwards the same, or some other ostrich hen finding the said eggs by chance hatched and fostereth them as if they were certainely her owne. The chickens are no sooner crept out of the shell but they prowle up and downe the desarts for their food, and before theyr feathers be growne they are so swifte that a man shall hardly overtake them. The ostrich is a silly and deafe creature, feeding upon any thing which it findeth, be it as hard and indigestible as yron.”
The Halcyon
Of this bird, the Kingfisher, Aristotle thus discourses: – “The halcyon is not much larger than a sparrow; its colour is blue and green, and somewhat purple; its whole body is composed of these colours as well as the wings and neck, nor is any part without every one of these colours. Its bill is somewhat yellow, long and slight; this is its external form. Its nest resembles the marine balls which are called halosachnæ (probably a Zoophyte, Alcyonia) except in colour, for they are red; in form it resembles those sicyæ (cucumbers) which have long necks; its size is that of a very large sponge, for some are greater, others less. They are covered up, and have a thick solid part, as well as the cavity; it is not easily cut with a sharp knife, but, when struck or broken with the hand, it divides readily like the halosachnæ. The mouth is narrow, as it were a small entrance, so that the sea water cannot enter, even if the Sea is rough: its cavity is like that of the Sponge. The material of which the nest is composed is disputed, but it appears to be principally composed of the spines of the belone, for the bird lives on fish.”
Pliny says: – “It is a thing of very rare occurrence to see a halcyon, and then it is only about the time of the setting of the Vergiliæ, and the summer and winter solstices; when one is sometimes to be seen to hover about a ship, and then immediately disappear. They hatch their young at the time of the winter solstice, from which circumstance those days are known as the ‘halcyon days;’ during this period the sea is calm and navigable, the Sicilian sea in particular.”
“Halcyon days” is used proverbially, but the Kingfisher had another very useful trait. If a dead Kingfisher were hung up by a cord, it would point its beak to the quarter whence the wind blew. Shakespeare mentions this property in King Lear (ii. 1): —
“Turn their halcyon beaks
With every gale and vary of their masters.”
And Marlowe, in his Jew of Malta (i. 1): —
“But now, how stands the wind?
Into what corner peers my halcyon bill?”
The Pelican
The fable of the Pelican “in her piety, vulning herself,” as it is heraldically described – is so well known, as hardly to be worth mentioning, even to contradict it. In the first place, the heraldic bird is as unlike the real one, as it is possible to be; but the legend seems to have had its origin in Egypt, where the vulture was credited with this extraordinary behaviour, and this bird is decidedly more in accordance with the heraldic ideal. Du Bartas, singing of “Charitable birds,” praises equally the Stork and the Pelican: —
“The Stork, still eyeing her deer Thessalie,
The Pelican comforteth cheerfully:
Prayse-worthy Payer; which pure examples yield
Of faithfull Father, and Officious Childe:
Th’ one quites (in time) her Parents love exceeding,
From whom shee had her birth and tender breeding;
Not onely brooding under her warm brest
Their age-chill’d bodies bed-rid in the nest;
Nor only bearing them upon her back
Through th’ empty Aire, when their own wings they lack;
But also, sparing (This let Children note)
Her daintiest food from her own hungry throat,
To feed at home her feeble Parents, held
From forraging, with heavy Gyves of Eld.
The other, kindly, for her tender Brood
Tears her own bowells, trilleth-out her blood,
To heal her young, and in a wondrous sort,
Unto her Children doth her life transport:
For finding them by som fell Serpent slain,
She rends her brest, and doth upon them rain
Her vitall humour; whence recovering heat,
They by her death, another life do get.”
The Trochilus
This bird, as described by Aristotle, and others, is of a peculiar turn of mind: – “When the Crocodile gapes, the trochilus flies into its mouth to cleanse its teeth; in this process the trochilus procures food, and the other perceives it, and does not injure it; when the Crocodile wishes the trochilus to leave, it moves its neck that it may not bite the bird.”
Giovanni Leone – before quoted – says, respecting this bird: – “As we sayled further we saw great numbers of crocodiles upon the banks of the ilands in the midst of Nilus lye baking them in the sunne with their jawes wide open, whereinto certaine little birds about the bignesse of a thrush entering, came flying forth againe presently after. The occasion whereof was told me to be this: the crocodiles by reason of their continuall devouring beasts and fishes have certaine pieces of flesh sticking fast betweene their forked teeth, which flesh being putrified, breedeth a kind of worme, wherewith they are cruelly tormented; wherefor the said birds flying about, and seeing the wormes enter into the Crocodile’s jaws to satisfie their hunger thereon, but the Crocodile perceiving himselfe freede from the wormes of his teeth, offereth to shut his mouth, and to devour the little bird that did him so good a turne, but being hindred from his ungratefull attempt by a pricke which groweth upon the bird’s head, hee is constrayned to open his jawes, and to let her depart.”
Du Bartas gives another colour to the behaviour of the Trochilus: —
“The Wren, who seeing (prest with sleep’s desire)
Nile’s poys’ny Pirate press the slimy shoar,
Suddenly coms, and, hopping him before,
Into his mouth he skips, his teeth he pickles,
Clenseth his palate, and his throat so tickles,
That, charm’d with pleasure, the dull Serpent gapes.
Wider and wider, with his ugly chaps:
Then, like a shaft, th’ Ichneumon instantly
Into the Tyrants greedy gorge doth fly,
And feeds upon that Glutton, for whose Riot,
All Nile’s fat margents scarce could furnish diet.”
Woolly Hens
Sir John Maundeville saw in “the kingdome named Mancy, which is the best kingdome of the worlde – (Manzi, that part of China south of the river Hoang-ho) whyte hennes, and they beare no feathers, but woll as shepe doe in our lande.”
Two-Headed Wild Geese
Near the land of the Cynocephali or dog-headed men, there were many islands, and, “Also in this yle, and in many yles thereabout are many wyld geese with two heads.” But these were not the only extraordinary breed of wild geese, extant.
“As the wise Wilde-geese, when they over-soar
Cicilian mounts, within their bills do bear,
A pebble stone both day and night: for fear
Lest ravenous Eagles of the North descry
Their Armies passage, by their Cackling Cry.”
Aristotle mentions the Crane as another stone-bearing bird: – “Among birds, as it was previously remarked, the Crane migrates from one extremity of the earth to the other, and they fly against the wind. As for the story of the stone, it is a fiction, for they say that they carry a stone as ballast, which is useful as a touchstone for gold, after they have vomited it up.”
Four-Footed Duck
Gesner describes a four-footed duck, which he says is like the English puffin, except in the number of its feet: but Aldrovandus “out-Herods Herod” when he gives us “A monstrous Cock with Serpent’s tail.”
If we can believe Pliny, there are places where certain birds are never found: – “With reference to the departure of birds, the owlet, too, is said to lie concealed for a few days. No birds of this last kind are to be found in the island of Crete, and if any are imported thither, they immediately die. Indeed, this is a remarkable distinction made by Nature; for she denies to certain places, as it were, certain kinds of fruits and shrubs, and of animals as well; …
“Rhodes possesses no Eagles. In Italy, beyond the Padus, there is, near the Alps, a lake known by the name of Larius, beautifully situate amid a country covered with shrubs; and yet this lake is never visited by storks, nor, indeed, are they ever known to come within eight miles of it; whilst on the other hand, in the neighbouring territory of the Montres, there are immense flocks of magpies and jackdaws, the only bird that is guilty of stealing gold and silver, a very singular propensity.
“It is said that in the territory of Tarentum, the woodpecker of Mars is never found. It is only lately, too, and that but very rarely, that various kinds of pies have begun to be seen in the districts that lie between the Apennines, and the City; birds which are known by the name of Variæ, and are remarkable for the length of the tail. It is a peculiarity of this bird, that it becomes bald every year at the time of sowing rape. The partridge does not fly beyond the frontiers of Bœotia, into Attica; nor does any bird, in the island in the Euxine in which Achilles was buried, enter the temple there consecrated to him.
“In the territory of Fidenæ, in the vicinity of the City, the storks have no young, nor do they build nests; but vast numbers of ring-doves arrive from beyond sea every year in the district of Volaterræ. At Rome, neither flies, nor dogs ever enter the temple of Hercules in the Cattle Market.”…