Turner on birds : a short and succinct history of the principal birds noticed by Pliny and Aristotle first published by Doctor William Turner, 1544 / edited with introduction, translation, notes, and appendix, by A.H. Evans.

  • William Turner
Date:
1903
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Turner on birds : a short and succinct history of the principal birds noticed by Pliny and Aristotle first published by Doctor William Turner, 1544 / edited with introduction, translation, notes, and appendix, by A.H. Evans. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    171/252 (page 147)
    Of the Picus Martius. /^pvoKoXdiTT'Y]'^, picus martius, pipo, iynx, torquella, turbo, in English and in German a specht, eyn specht. Aristotle. Some birds delight in grubs, and as a rule live on no other prey, as do the great and little Pipo, both of which people call Picus Martius. Resembling one another they utter like cries, although the greater has the louder cry. Again there is the xoXid?, the size of which is, nearly as may be, that of the Turtur, and its colour yellowish. It pecks wood freely, and, as the Pici do, lives for the most part on the trunks, that is, lives on the woodh as Gaza renders it : it utters a loud cry, and is especially a resident in the Peloponnese. Note that, when Aristotle only makes two sorts of Pici, in that passage he describes the Galgulus, when he makes three, he does not mention it. Aristotle book 9, chap. 9, of the history of ANIMALS. Alauda, Gallinago, and Coturnix never alight on trees, but always on the ground. It is however other¬ wise with Picus Martius, which never can endure sitting upon the ground. It hammers oaks for worms and grubs, that they may shew themselves, and when they issue forth it takes them on its tongue, which it has somewhat long and broad. It climbs about a tree in every way, for it even walks upside down, after the way of Lizards. It has claws better formed for creeping safely on the trees than even the Monedula, and climbs with them stuck in. There are three sorts of birds that have the special name of Picus Martius, one less than a Merula, which has some 1 Cf. p. 88. 10—2