Miscellanea Curiosa, Vol. 3 · Royal Society
_SIR_,
But this, say they, will not improve Ground, but clods and grows hard; 'tis true, it will do so for some time, a Year or two at the first; but did they cast it in heaps, and let it lie for two or three Years after a Frost or two had seized it, and it had been well pierced therewith, I doubt not it would turn to good Account: And for this too I have something more than bare conjecture; for Discoursing it once with a good notable Planter, we went to view a heap thereof, that casually he had cast up 'twixt three and four Years before, and we found it not very binding, but rather a fine Natural Mold, whereupon he did confess, he then remembred that out of a ridge of the like Mold he had very large Plants, which must have been of the like Slime or Slitch cast up before: But said, that himself and others despaired of this Manure, because they had taken of this Slitch fresh and moist out of the Swamp, and fill'd Tobacco Hills with it, and in the midst of it planted their Plants, which so bound the Roots of their Plants, that they never came to any thing.
But he said, he then saw his Error, yet I have not heard he has remembred to Correct it. But 'tis strange in how many things besides they are remiss, which one would think _English_ Men should not be guilty of. They neither House nor Milk any of their Cows in Winter, having a Notion that it would kill them; yet I perswaded the afore-mentioned Lady where I lived, to Milk four Cows the last Winter that I staid in the Country, whereof she found so good Effect, that she assured me she would keep to my Advice for the future; and also as I had further urged, House them too, for which they have mighty Conveniencies, their Tobacco Houses being empty ever at that time of the Year, and may easily be fitted in two or three days time without any Prejudice; whereby their Cattle would be much sheltered from those Pinching sharp Frosts that some Nights on a sudden become very severe. I had another Project for the Preservation of their Cattle proved very successful; I urged the Lady to sow her Wheat as early as possibly she could, so that before Winter it might be well rooted, to be early and flourishing at the first of the Spring: So that she might turn thereon her weak Cattle, and such as should at any time be swamp'd, whereby they might be recruited and saved, and it would do the Wheat good also. I advised her likewise to save, and carefully gather her _Indian_ Corn-tops, and blades, and all her Straw, whatever could be made Fodder, for her Cattle; for they get no Hay, tho' I was urging her to that too, and to sow _Saintfoin_; for being a Sandy Soil, I am confident it would turn to very good Account.
They have little or no Grass in Winter, so that their Cattle are pined and starved, and many that are brought low and weak, when the Spring begins, venture too far into the Swamps after the fresh Grass, where they perish; so that several Persons lose ten, twenty or thirty Head of Cattle in a Year: I observed this was much owing to their Inadvertency and Error in their way of Managing and Feeding them; for they get little Fodder, but as they think Corn being more Nourishing, feed them with their _Indian_ Corn, which they give them Morning and Evening; they spend thus a great quantity of Corn, and when all's done, what signifies two or three Heads of Corn to a Beast in a Morning? It makes them only linger about the Houses for more? and after that sweet Food they are not so prompt to browse on the Trees, and the course Grass which the Country affords. So that thus their Guts shrink up, and they become Belly-shot as they call it.
I advised therefore never to give them any thing in a Morning, whereby as soon as they were set forth of the Cow-pens, they would fall a feeding, and tho' they filled their Bellies only with such course stuff as had little Nourishment in it, yet it would keep out their Bellies, and they would have a better Digestion; and then when they were come home at Nights, to Fodder them, beginning with Straw and their coarsest Fodder, which they would learn to eat by degrees, before they tasted that that was more delicate, and whilst their digestion was strong, would yield them Nourishment to keep them still so; afterwards when the Winter pinched, their fine Fodder then would stand them in stead; and hereby they might preserve their weakest Cattle. By these Methods, and the help of the Wheat-patch, she, the Gentlewoman where I lived, saved all her Cattle, and lost not one in Two Winters after, that I staid there; besides she saved above Twenty Barrels of Corn, as I remember that she told me she used to spend upon her Stock; and a Barrel of Corn is commonly worth Ten Shillings.
Nay further, The last Spring she fed Two Beasts, a Bullock and a Cow, Fat, upon her Wheat, with the addition only of a little boil'd Corn, and yet the Wheat was scarce eat down enough. But to return again to the Nature of the Earth, which may be pretty well gather'd from what I have already said. I have observed, that at Five or Six yards deep, at the breaks of some banks, I have found veins of Clay, admirable good to make Pots, Pipes, or the like of, and whereof I suppose the _Indians_ make their Pipes, and Pots, to boil their Meat in, which they make very handsomly, and will endure the Fire better than most Crucibles: I took of this Clay, dryed, powder'd, and sifted it; powdered and sifted Potsherds, and Glass; Three parts, Two parts and One part as I remember, and therewith made a large Crucible, which was the best I yet ever tried in my Life; I took it once red hot out of the Fire, and clapt it immediately into Water, and it started not at all. The Country abounds mightily with Iron Oar, that as I have been assured by some upon tryal, has been found very good.
I had indeed begun once whilst I was in that Country to have made a Collection of the Birds, but falling sick of the Griping of the Guts, some of them for want of care corrupted, which made them fling others away that I had thoroughly cured; for I was past taking care of them my self, there remaining but small hopes of my Life. There are Three sorts of Eagles, the largest I take to be that they call the Grey Eagle, being much of the colour of our Kite or Glead. The Second is the Bald Eagle, for the Body and part of the Neck being of a dark brown, the upper part of the Neck and Head is covered with a white sort of Down, whereby it looks very bald, whence it is so named. The Third is the Black Eagle, resembling most the _English_ Eagle; they build their Nests much after the manner that Dr. _Willoughby_ describes, and generally at the top of some tall old Tree, naked of Bows and nigh the River side, and the People fall the Tree generally when they take the young; they are most frequently sitting on some tall Tree by the River side, whence they may have a prospect up and down the River, as I suppose to observe the Fishing Hauks; for when they see the Fishing Hauk has struck a Fish, immediately they take Wing, and 'tis sometimes very pleasant to behold the Flight, for when the Fishing Hauk perceives her self pursued, she will scream and make a terrible noise, till at length she lets fall the Fish to make her own escape, which the Eagle frequently catches before it reach the Earth or Water. These Eagles kill young Lambs, Pigs, _&c._
The Fishing Hauk is an absolute Species of a Kings-fisher, but full as large, or larger than our Jay, much of the Colour and Shape of a Kings-fisher, tho' not altogether so curiously Feather'd; it has a large Crop, as I remember, there is a little Kings-fisher much the same in every respect with ours. If I much mistake not, I have seen both Goss Hauk and Falcon; besides there are several sorts of the lesser Kind of Stannels. There is likewise the Kite and the Ringtail. I never heard the Cuckow there to my remembrance. There's both a brown Owl and white Owl, much what as large as a Goose, which often kills their Hens and Poultry in the Night; the white Owl is a very delicate Feather'd Bird, all the Feathers upon her Breast and Back being Snow-white, and tipp'd with a Punctal of Jet-black: besides there is a Barn Owl much like ours; and a little sort of Scritch Owl.
There's both the Raven, and the Carrion-Crow; I do not remember I ever saw any Rooks there. Dr. _Moulin_ and my self, when we made our Anatomies together, when I was at _London_, we shew'd to the _Royal Society_, that all Flat-bill'd Birds that groped for their Meat, had three Pair of Nerves, that came down into their Bills; whereby as we conceived they had that accuracy to distinguish what was proper for Food, and what to be rejected by their Taste when they did not see it; and as this was most evident in a Duck's Bill and Head, I draw'd a Cut thereof, and left it in your Custody: A Duck has larger Nerves that come into their Bills than Geese or any other Bird that I have seen and therefore quaffer and grope out their Meat the most: But I had then discover'd none of these Nerves in Round-bill'd Birds: But since in my Anatomies in the Country, in a Rook I first observed two Nerves came down betwixt the Eyes into the upper Bill, but considerably smaller than any or the three Pair of Nerves in the Bills of Ducks, but larger than the Nerves in any other Round-bill'd Birds; and 'tis remarkable these Birds more than any other Round-bill'd Birds seem to grope for their Meat in Cow-dung and the like: Since I have found in several Round-bill'd Birds the like Nerves coming down betwixt the Eyes, but so very small that had I not seen them first in a Rook I should scarce have made the discovery; in the lower Bill there are Nerves have much the same situation with the Flat-bill'd Birds, but very small, and scarce discernable, unless to the Cautious and Curious.
The Night Raven, which some call the _Virginia_ Bat, is about the bigness of a Cuckow, feather'd like them but very short, and short Leg'd, not discernable when it flies, which is only in the Evening scudding like our Night Raven. There's a great sort of ravenous Bird that feeds upon Carrion, as big very nigh as an Eagle, which they call a Turky Bustard, its Feathers are of a Duskish black, it has red Gills, resembling those of a Turky, whence it has its Name; it is nothing of the same sort of Bird with our _English_ Turky Bustard, but is rather a Species of the Kites, for it will hover on the Wing something like them, and is carnivorous; the Fat thereof dissolved into an Oil, is recommended mightily against old Aches and Sciatica Pains. I think there are no Jackdaws, nor any Magpys; they there prize a Magpye as much as we do their Red Bird. The _Pica Glandaria_, or Jay, is much less than our _English_ Jay, and of another colour, for it is all blue where ours is brown, the Wings marbled as curiously as ours are, it has both the same Cry, and sudden jetting Motion.
There are great Variety and Curiosity in the Wood-peckers, there's one as big as our Magpye, with blackish brown Feathers, and a large Scarlet Tuft on the top of the Head: There are four or five sorts of Wood-peckers more, variegated with Green, Yellow and Red Heads, others spotted black and white, most lovely to behold. There's a Tradition amongst them, that the Tongue of one of these Wood-peckers dryed will make the Teeth drop out if pick'd therewith, and cure the Tooth-ach (tho' I believe little of it, but look on it as ridiculous) yet I thought fit to hint as much that others may try; for sometimes such old Stories refer to some peculiar Virtues, tho' not to all that is said of them. There be wild Turkies extream large; they talk of Turkies that have been kill'd, that have weigh'd betwixt 50 and 60 Pound weight; the largest that ever I saw, weigh'd something better than 38 Pound; they have very long Legs, and will run prodigiously fast. I remember not that ever I saw any of them on the Wing, except it were once: Their Feathers are of a blackish shining Colour, that in the Sun shine like a Dove's Neck, very specious.
Hens and Cocks are for the most part without Tails and Rumps; and as some have assured me our _English_ Hens after some time being kept there have their Rumps Rot off; which I'm the apter to believe, being all their Hens are certainly of _English_ breed. I'm sorry I made no Anatomical Observations thereof, and Remarks about the Use of the Rumps in Birds, which at present I take to be a couple of Glands, containing a sort of Juice for the Varnishing the Feathers; having observed all Birds have much recourse with their Bills to the Rumps when they dress their Plumes, whereby they scud thro' the Air more nimbly in their Flight. Partridges there are much smaller than ours, and resort in Covies as ours do; their Flesh is very white, and much excels ours in my mind, _Sed de gustibus non est disputandum_.
Their Turtle-Doves are of a duskish blue colour, much less than our common Pidgeon, the whole Train is longer much than the Tails of our Pidgeons, the middle Feather being the longest. There's the strangest Story of a vast number of these Pidgeons that came in a Flock a few Years before I came thither; they say they came thro' _New England_, _New York_ and _Virginia_, and were so prodigious in number as to darken the Sky for several Hours in the place over which they flew, and brake massie Bows where they light; and many like things which I have had asserted to me by many Eye-witnesses of Credit, that to me it was without doubt, the Relaters being very sober Persons, and all agreeing in a Story: nothing of the like ever happen'd since, nor did I ever see past Ten in a Flock together that I remember. I am not fond of such Stories, and had suppressed the relating of it, but that I have heard the same from very many. The Thrush and Feldefire are much like ours, and are only seen in Winter there, accordingly as they are here. Their Mocking Birds may be compared to our Singing Thrushes, being much of the same bigness; there are two sorts, the Gray and the Red, the gray has Feathers much of the colour of our gray Plovers with white in the Wings like a Magpye; this has the much softer Note, and will imitate, in its singing, the Notes of all Birds that it hears, and is accounted much the finest Singing Bird in the World.
Dr. _Moulin_ and I made in our Anatomy many Observations of Singing Birds to this effect: The Ears of Birds differ much from those of Men or Beasts, there's almost a direct passage from one Ear to the other of Birds, so that prick but the small Membrane call'd the Drum on either Ear, and Water poured in at one Ear will run out at the other: But this is not all, but what is much more remarkable, they have no Coclea, but instead thereof there's a small Cocleous or twisting Passage that opens into a large Cavity, that runs betwixt two Sculls, and passes all round the Head, the upper Scull is supported by many hundreds of small Thred-like Pillars or Fibers, which as we supposed had another use also, to break the Sound from making any confused Echo, and to make it one and distinct; this passage we observed betwixt the two Skulls was much larger in Singing Birds than in others that do not sing, so very remarkable that any Person that has been but show'd this may easily judge by the Head what Bird is a Singing Bird, or has aptitude thereto, tho' he never saw the Bird before, nor knew what Bird it were: This has often made me reflect how much the Modification of Voices depends upon the accuracy of the Ear, and how deaf Persons become Dumb: And since I have observed that many Children that have an acute Wit enough that are slow of Speech, that is long before they speak are much longer before they can pronounce those Letters that are sharps, as _g._ _h._ _r._ and never have an aptitude to learn to sing.
Hence I judge that Songs that have many Sharps in them are the difficultest to sing well, and discover any Persons skill upon the trial of Musick most. This I suppose only, having no Skill in Musick my self, nor having ever discoursed any Person about it. As I remember we show'd some of these things to the _Royal Society_, and I drew some Cuts thereof, and gave the Doctor upon promise that he would put these and many other our joint Observations in Print, but I hear he is since dead. I have Anatomized most sorts of Creatures, and never found any Four-footed Creature with an Ear like a Bird, unless a Mole; and a Mole has an Ear much like them, with a very thin double Scull, and great Cavity like a Bird, and is very acute of hearing, the Scull by reason of the large Cavity is very slender and easily crush'd, so that a Mole is quickly kill'd with a bruise on the Scull like a Lark, and upon the bruise the Membranes of the Scull turn black; whence _Segerus_ mistake _Membranæ Cerebri in superficie exteriori omnino nigræ visæ_. But when I have taken care not to bruise the Skull the Membranes were not black at all, both _Segerus_ and _Severinus_ I think had some perceptions of the different Structure of a Mole's Ear, but not any thing of its Analogy to a Bird's Ear; they speak of a Bone _Egregie pumicosum_: And _Segerus_ says there's a _Ductus ad ossis usque petrosi cavitatem protensus, plurimis fibrillis Membraneis annectabatur_. But to return, this Mocking Bird having its Name from _Mimicking_, all other Birds in singing is a wonderful mettled Bird, bold and brisk, and yet seems to be of a very tender Constitution, neither singing in Winter, nor in the midst of Summer, and with much difficulty are any of them brought to live in _England_.
The Red Mocking is of a duskish red, or rather brown; it sings very well, but has not so soft a Note as the gray Mocking Bird. Of _Virginia_ Nightingale, or red Bird, there are two sorts, the Cocks of both sorts are of a pure Scarlet, the Hens of a Duskish red; I distinguish them into two sorts, for the one has a tufted Cops on the Head, the other is smooth-feather'd. I never saw a tufted Cock with a smooth-headed Hen, or on the contrary; they generally resorting a Cock and Hen together, and play in a Thicket of Thorns or Bryars in the Winter, nigh to which the Boys set their Traps, and so catch them and sell them to the Merchants for about Six Pence apiece; by whom they are brought for _England_; they are something less than a Thrush. There's a Bird very injurious to Corn, they call a Blackbird; I look on it a sort of Starling, for they cry something like them but do not sing, are much what of the same bigness, have Flesh blackish like theirs; they resort in great Flocks together, they are as black as a Crow all over their Bills and all, only some of them have scarlet Feathers in the Pinions of their Wings. _Quæry_, Whether a distinct Species?
They have a Lark nothing differing from our common Lark; they have another Bird which they call a Lark that is much larger, as big as a Starling, it has a soft Note, feeds on the Ground; and as I remember has the Specifical Character of a long Heel, it is more inclined to yellow, and has a large half Moon on its Breast of yellow; if it have not a long Heel, _Quære_, Whether a Species of the Yellow-hammer? They have a Martin very like, only larger than ours, that builds after the same manner. The honourable Col. _Bacon_ has remarked for several Years, that they constantly come thither upon the Tenth of _March_ one or two of them appearing before, being seen hovering in the Air for a Day or two then go away, and as he supposed return'd with the great Flock. The Colonel delighted much in this Bird, and made like Pidgeon-holes at the end of his House with Boards purposely for them. Their Swallow differs but little from ours. They have a Bird they call a Blue-bird, of a curious azure colour about the bigness of a Chaffinch. There be other sorts of Goldfinches variegated with Orange and Yellow Feathers, very specious and beautiful. Sparrows not much different from the _English_, but build not in the Eaves of Houses that ever I saw.
The Snow-bird which I take to be much the same with our Hedge-Sparrow; this is so called because it seldom appears about Houses but against Snow or very cold Weather. The Humming Bird that feeds upon the Honey of Flowers: I have been told by some Persons, that they have kept of these Humming Birds alive, and fed them with Water and Sugar: they are much the smallest of all Birds, have long Bills and curious coloured Feathers, but differ much in colour. Herons three or four several sorts, one larger than the _English_, feather'd much like a _Spanish_ Goose. Another sort that only comes in Summer Milk white, with red Legs very lovely to behold. The Bittern is there less than in _England_, and does not make that sounding Noise that ever I heard. Curlews something less than our _English_, tho' bigger than a Wimbrel. The Sandpiper much resembling the _English_. The Snipe, two sorts, one resembling ours, the other much less. The Tewits are smaller than the _English_, and have no long Toppins, but just like a young one that begins to fly. There are a great number of wild Swans. Wild-geese and Brent-geese all Winter in mighty Flocks, Wild-ducks innumerable, Teal, Wigeon, Sheldrakes, Virginia-didapers, the Black-diver, _&c._
In my return home for _England_, _May 1686._, off of the Banks of _Newfoundland_, when we were, according to account, a hundred Leagues from the Shoar, we saw several prodigious floating Islands of the Ice, no less to our Wonder than Terror, for they were very dangerous: I got the Master to sail one day as nigh one of them as we securely durst, which we judged to be full a League in length, and was higher above Water than the top of our Main-mast; the Snow drove to and fro upon it as upon a large Plane. There was a great Flock of small Black-divers, that were not much bigger than a Fieldfare, came to us a little before, but all of them then left and betook themselves to this Island of Ice. They dived the constantly'st, and the longest at a time of any Bird that I ever saw. We saw, as I remember, nigh Thirty of these Islands of Ice. Captain _Rider_ being some fews days later in his Passage, and bearing more to the _Nore_, told me, he saw many more of these Islands of Ice, and some much larger. There are in _Virginia_ a great many Cormorants; several sorts of Gulls, and in about the Bay many Bannets. Thus much for the Birds. _Yours_, &c.
Ideas discussed in this chapter
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.