FOUR-FOOTED DUCK

Gesner describes a four-footed duck, which he says is like the English puffin, except in the number of its feet: but Aldrovandus “out-Herods Herod” when he gives us “A monstrous Cock with Serpent’s tail.”

If we can believe Pliny, there are places where certain birds are never found:—“With reference to the departure of birds, the owlet, too, is said to lie concealed for a few days. No birds of this last kind are to be found in the island of Crete, and if any are imported thither, they immediately die. Indeed, this is a remarkable distinction made by Nature; for she denies to certain places, as it were, certain kinds of fruits and shrubs, and of animals as well;...