America: Being the Latest, and Most Accurate Description of the Nevv VVorld: Containing the Original of the Inhabitants, and the Remarkable Voyages Thither. The Conquest of the Vast Empires of Mexico and Peru, and Other Large Provinces and Territories, with the Several European Plantations in Those Parts. Also Their Cities, Fortresses, Towns, Temples, Mountains, and Rivers. Their Habits, Customs, Manners, and Religions. Their Plants, Beasts, Birds, and Serpents. With an Appendix, Containing, BesOgilby, John
History
America: Being the Latest, and Most Accurate Description of the Nevv VVorld: Containing the Original of the Inhabitants, and the Remarkable Voyages Thither. The Conquest of the Vast Empires of Mexico and Peru, and Other Large Provinces and Territories, with the Several European Plantations in Those Parts. Also Their Cities, Fortresses, Towns, Temples, Mountains, and Rivers. Their Habits, Customs, Manners, and Religions. Their Plants, Beasts, Birds, and Serpents. With an Appendix, Containing, Bes
Ogilby, John
America
This Country abounds also with Fowls; for besides Hawks, Kites, and
other Birds of Prey, there are abundance of Cranes, of several sorts,
some grey, some brown, others quite white; all of them have firm Bodies,
and Bones without Marrow, Claws of a finger long, strong and crooked
Bills, their Brains dry, their Eyes little and hollow, hard Features,
the left Foot lesser than the right, both deform’d, their Blood thick,
and the Excrements of a horrid smell; they breed most in old Woods,
whose ground is without Brambles, and also near the Water, for they feed
on Fish, and devour all sorts of Fowls, nay, snatch up Hares, Rabbets,
Tortels, and several other sorts of Animals, which they carry away with
them in the Air; nay, when hungry, they seize on one another; some of
them fly abroad for their prey about noon, others at Sun-rising; they
fall like Lightning on what e’re they pursue; they drink little, except
the Blood of those Creatures which they devour; they are very
libidinous, coupling above thirty times a day, not only with their like,
but also with the Hens of Hawks, and other Birds; they lay their biggest
Eggs in thirty days, and the lesser in twenty days; they generally bring
forth three young; those of them that cannot endure to look full against
the Sun, are thrown out of their Nests; the young ones when they begin
to be fledg’d, are by the old carry’d into the Air, and let flie, but
supported by them; their sight is wonderful quick; for though they flie
as high as ever they are able to be discern’d, yet they can see the
least Fish that is in the Water, and a Hare lying in the Bushes: their
Breath stinks horribly, wherefore their Carcases suddenly rot; though
they are libidinous, yet they live long; most of them die of hunger,
because their Bills when they grow old, grow so crooked, that they
cannot open the same, wherefore they flie up into the Air against the
Sun, and falling into the coldest Rivers, loose their Feathers and die.
[Sidenote: Pigeons.]
Besides the foremention’d Birds of prey, there are abundance of Storks,
Ravens, Crows, Owls, Swallows, Gold-finches, Ice-birds, Kites, Quails,
Pheasants, and Winter _Kings_, and which are most remarkable for their
rich Feathers, the _Spechtes_, they pick great holes in Trees, and make
a noise as if a Man were cutting down a Tree. The Pigeons flie in such
flocks, that the _Indians_ remove with them to the place where they make
their Nests, where the young ones being taken by hundreds, serve them
for a Moneths Provision.
[Sidenote: Pretty Birds.]
Moreover, _New York_ breeds a strange Bird about a Thumb long, full of
glistering Feathers; it lives by sucking of Flowers like a Bee, and is
so tender, that it immediately dies if water be spirted upon it; the
Carcase being dry’d, is kept for a Rarity.
[Sidenote: Turkies.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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