Natural history in Shakespeare's time : being extracts illustrative of the subject as he knew it / Made by H. W. Seager, M. B., &c. Also pictures thereunto belonging.

  • Seager, H. W. (Herbert West), 1848-
Date:
1896
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Natural history in Shakespeare's time : being extracts illustrative of the subject as he knew it / Made by H. W. Seager, M. B., &c. Also pictures thereunto belonging. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    And they have many birds, and, for they be many, they throw away some of their birds,—for fowls which have many birds throw away some of them. Also the black Raven fighteth with the ass, and with the bull, and flieth upon them, and grieveth them, and smiteth with the bill, and smiteth out their eyes. Also the black Raven is friend to the fox, and therefore he fighteth with the brock and with other small beasts to help the fox. Bartholomezv (^Berthelet), bk. xii. § 10. They are said to conceive and to lay their eggs at the bill. The young become black on the seventh day. The Raven is stronger by day, and the owl by night, and they eat one another's eggs by turns. It abstains from drinking so long as the fig-tree rejoices in the sweetness of its fruit. Hortus Snnitatis^ bk. iii, § 34. If women great with child chance to eat a Raven's egg, they shall be delivered of their children at the mouth. Holland's Pliny, bk. x. ch. xii. If a Raven's eggs be boiled and put again in the nest, straightway the Raven goes to a certain island in the Red Sea, where Aldoricus or Alodrius is buried, and brings a stone with which it touches its eggs, and immediately they become raw as they were before. It is wonderful that boiled eggs should be revived. Now if that stone be set in a ring with a laurel-leaf under it, and a man bound with chains, or a closed gate be touched [therewith], straightway the bound shall be loosed, and the gate be opened. And if that stone be put in the ear, it gives understanding of all birds. This stone is of diverse colours, and causes all anger to be forgotten. Albertus Magnus, Of the Virtues of Animals. Red-breast, Robin Redbreast. Two Gentlemen of Verona, ii. 1, 22. The bird which is named Robin or Redbreast in winter, the same is Red-tail [or Red-srart] all summer long. Holland's Pliny, bk. x. ch. xxix. So Minsheu's Dictionary, s.v. Robin-redbreast and Red-start.