Chapter XL: Part III: Sidenote: SECT. 1 (2)

Larus alba or puets in such plentie about Horsey that they sometimes bring them in carts to Norwich and sell them at small rates, and the country people make use of their egges in puddings and otherwise. Great plentie thereof haue bred about Scoulton meere, and from thence sent to London.

Larus cinereus greater and smaller, butt a coars meat; commonly called sternes.

Hirundo marina or sea swallowe a neat white and forked tayle bird butt longer then a swallowe.

The ciconia or stork I have seen in the fennes and some haue been shot in the marshes between this and Yarmouth.

The platea or shouelard, which build upon the topps of high trees. They haue formerly built in the Hernerie at Claxton and Reedham now at Trimley in Suffolk. They come in March and are shot by fowlers not for their meat butt the handsomenesse of the same, remarkable in their white colour copped crowne and spoone or spatule like bill.

Corvus marinus, cormorants, building at Reedham upon trees from whence King Charles the first was wont to bee supplyed. Beside the Rock cormorant which breedeth in the rocks in northerne countries and cometh to us in the winter, somewhat differing from the other in largenesse and whitenesse under the wings.

A sea fowl called a shearwater, somewhat billed like a cormorant butt much lesser a strong and feirce fowle houering about shipps when they cleanse their fish. 2 were kept 6 weekes cramming them with fish which they would not feed on of themselues. The seamen told mee they had kept them 3 weekes without meat, and I giuing ouer to feed them found they liued 16 dayes without taking any thing.

Barnacles Brants Branta are common sheldrakes sheledracus jonstoni.

Barganders a noble coloured fowle vulpanser which breed in cunny burrowes about Norrold and other places.

Wild geese Anser ferus.

Scoch goose Anser scoticus.

Goshander. merganser.

Mergus acutirostris speciosus or Loone an handsome and specious fowle cristated and with diuided finne feet placed very backward and after the manner of all such which the Duch call Arsvoote. They haue a peculiar formation in the leggebone which hath a long and sharpe processe extending aboue the thigh bone. They come about April and breed in the broad waters so making their nest on the water that their egges are seldom drye while they are sett on.

Mergus acutarostris cinereus which seemeth to bee a difference of the former.

Mergus minor the smaller diuers or dabchicks in riuers and broade waters.

Mergus serratus the saw billd diuer bigger and longer than a duck distinguished from other diuers by a notable sawe bill to retaine its slipperie pray as liuing much upon eeles whereof we haue seldome fayled to find some in their bellies.

Diuers other sorts of diuefowle more remarkable the mustela fusca and mustela variegata the graye dunne and the variegated or partie coloured wesell so called from the resemblance it beareth vnto a wesell in the head.

Many sorts of wild ducks which passe under names well knowne unto the fowlers though of no great signification as smee widgeon Arts ankers noblets.

The most remarkable are Anas platyrinchos a remarkably broad bild duck.

And the sea phaysant holding some resemblance unto that bird in some fethers in the tayle.

Teale Querquedula, wherein scarce any place more abounding, the condition of the country and the very many decoys especially between Norwich and the sea making this place very much to abound in wild fowle.

Fulicae cottae cootes in very great flocks upon the broad waters. Upon the appearance of a Kite or buzzard I have seen them vnite from all parts of the shoare in strange numbers when if the Kite stoopes neare them they will fling up spred such a flash of water up with there wings that they will endanger the Kite, and so keepe him of agayne and agayne in open opposition, and an handsome prouision they make about their nest agaynst the same bird of praye by bending and twining the rushes and reedes so about them that they cannot stoope at their yong ones or the damme while she setteth.

Gallinula aquatica more hens.

And a kind of Ralla aquatica or water Rayle.

An onocrotalus or pelican shott upon Horsey fenne 1663 May 22 which stuffed and cleansed I yet retaine. It was 3 yards and half between the extremities of the wings the chowle and beake answering the vsuall description the extremities of the wings for a spanne deepe browne the rest of the body white, a fowle which none could remember upon this coast. About the same time I heard one of the kings pellicans was lost at St James', perhaps this might bee the same.

Anas Arctica clusii which though hee placeth about the Faro Islands is the same wee call a puffin common about Anglisea in Wales and sometimes taken upon our seas not sufficiently described by the name of puffinus the bill being so remarkably differing from other ducks and not horizontally butt meridionally formed to feed in the clefts of the rocks of insecks, shell-fish and others.

The great number of riuers riuulets and plashes of water makes hernes and herneries to abound in these parts, yong hensies being esteemed a festiuall dish and much desired by some palates.

The Ardea stellaris botaurus, or bitour is also common and esteemed the better dish. In the belly of one I found a frog in an hard frost at christmas. another I kept in a garden 2 yeares feeding it with fish mice and frogges, in defect whereof making a scrape for sparrowes and small birds, the bitour made shifft to maintaine herself upon them.

Bistardae or Bustards are not vnfrequent in the champain and feildie part of this country a large Bird accounted a dayntie dish, obseruable in the strength of the brest bone and short heele layes an egge much larger then a Turkey.

Morinellus or Dotterell about Thetford and the champain which comes vnto us in September and March staying not long, and is an excellent dish.

There is also a sea dotterell somewhat lesse butt better coloured then the former.

Godwyts taken chiefly in marshland, though other parts not without them accounted the dayntiest dish in England and I think for the bignesse, of the biggest price.

Gnats or Knots a small bird which taken with netts grow excessively fatt. If being mewed and fed with corne a candle lighted in the roome they feed day and night, and when they are at their hight of fattnesse they beginne to grow lame and are then killed or as at their prime and apt to decline.

Erythropus or Redshanck a bird common in the marshes and of common food butt no dayntie dish.

A may chitt a small dark gray bird litle bigger then a stint of fatnesse beyond any. It comes in May into marshland and other parts and abides not aboue a moneth or 6 weekes.

Another small bird somewhat larger than a stint called a churre and is commonly taken amongst them.

Stints in great numbers about the seashore and marshes about Stifkey Burnham and other parts.

Pluuialis or plouer green and graye in great plentie about Thetford and many other heaths. They breed not with us butt in some parts of Scotland, and plentifully in Island [Iceland].

The lapwing or vannellus common ouer all the heaths.

Cuccowes of 2 sorts the one farre exceeding the other in bignesse. Some have attempted to keepe them in warme roomes all the winter butt it hath not succeeded. In their migration they range very farre northward for in the summer they are to bee found as high as Island.

Avis pugnax. Ruffes a marsh bird of the greatest varietie of colours euery one therein somewhat varying from other. The female is called a Reeve without any ruffe about the neck, lesser then the other and hardly to bee got. They are almost all cocks and putt together fight and destroy each other, and prepare themselues to fight like cocks though they seeme to haue no other offensive part butt the bill. They loose theire Ruffes about the Autumne or beginning of winter as wee haue obserued keeping them in a garden from may till the next spring. They most abound in Marshland butt are also in good number in the marshes between Norwich and Yarmouth.

Of picus martius or woodspeck many kinds. The green the Red the Leucomelanus or neatly marked black and white and the cinereus or dunne calld little [bird calld] a nuthack, remarkable in the larger are the hardnesse of the bill and skull and the long nerues which tend vnto the tongue whereby it strecheth out the tongue aboue an inch out of the mouth and so licks up insecks. They make the holes in trees without any consideration of the winds or quarters of heauen butt as the rottenesse thereof best affordeth conuenience.

Black heron black on both sides the bottom of the neck white gray on the outside spotted all along with black on the inside a black coppe of small feathers some a spanne long, bill poynted and yallowe 3 inches long.

Back heron coloured intermixed with long white fethers.

The flying fethers black.

The brest black and white most black.

The legges and feet not green but an ordinarie dark cork colour.

The number of riuulets becks and streames whose banks are beset with willowes and Alders which giue occasion of easier fishing and slooping to the water makes that handsome coulered bird abound which is calld Alcedo Ispida or the King fisher. They bild in holes about grauell pitts wherein is to bee found great quantitie of small fish bones. and lay very handsome round and as it were polished egges.

An Hobby bird so calld becaus it comes in ether with or a litle before the Hobbies in the spring, of the bignesse of a Thrush coloured and paned like an hawke maruellously subiet to the vertigo and are sometimes taken in those fitts.

Upupa or Hoopebird so named from its note a gallant marked bird which I have often seen and tis not hard to shoote them.

Ringlestones a small white and black bird like a wagtayle and seemes to bee some kind of motacilla marina common about Yarmouth sands. They lay their egges in the sand and shingle about June and as the eryngo diggers tell mee not sett them flat butt upright like egges in salt.

The Arcuata or curlewe frequent about the sea coast.

There is also an handsome tall bird Remarkably eyed and with a bill not aboue 2 inches long commonly calld a stone curlewe butt the note thereof more resembleth that of a green plouer and breeds about Thetford about the stones and shingle of the Riuers.

Auoseta calld shoohinghorne a tall black and white bird with a bill semicircularly reclining or bowed upward so that it is not easie to conceiue how it can feed answerable vnto the Auoseta Italorum in Aldrovandus a summer marsh bird and not unfrequent in Marshland.

A yarwhelp so thought to bee named from its note a gray bird intermingled with some whitish fethers somewhat long legged and the bill about an inch and half. Esteemed a dayntie dish.

Loxias or curuirostra a bird a litle bigger than a Thrush of fine colours and prittie note differently from other birds, the upper and lower bill crossing each other, of a very tame nature, comes about the beginning of summer. I have known them kept in cages butt not to outliue the winter.

A kind of coccothraustes calld a coble bird bigger than a Thrush, finely coloured and shaped like a Bunting it is chiefly seen in su[=m]er about cherrie time.

A small bird of prey calld a birdcatcher about the bignesse of a Thrush and linnet coloured with a longish white bill and sharpe of a very feirce and wild nature though kept in a cage and fed with flesh. A kind of Lanius.

A Dorhawke or kind of Accipiter muscarius conceiued to haue its name from feeding upon flies and beetles, of a woodcock colour but paned like an Hawke a very litle poynted bill, large throat, breedeth with us and layes a maruellous handsome spotted egge. Though I haue opened many I could neuer find anything considerable in their mawes. Caprimulgus.

Auis Trogloditica or Chock a small bird mixed of black and white and breeding in cony borrouges whereof the warrens are full from April to September, at which time they leaue the country. They are taken with an Hobby and a net and are a very good dish.

Spermologus. Rookes which by reason of the great quantitie of corn feilds and Rooke groues are in great plentie the yong ones are commonly eaten sometimes sold in Norwich market and many are killd for their Liuers in order to cure of the Rickets.

Crowes as euerywhere and also the coruus variegatus or pyed crowe with dunne and black interchangeably, they come in the winter and depart in the summer and seeme to bee the same which Clusius discribeth in the Faro Islands from whence perhaps these come, and I have seen them very common in Ireland, butt not known in many parts of England.

Coruus maior Rauens in good plentie about the citty which makes so few Kites to bee seen hereabout, they build in woods very early and lay egges in Februarie.

Among the many monedulas or Jackdawes I could neuer in these parts obserue the pyrrhocorax or cornish chough with red leggs and bill to bee commonly seen in Cornwall, and though there bee heere very great store of partridges yet the french Red legged partridge is not to bee met with. The Ralla or Rayle wee haue counted a dayntie dish, as also no small number of Quayles. The Heathpoult common in the north is vnknown heere as also the Grous, though I haue heard some haue been seen about Lynne. The calandrier or great great crested lark Galerita I haue not met with heere though with 3 other sorts of Larkes the ground lark woodlark and titlark.

Stares or starlings in great numbers, most remarkable in their numerous flocks which I haue obserued about the Autumne when they roost at night in the marshes in safe places upon reeds and alders, which to obserue I went to the marshes about sunne set, where standing by their vsuall place of resort I obserued very many flocks flying from all quarters, which in lesse than an howers space came all in and settled in innumerable numbers in a small compasse.

Great varietie of finches and other small birds whereof one very small calld a whinne bird marked with fine yellow spotts and lesser than a wren. There is also a small bird called a chipper somewhat resembling the former which comes in the spring and feeds upon the first buddings of birches and other early trees.

A kind of Anthus Goldfinch or fooles coat commonly calld a drawe water, finely marked with red and yellowe and a white bill, which they take with trap cages in Norwich gardens and fastning a chaine about them tyed to a box of water it makes a shift with bill and legge to draw up the water unto it from the litle pot hanging by the chaine about a foote belowe.

On the xiiii of May 1664 a very rare bird was sent mee kild about Crostwick which seemed to bee some kind of Jay. The bill was black strong and bigger then a Jayes somewhat yellowe clawes tippd black, 3 before and one clawe behind the whole bird not so bigge as a Jaye.

The head neck and throat of a violet colour the back upper parts of the wing of a russet yellowe the fore and part of the wing azure succeeded downward by a greenish blewe then on the flying feathers bright blewe the lower parts of the wing outwardly of a browne inwardly of a merry blewe the belly a light faynt blewe the back toward the tayle of a purple blewe the tayle eleuen fethers of a greenish coulour the extremities of the outward fethers thereof white wth an eye of greene. Garrulus Argentoratensis.

NOTES ON CERTAIN FISHES AND MARINE ANIMALS FOUND IN NORFOLK.

It may well seeme no easie matter to giue any considerable account of fishes and animals of the sea wherein tis sayd that there are things creeping innumerable both small and great beasts because they liue in an element wherein they are not so easely discouerable. Notwithstanding probable it is that after this long nauigation search of the ocean bayes creeks Estuaries and riuers there is scarce any fish butt hath been seen by some man, for the large and breathing sort thereof do sometimes discouer themselues aboue water and the other are in such numbers that some at one time or other they are discouered and taken, euen the most barbarous nations being much addicted to fishing: and in America and the new discouered world the people were well acquantd with fishes of sea and rivers, and the fishes thereof haue been since described by industrious writers.

Pliny seemes to short in the estimate of their number in the ocean, who recons up butt one hundred and seventie six species; butt the seas being now farther known and searched Bellonius much enlargeth, and in his booke of Birds thus deliuereth himself allthough I think it impossible to reduce the same vnto a certain number yet I may freelie say that tis beyond the power of man to find out more than fiue hundred sorts of fishes, three hundred sorts of birds, more than three hundred sorts of fourfoted animalls and fortie diversities of serpents.

Of fishes sometimes the larger sort are taken or come ashoar. A spermaceti whale of 62 foote long neere Welles, another of the same kind 20 yeares before at Hunstanton, and not farre of 8 or nine came ashoare and 2 had yong ones after they were forsaken by ye water.

A grampus aboue 16 foot long taken at Yarmouth 4 yeares agoe.

The Tursio or porpose is common, the Dolphin more rare though sometimes taken which many confound with the porpose, butt it hath a more waued line along the skinne sharper toward ye tayle the head longer and nose more extended which maketh good the figure of Rondeletius; the flesh more red and well cooked of very good taste to most palates and exceedeth that of porpose.

The vitulus marinus seacalf or seale which is often taken sleeping on the shoare. 5 yeares agoe one was shot in the riuer of Norwich about Surlingham ferry having continued in the riuer for diuers moneths before being an Amphibious animal it may bee caryed about aliue and kept long if it can bee brought to feed. Some haue been kept many moneths in ponds. The pizzell the bladder the cartilago ensiformis the figure of the Throttle the clusterd and racemous forme of the kidneys the flat and compressed heart are remarkable in it. In stomaks of all that I have opened I have found many wormes.

I haue also obserued a scolopendra cetacea of about ten foot long answering to the figure in Rondeletius which the mariners told me was taken in these seas.

A pristes or serra saw fish taken about Lynne commonly mistaken for a sword fish and answers the figure in Rondeletius.

A sword fish or Xiphias or Gladius intangled in the Herring netts at Yarmouth agreable unto the Icon in Johnstonus with a smooth sword not vnlike the Gladius of Rondeletius about a yard and half long, no teeth, eyes very remarkable enclosed in an hard cartilaginous couercle about ye bignesse of a good apple. ye vitreous humor plentifull the crystalline larger then a nutmegge remaining cleare sweet and vntainted when the rest of the eye was vnder a deepe corruption wch wee kept clear and limpid many moneths vntill an hard frost split it and manifested the foliations thereof.

It is not vnusuall to take seuerall sorts of canis or doggefishes great and small which pursue the shoale of herrings and other fish, butt this yeare 1662 one was taken intangled in the Herring netts about 9 foot in length, answering the last figure of Johnstonus lib 7 vnder the name of _canis carcherias alter_ and was by the teeth and 5 gills one kind of shark particularly remarkable in the vastnesse of the optick nerves and 3 conicall hard pillars which supported the extraordinarie elevated nose which wee haue reserued with the scull; the seamen called this kind a scrape.

Sturio or Sturgeon so common on the other side of the sea about the mouth of the Elbe come seldome into our creekes though some haue been taken at Yarmouth and more in the great Owse by Lynne butt their heads not so sharpe as represented in the Icons of Rondeletius and Johnstonus.

Sometimes wee meet with a mola or moonefish so called from some resemblance it hath of a crescent in the extreme part of the body from one finne unto another one being taken neere the shoare at Yarmouth before breake of day seemed to shiuer and grunt like an hogge as Authors deliuer of it, the flesh being hard and neruous it is not like to afford a good dish butt from the Liuer which is large white and tender somewhat may bee expected; the gills of these fishes wee found thick beset with a kind of sea-lowse. In the yeare 1667 a mola was taken at Monsley which weighed 2 hundred pound.

The Rana piscatrix or frogge fish is sometimes found in a very large magnitude and wee haue taken the care to haue them clend and stuffed, wherein wee obserued all the appendices whereby they cach fishes butt much larger then are discribed in the Icons of Johnstonus tab xi fig 8.

The sea wolf or Lupus nostras of Schoneueldus remarkable for its spotted skinne and notable teeth incisors Dogteeth and grinders the dogteeth both in the jawes and palate scarce answerable by any fish of that bulk for the like disposure strength and soliditie.

Mustela marina called by some a wesell ling which salted and dryed becomes a good Lenten dish.

A Lump or Lumpus Anglorum so named by Aldrouandus by some esteemed a festiuall dish though it affordeth butt a glutinous jellie and the skinne is beset with stony knobs after no certaine order. Ours most answereth the first figure in the xiii table of Johnstonus butt seemes more round and arcuated then that figure makes it.

Before the herrings there commonly cometh a fish about a foot long by the fishman called an horse resembling in all poynts the Trachurus of Rondeletius of a mixed shape between a mackerell and an herring, obseruable from its greene eyes rarely skye colored back after it is kept a day, and an oblique bony line running on ye outside from the gills vnto ye tayle. A drye and hard dish butt makes an handsome picture.

The Rubelliones or Rochets butt thinly met with on this coast, the gornart cuculus or Lyrae species more often which they seldome eat butt bending the back and spredding the finnes into a liuely posture do hang up in their howses.

Beside the common mullus or mullet there is another not vnfrequent which some call a cunny fish butt rather a red muellett of a flosculous redde and somewhat rough on the scales answering the discription of Icon of Rondeletius vnder the name of mullus ruber asper butt not the tast of the vsually knowne mullet as affording butt a drye and leane bitt.

Seuerall sorts of fishes there are which do or may beare the names of seawoodcocks as the Acus maior scolopax and saurus. The saurus wee sometimes meet with yonge. Rondeletius confesseth it a very rare fish somewhat resembling the Acus or needlefish before and a makerell behind. Wee have kept one dryed many yeares agoe.

The Acus maior calld by some a garfish and greenback answering the figure of Rondeletius under the name of Acus prima species remarkable for its quadrangular figure and verdigreece green back bone.

A lesser sort of Acus maior or primae specaeei wee meet with much shorter then the common garfish and in taking out the spine wee found it not green as in the greater and much answering the saurus of Rondeletius.

A scolopax or sea woodcock of Rondeletius was giuen mee by a seaman of these seas, about 3 inches long and seemes to bee one kind of Acus or needlefish answering the discription of Rondeletius.

The Acus of Aristotle lesser thinner corticated and sexangular by diuers calld an addercock and somewhat resembling a snake ours more plainly finned then Rondeletius discribeth it.

A little corticated fish about 3 or 4 inches long, ours answering that which is named piscis octangularis by Wormius, cataphractus by Schoneueldeus; octagonius versus caput, versus caudam hexagonius.

The faber marinus sometimes found very large answering the figure of Rondeletius, which though hee mentioneth as a rare fish and to be found in the Atlantick and Gaditane ocean yet wee often meet with it in these seas commonly calld a peterfish hauing one black spot on ether side the body conceued the perpetuall signature from the impression of St Peters fingers or to resemble the 2 peeces of money which St Peter tooke out of this fish remarkable also from its disproportionable mouth and many hard prickles about other parts.

A kind of scorpius marinus a rough prickly and monstrous headed fish 6 8 or 12 inches long answerable vnto the figure of Schoneueldeus.

A sting fish wiuer or kind of ophidion or Araneus slender, narrowe headed about 4 inches long with a sharpe small prickly finne along the back which often venemouslv pricketh the hands of fishermen.

Aphia cobites marina or sea Loche.

Blennus a sea millars thumb.

Funduli marini sea gogions.

Alosae or chads to bee met with about Lynne.

Spinachus or smelt in greatest plentie about Lynne butt where they haue also a small fish calld a primme answering in tast and shape a smelt and perhaps are butt the yonger sort thereof.

Aselli or cods of seuerall sorts. Asellus albus or whitings in great plentie. Asellus niger carbonarius or coale fish. Asellus minor Schoneueldei, callarias Pliny, or Haydocks with many more also a weed fish somewhat like an haydock butt larger and dryer meat. A Basse also much resembling a flatter kind of Cod.

Scombri are makerells in greate plentie a dish much desired butt if as Rondeletius affirmeth they feed upon sea starres and squalders there may bee some doubt whether their flesh bee without some ill qualitie. Sometimes they are of a very large size and one was taken this yeare 1668 which was by measure an ell long and of the length of a good salmon, at Lestoffe.

Herrings departed sprats or sardae not long after succeed in great plentie which are taken with smaller nets and smoakd and dryed like herrings become a sapid bitt and vendible abroad.

Among these are found Bleakes or bliccae a thinne herring like fishe which some will also think to bee young herrings. And though the sea aboundeth not with pilchards, yet they are commonly taken among herrings, butt few esteeme thereof or eat them.

Congers are not so common on these coasts as on many seas about England, butt are often found upon the north coast of Norfolk, and in frostie wether left in pulks and plashes upon the ebbe of the sea.

The sand eels Anglorum of Aldrouandus, or Tobianus of Schoneueldeus commonly called smoulds taken out of the sea sands with forks and rakes about Blakeney and Burnham a small round slender fish about 3 or 4 inches long as bigge as a small Tobacco pipe a very dayntie dish.

Pungitius marinus or sea bausticle hauing a prickle one each side the smallest fish of the sea about an inch long sometimes drawne ashoare with netts together with weeds and pargaments of the sea.

Many sorts of flat fishes. The pastinaca oxyrinchus with a long and strong aculeus in the tayle conceued of speciall venome and virtues.

Severall sorts of Raia's skates and Thornebacks the Raia clauata oxyrinchus, raia oculata, aspera, spinosa fullonica.

The great Rhombus or Turbot aculeatus and leuis.

The passer or place.

Butts of various kinds.

The passer squamosus Bret Bretcock and skulls comparable in taste and delicacy vnto the soale.

The Buglossus solea or soale plana and oculata as also the Lingula or small soale all in very great plentie.

Sometimes a fish aboue half a yard long like a butt or soale called asprage which I haue known taken about Cromer.

Sepia or cuttle fish and great plentie of the bone or shellie substance which sustaineth the whole bulk of that soft fishe found commonly on the shoare.

The Loligo sleue or calamar found often upon the shoare from head to tayle sometimes aboue an ell long, remarkable for its parretlike bill, the gladiolus or calamus along the back and the notable crystallyne of the eye which equalleth if not exceedeth the lustre of orientall pearle.

A polypus another kind of the mollia sometimes wee haue met with.

Lobsters in great number about Sheringham and Cromer from whence all the country is supplyed.

Astacus marinus pediculi marini facie found also in that place, with the aduantage of ye long foreclawes about 4 inches long.

Crabs large and well tasted found also in the same coast.

Another kind of crab taken for cancer fluuiatilis litle slender and of a very quick motion found in the Riuer running through Yarmouth, and in Bliburgh riuer.

Oysters exceeding large about Burnham and Hunstanton like those of Poole St Mallowes or Ciuita Vechia whereof many are eaten rawe the shells being broakin with cleuers the greater part pickled and sent weekly to London and other parts.

Mituli or muscles in great quantitie as also chams or cochles about Stiskay and the northwest coast.

Pectines pectunculi varij or scallops of the lesser sort.

Turbines or smaller wilks, leues, striati, as also Trochi, Trochili, or scaloppes finely variegated and pearly. Lewise purpurae minores, nerites, cochleae, Tellinae.

Lepades, patellae Limpets, of an vniualue shell wherein an animal like a snayle cleauing fast unto the rocks.

Solenes cappe lunge venetorum commonly a razor fish the shell thereof dentalia.

Dentalia by some called pinpaches because pinmeat thereof is taken out with a pinne or needle.

Cancellus Turbinum et neritis Barnard the Hermite of Rondeletius a kind of crab or astacus liuing in a forsaken wilk or nerites.

Echinus echinometrites sea hedghogge whose neat shells are common on the shoare the fish aliue often taken by the dragges among the oysters.

Balani a smaller sort of vniualue growing commonly in clusters, the smaller kinds thereof to bee found oftimes upon oysters wilks and lobsters.

Concha anatifera or Ansifera or Barnicleshell whereof about 4 yeares past were found upon the shoare no small number by Yarmouth hanging by slender strings of a kind of Alga vnto seuerall splinters or cleauings of firre boards vnto which they were seuerally fastned and hanged like ropes of onyons: their shell flat and of a peculiar forme differing from other shelles, this being of four diuisions, containing a small imperfect animal at the lower part diuided into many shootes or streames which prepossed spectators fancy to bee the rudiment of the tayle of some goose or duck to bee produced from it; some whereof in ye shell and some taken out and spred upon paper we shall keepe by us.

Stellae marinae or sea starres in great plentie especially about Yarmouth. Whether they bee bred out of the vrticae squalders or sea gellies as many report wee cannot confirme butt the squalderes in the middle seeme to haue some lines or first draughts not unlike. Our starres exceed not 5 poynts though I haue heard that some with more haue been found about Hunstanton and Burnham, where are also found stellae marinae testacae or handsome crusted and brittle sea starres much lesse.

The pediculus and culex marinus the sea lowse and flie are also no strangeres.

Physsalus Rondeletij or eruca marina physsaloides according to the icon of Rondeletius of very orient green and purple bristles.

Urtica marina of diuers kinds some whereof called squalderes, of a burning and stinging qualitie if rubbed in the hand; the water thereof may afford a good cosmetick.

Another elegant sort that is often found cast up by shoare in great numbers about the bignesse of a button cleere and welted and may bee called fibula marina crystallina.

Hirudines marini or sea Leaches.

Vermes marini very large wormes digged a yarde deepe out of the sands at the ebbe for bayt. Tis known where they are to be found by a litle flat ouer them on the surface of the sand; as also vermes in tubulis testacei. Also Tethya or sea dugges some whereof resemble fritters the vesicaria marina also and fanago sometimes very large conceaued to proceed from some testaceous animals, and particularly from the purpura butt ours more probably from other testaceous wee hauing not met with any large purpura upon this coast.

Many riuer fishes also and animals. Salmon no common fish in our riuers though many are taken in the Owse, in the Bure or north riuer, in ye Waueney or south riuer, in ye Norwich river butt seldome and in the winter butt 4 yeares ago 15 were taken at Trowes mill in Xtmas, whose mouths were stuck with small wormes or horsleaches no bigger than fine threads. Some of these I kept in water 3 moneths: if a few drops of blood were putt to the water they would in a litle time looke red. They sensibly grewe bigger then I first found them and were killed by an hard froast freezing the water. Most of our Salmons haue a recurued peece of flesh in the end of the lower iawe which when they shutt there mouths deepely enters the upper, as Scaliger hath noted in some.

The Riuers lakes and broads abound in the Lucius or pikes of very large size where also is found the Brama or Breme large and well tasted the Tinca or Tench the Rubecula Roach as also Rowds and Dare or Dace perca or pearch great and small: whereof such as are in Braden on this side Yarmouth in the mixed water make a dish very dayntie and I think scarce to bee bettered in England. Butt the Blea[k] the chubbe the barbell to bee found in diuers other Riuers in England I haue not obserued in these. As also fewer mennowes then in many other riuers.

The Trutta or trout the Gammarus or crawfish butt scarce in our riuers butt frequently taken in the Bure or north riuer and in the seuerall branches thereof, and very remarkable large crawfishes to bee found in the riuer which runnes by Castleaker and Nerford.

The Aspredo perca minor and probably the cernua of Cardan commonly called a Ruffe in great plentie in Norwich Riuers and euen in the streame of the citty, which though Camden appropriates vnto this citty yet they are also found in the riuers of Oxforde and Cambridge.

Lampetra Lampries great and small found plentifully in Norwich riuer and euen in the Citty about May whereof some are very large and well cooked are counted a dayntie bitt collard up butt especially in pyes.

Mustela fluuiatilis or eele poult to bee had in Norwich riuer and between it and Yarmouth as also in the riuers of marshland resembling an eele and a cod, a very good dish and the Liuer thereof well answers the commendations of the Ancients.

Godgions or funduli fluuiatiles, many whereof may bee taken within the Riuer in the citty.

Capitones fluuiatilis or millers thumbs, pungitius fluuiatilis or stanticles. Aphia cobites fluuiatilis or Loches. In Norwich riuers in the runnes about Heueningham heath in the north riuer and streames thereof.

Of eeles the common eele and the glot which hath somewhat a different shape in the bignesse of the head and is affirmed to have yong ones often found within it, and wee haue found a vterus in the same somewhat answering the icon thereof in Senesinus.

Carpiones carpes plentifull in ponds and sometimes large ones in broads: 2 the largest I euer beheld were taken in Norwich Riuer.

Though the woods and dryelands abound with adders and vipers yet there are few snakes about our riuers or meadowes, more to bee found in Marsh land; butt ponds and plashes abound in Lizards or swifts.

The Gryllotalpa or fencricket common in fenny places butt wee haue met with them also in dry places dung-hills and church yards of this citty.

Beside horseleaches and periwinkles in plashes and standing waters we haue met with vermes setacei or hardwormes butt could neuer conuert horsehayres into them by laying them in water: as also the great Hydrocantharus or black shining water Beetle the forficula, sqilla, corculum and notonecton that swimmeth on its back.

Camden reports that in former time there haue been Beuers in the Riuer of Cardigan in Wales. This wee are to sure of that the Riuers great Broads and carres afford great store of otters with us, a great destroyer of fish as feeding butt from ye vent downewards, not free from being a prey it self for their yong ones haue been found in Buzzards nests. They are accounted no bad dish by many, are to bee made very tame and in some howses haue serued for turnespitts.

ON THE OSTRICH.

The ostrich hath a compounded name in Greek and Latin--_Struthio-Camelus_, borrowed from a bird and a beast, as being a feathered and biped animal, yet in some ways like a camel; somewhat in the long neck; somewhat in the foot; and, as some imagine, from a camel-like position in the part of generation.

It is accounted the largest and tallest of any winged and feathered fowl; taller than the gruen or cassowary. This ostrich, though a female, was about seven feet high, and some of the males were higher, either exceeding or answerable unto the stature of the great porter unto king Charles the First. The weight was a[370] [ ] in grocer's scales.

[370] Undecipherable in the original.

Whosoever shall compare or consider together the ostrich and the tomineio, or humbird, not weighing twelve grains, may easily discover under what compass or latitude the creation of birds hath been ordained.

The head is not large, but little in proportion to the whole body. And, therefore, Julius Scaliger, when he mentioned birds of large heads (comparatively unto their bodies), named the sparrow, the owl, and the woodpecker; and, reckoning up birds of small heads, instanceth in the hen, the peacock, and the ostrich.

The head is looked upon by discerning spectators to resemble that of a goose rather than any kind of +strouthos+, or _passer_: and so may be more properly called _cheno-camelus_, or _ansero-camelus_.

There is a handsome figure of an ostrich in Mr. Willoughby's and Ray's _Ornithologia_: another in Aldrovandus and Jonstonus, and Bellonius; but the heads not exactly agreeing. 'Rostrum habet exiguum, sed acutum,' saith Jonstoun; 'un long bec et poinctu,' saith Bellonius; men describing such as they have an opportunity to see, and perhaps some the ostriches of very different countries, wherein, as in some other birds, there may be some variety.

In Africa, where some eat elephants, it is no wonder that some also feed upon ostriches. They flay them with their feathers on, which they sell, and eat the flesh. But Galen and physicians have condemned that flesh, as hard and indigestible. The emperor Heliogabalus had a fancy for the brains, when he brought six hundred ostriches' heads to one supper, only for the brains' sake; yet Leo Africanus saith that he ate of young ostriches among the Numidians with a good gust; and, perhaps, boiled, and well cooked, after the art of Apicius, with peppermint, dates, and other good things, they might go down with some stomachs.

I do not find that the strongest eagles, or best-spirited hawks, will offer at these birds; yet, if there were such gyrfalcons as Julius Scaliger saith the duke of Savoy and Henry, king of Navarre, had, it is like they would strike at them, and, making at the head, would spoil them, or so disable them, that they might be taken.

If these had been brought over in June, it is, perhaps, likely we might have met with eggs in some of their bellies, whereof they lay very many: but they are the worst of eggs for food, yet serviceable unto many other uses in their country; for, being cut transversely, they serve for drinking cups and skull-caps; and, as I have seen, there are large circles of them, and some painted and gilded, which hang up in Turkish mosques, and also in Greek churches. They are preserved with us for rarities; and, as they come to be common, some use will be found of them in physic, even as of other eggshells and other such substances.

When it first came into my garden, it soon ate up all the gilliflowers, tulip-leaves, and fed greedily upon what was green, as lettuce, endive, sorrell; it would feed on oats, barley, peas, beans; swallow onions; eat sheep's lights and livers.--Then you mention what you know more.

When it took down a large onion, it stuck awhile in the gullet, and did not descend directly, but wound backward behind the neck; whereby I might perceive that the gullet turned much; but this is not peculiar unto the ostrich; but the same hath been observed in the stork, when it swallows down frogs and pretty big bits.

It made sometimes a strange noise; had a very odd note, especially in the morning, and, perhaps, when hungry.

According to Aldrovandus, some hold that there is an antipathy between it and a horse, which an ostrich will not endure to see or be near; but, while I kept it, I could not confirm this opinion; which might, perhaps, be raised because a common way of hunting and taking them is by swift horses.

It is much that Cardanus should be mistaken with a great part of men, that the coloured and dyed feathers of ostriches were natural; as red, blue, yellow, and green; whereas, the natural colours in this bird were white and greyish. Of the fashion of wearing feathers in battles or wars by men, and women, see Scaliger, _Contra Cardan. Exercitat. 220_.

If wearing of feather-fans should come up again, it might much increase the trade of plumage from Barbary. Bellonius saith he saw two hundred skins with the feathers on in one shop of Alexandria.

BOULIMIA CENTENARIA.

There is a woman now living in Yarmouth, named Elizabeth Michell, an hundred and two years old; a person of four feet and half high, very lean, very poor, and living in a mean room with pitiful accommodation. She had a son after she was past fifty. Though she answers well enough unto ordinary questions, yet she apprehends her eldest daughter to be her mother; but what is most remarkable concerning her is a kind of _boulimia_ or dog-appetite; she greedily eating day and night what her allowance, friends, and charitable persons afford her, drinking beer or water, and making little distinction or refusal of any food, either of broths, flesh, fish, apples, pears, and any coarse food, which she eateth in no small quantity, insomuch that the overseers of the poor have of late been fain to augment her weekly allowance. She sleeps indifferently well, till hunger awakes her; then she must have no ordinary supply whether in the day or night. She vomits not, nor is very laxative. This is the oldest example of the _sal esurinum chymicorum_, which I have taken notice of; though I am ready to afford my charity unto her, yet I should be loth to spend a piece of ambergris I have upon her, and to allow six grains to every dose till I found some effect in moderating her appetite: though that be esteemed a great specific in her condition.

UPON THE DARK THICK MIST HAPPENING ON THE 27TH OF NOVEMBER, 1674.

Though it be not strange to see frequent mists, clouds, and rains, in England, as many ancient describers of this country have noted, yet I could not but take notice of a very great mist which happened upon the 27th of the last November, and from thence have taken this occasion to propose something of mists, clouds, and rains, unto your candid considerations.

Herein mists may well deserve the first place, as being, if not the first in nature, yet the first meteor mentioned in Scripture, and soon after the creation, for it is said, Gen. ii. that 'God had not yet caused it to rain upon the earth, but a mist went up from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground,' for it might take a longer time for the elevation of vapours sufficient to make a congregation of clouds able to afford any store of showers and rain in so early days of the world.

Thick vapours, not ascending high but hanging about the earth and covering the surface of it, are commonly called mists; if they ascend high they are called clouds. They remain upon the earth till they either fall down or are attenuated, rarified, and scattered.

The great mist was not only observable about London, but in remote parts of England, and as we hear, in Holland, so that it was of larger extent than mists are commonly apprehended to be; most men conceiving that they reach not much beyond the places where they behold them. Mists make an obscure air, but they beget not darkness, for the atoms and particles thereof admit the light, but if the matter thereof be very thick, close, and condensed, the mist grows considerably obscure and like a cloud, so the miraculous and palpable darkness of Egypt is conceived to have been effected by an extraordinary dense and dark mist or a kind of cloud spread over the land of Egypt, and also miraculously restrained from the neighbour land of Goshen.

Mists and fogs, containing commonly vegetable spirits, when they dissolve and return upon the earth, may fecundate and add some fertility unto it, but they may be more unwholesome in great cities than in country habitations: for they consist of vapours not only elevated from simple watery and humid places, but also the exhalations of draughts, common sewers, and foetid places, and decoctions used by unwholesome and sordid manufactures: and also hindering the sea-coal smoke from ascending and passing away, it is conjoined with the mist and drawn in by the breath, all which may produce bad effects, inquinate the blood, and produce catarrhs and coughs. Sereins, well known in hot countries, cause headache, toothache, and swelled faces; but they seem to have their original from subtle, invisible, nitrous, and piercing exhalations, caused by a strong heat of the sun, which falling after sunset produce the effects mentioned.

There may be also subterraneous mists, when heat in the bowels of the earth, working upon humid parts, makes an attenuation thereof and consequently nebulous bodies in the cavities of it.

There is a kind of a continued mist in the bodies of animals, especially in the cavous parts, as may be observed in bodies opened presently after death, and some think that in sleep there is a kind of mist in the brain; and upon exceeding motion some animals cast out a mist about them.

When the cuttle fish, polypus, or loligo, make themselves invisible by obscuring the water about them; they do it not by any vaporous emission, but by a black humour ejected, which makes the water black and dark near them: but upon excessive motion some animals are able to afford a mist about them, when the air is cool and fit to condense it, as horses after a race, so that they become scarce visible.

ACCOUNT OF A THUNDER STORM AT NORWICH, 1665.

_June 28, 1665._

After seven o'clock in the evening there was almost a continued thunder until eight, wherein the _tonitru_ and _fulgur_, the noise and lightning, were so terrible, that they put the whole city into an amazement, and most unto their prayers. The clouds went low, and the cracks seemed near over our heads during the most part of the thunder. About eight o'clock, an _ignis fulmineus_, _pila ignea fulminans_, _telum igneum fulmineum_, or fire-ball, hit against the little wooden pinnacle of the high leucome window of my house, toward the market-place, broke the flue boards, and carried pieces thereof a stone's cast off; whereupon many of the tiles fell into the street, and the windows in adjoining houses were broken. At the same time either a part of that close-bound fire, or another of the same nature, fell into the court-yard, and whereof no notice was taken till we began to examine the house, and then we found a freestone on the outside of the wall of the entry leading to the kitchen, half a foot from the ground, fallen from the wall; a hole as big as a foot-ball bored through the wall, which is about a foot thick, and a chest which stood against it, on the inside, split and carried about a foot from the wall. The wall also, behind the leaden cistern, at five yards distance from it, broken on the inside and outside; the middle seeming entire. The lead on the edges of the cistern turned a little up; and a great washing-bowl, that stood by it, to recover the rain, turned upside down, and split quite through. Some chimneys and tiles were struck down in other parts of the city. A fire-ball also struck down the wall in the market-place. And all this, God be thanked! without mischief unto any person. The greatest terror was from the noise, answerable unto two or three cannon. The smell it left was strong, like that after the discharge of a cannon. The balls that flew were not like fire in the flame, but the coal; and the people said it was like the sun. It was _discutiens, terebrans_, but not _urens_. It burnt nothing, nor any thing it touched smelt of fire; nor melted any lead of window or cistern, as I found it do in the great storm, about nine years ago, at Melton-hall, four miles off, at that time when the hail broke three thousand pounds worth of glass in Norwich, in half-a-quarter of an hour. About four days after, the like fulminous fire killed a man in Erpingham church, by Aylsham, upon whom it broke, and beat down divers which were within the wind of it. One also went off in Sir John Hobart's gallery, at Blickling. He was so near that his arm and thigh were numbed about an hour after. Two or three days after, a woman and horse were killed near Bungay; her hat so shivered that no piece remained bigger than a groat, whereof I had some pieces sent unto me. Granades, crackers, and squibs, do much resemble the discharge, and _aurum fulminans_ the fury thereof. Of other thunderbolts or _lapides fulminei_, I have little opinion. Some I have by me under that name, but they are _e genere fossilium_.

THOMAS BROWNE.
_Norwich_, 1665.

ON DREAMS.

Half our days we pass in the shadow of the earth; and the brother of death exacteth a third part of our lives. A good part of our sleep is peered out with visions and fantastical objects, wherein we are confessedly deceived. The day supplieth us with truths; the night with fictions and falsehoods, which uncomfortably divide the natural account of our beings. And, therefore, having passed the day in sober labours and rational enquiries of truth, we are fain to betake ourselves unto such a state of being, wherein the soberest heads have acted all the monstrosities of melancholy, and which unto open eyes are no better than folly and madness.

Happy are they that go to bed with grand music, like Pythagoras, or have ways to compose the fantastical spirit, whose unruly wanderings take off inward sleep, filling our heads with St. Anthony's visions, and the dreams of Lipara in the sober chambers of rest.

Virtuous thoughts of the day lay up good treasures for the night; whereby the impressions of imaginary forms arise into sober similitudes, acceptable unto our slumbering selves and preparatory unto divine impressions. Hereby Solomon's sleep was happy. Thus prepared, Jacob might well dream of angels upon a pillow of stone. And the best sleep of Adam might be the best of any after.

That there should be divine dreams seems unreasonably doubted by Aristotle. That there are demoniacal dreams we have little reason to doubt. Why may there not be angelical? If there be guardian spirits, they may not be inactively about us in sleep; but may sometimes order our dreams: and many strange hints, instigations, or discourses, which are so amazing unto us, may arise from such foundations.