“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.
