Fig. 51.—Draco bipes apteros captus in Agro Bononiensi. (Aldrovandus.)
Aldrovandus was probably imposed on by some waggish friend, in reference to the biped dragon without wings, two cubits long, which was said to have been killed by a countryman near Bonn in 1572 A.D., and which he first figured and then placed in his museum; and he evidently fully believed in the Ethiopian winged biped dragon, of which he gives two figures, but without quoting his authority.
Fig. 52.—Draco Æthiopicus. (Aldrovandus.)
Gesner gives a similar figure, after Belon, of the winged dragon of Mount Sinai; but Athanasius Kircher is more liberal, and gives his dragon not only wings but four legs.
Fig. 53.—The Four-footed Winged Dragon. (Kircher.)
In poetry we find Ashtaroth described as appearing to Faust in the form of a serpent with two little feet.