[342] DE GALLO PALUSTRI.

Cap. XVI.

CHARTER XVI

THE SWAMP COCK

De Gallo palustri Ornithologus sic scribit: et hanc exhibet iconem: Avis, quam Scoti, (et Angli quoque, ut conijcio) vocant Gallum palustrem, ane muuyrcok, Germanice scripserim ein Murhan, Attagenis historiae subijcienda videtur. Nam et in summis deliciis habetur, et in locis palustribus (unde nomen) pascitur, et corpus ei subrussum, aut subflavum, undique punctis nigricantibus distinguitur. supercilia, et barbulae e membrana rubente, ut in reliquis fere Gallis sylvestribus nulla. Effigiem eius ad nos e Scotia mitti doctissimus vir Io. Ferrerius Pedemontanus curavit. Haud scio, an eaedem sint aves, de quibus Hector Boethius in Scotiae descriptione[1] sic prodidit: Sunt in Scotia Galli, Gallinaeque Sylvestres vocati, Qui frumento abstinent, et enascentibus tantum minutisque cytisi foliis vescuntur, humanae gulae perquam suaves. Gybertus Longolius Gallinae sylvestris quoddam genus vocat {Kurbenn} <Kurhenn>, quasi Murhenna quam Meleagridem, seu Africanam Gallinam interpretatur: quae itidem in palustribus locis versatur. Sed Athenaei descriptio[2] Meleagridum, Scoticis palustribus iam dictis non convenit. In epitome[3] dubitat, an sit Longolii Gallina palustris.

The Ornithologist writes as follows about swamp cock and gives this picture: It seems that the bird which the Scots (and the English also, as I think) call swamp cock, ane muuyrcok, in German I would write it ein Murhan, must be placed after the description of the francolin. For it is listed among the highest delicacies, it feeds in marshy places (whence the name), its body is reddish or blondish, sprinkled everywhere with blackish dots. The eyebrows and the eyelashes made of a red membrane, as in almost all the woodland cocks, are absent. The most learned Piedmont's man Giovanni Ferrero took care that its picture was sent me from Scotland. I don't know whether they are the same birds about which Hector Boëce spoke in the description of Scotland in this way: In Scotland cocks and hens are existing called sylvan which don't eat wheat and are feeding only on small and sprouting leaves of laburnum, and they are awfully pleasant to human palate. Gisbert Longolius calls a kind of woodland hen Kurhenn, which nearly sounds as Murhenn: which he thinks to be the meleagris or African hen: which likewise dwells in marshy places. But the description of Athenaeus of meleagris birds is not fitting the above-mentioned marshy Scottish hens. In his abridgement he doubts that it is the marshy hen of Longolius.