Selected quad for the lemma: city_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
city_n	day_n	great_a	town_n	4,664	4	6.2812	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66534	The ornithology of Francis Willughby of Middleton in the county of Warwick Esq, fellow of the Royal Society in three books : wherein all the birds hitherto known, being reduced into a method sutable to their natures, are accurately described : the descriptions illustrated by most elegant figures, nearly resembling the live birds, engraven in LXXVII copper plates : translated into English, and enlarged with many additions throughout the whole work : to which are added, Three considerable discourses, I. of the art of fowling, with a description of several nets in two large copper plates, II. of the ordering of singing birds, III. of falconry / by John Ray ...	Ray, John, 1627-1705.; Willughby, Francis, 1635-1672. Ornithologiae libri tres. English.	1678 (1678)	Wing W2880; ESTC R9288	670,235	621

more manifestly This note is peculiar to this kind not agreeing to any other bird that I know This is a sign that their flesh is of all other most wholsom and affords best nourishments So that it is not undeservedly had in highest esteem and sold dearest of any other 7. To breed many young at a time 8. To build their Nests upon the ground the reason whereof is because 9. The young ones newly hatched are not fed by their Dams with meat put into their mouths but are covered with a thick Down forsake their Nests and running up and down follow the old ones and feed themselves picking up their meat with their Bills 10. Because they are as we said corpulent and cannot fly long they seek their food walking up and down upon the earth and for that reason have broad Toes that they may stand firmer and surer and are for the most part good runners 11. The most if not all birds of this kind dust themselves 12. The Poultry kind only but not all the several Species of this kind are armed with Spurs We shall distinguish the birds of this kind into tame and wild the wild we shall subdivide into those that have the back-toe and those that want it Those again that have the back toe into granivorous and phytivorous or by a more evident mark such as have scarlet red Eye-brows Birds of the Poultry kind are either Tame and domestic as the Peacock Turkey Dunghil Cock c. Wild which either Have the back toe being Granivorous as the Pheasant Partridge Quail c. Phytivorous with red Eye-brows as Cock of the Wood c. Want the back-toe as the Bustard c. CHAP. X. Of tame Poultry §. I. The Dunghill Cock and Hen. Gallus gallinaceus Gallina domestica THis Bird called by the Grecians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and of old by a general name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is and hath been so well known in all Ages and places that it would be but lost labour to bestow many words on the describing of it By its erect Tail having the component feathers so situate as to make an Angle or ridge its fleshy naked serrate Comb and Gills or Wattles hanging down under its Chin and lastly by its long Spurs it is abundantly distinguished from all other birds of its kind and easily known at first sight The Dunghil Cock alone of all diurnal Birds excepting the Nightingale sings or crows by night viz. after Midnight two or three times at intervals before break of day The number of quill-feathers in each Wing computing all to the very least is twenty seven The Tail consists of fourteen which as far as I know is peculiar to this Species For the rest of the Poultry kind have eighteen or at least sixteen feathers apiece in their Tails Of these the two middlemost are in Cocks the longest and elegantly reflected or arcuate Sickle feathers the Vulgar call them The Cock being a most salacious bird doth suddenly grow old and becomes less fit for generation For his spirits being spent and the radical moisture as they call it consumed by the immoderate use of Venery his body must necessarily wax dry and his heat of lust be extinguished Aldrovandus writes that himself hath found by experience that Cocks when they are above three years old do indeed impregnate Hens but that they become more impotent and insufficient for such exercises Hens also sith they do for the greatest part of the year daily lay Eggs cannot long suffice for so many births but for the most part after three or four years become barren and effete For when they have spent all the Seed-Eggs which from the beginning were in their bodies they must needs cease to lay there being no new ones generated within How long these Birds would live were they let alone I cannot certainly determine though Aldrov limits their age to ten years For they being kept only for profit and within a few years as we said before becoming unfit for generation who is there that without all hope of gain will keep them only to make experiment how long they will live But that they are in their kind short-lived we may rightly infer from their salaciousness and intemperate lust which infeebles the body wastes the spirits and hastens the end Cocks being very couragious and high spirited birds that will rather die than yield are wont by our Countrymen to be with great care and exact diet fed and trained up for the combat For in Cities and great Towns there are frequent Cock-fightings yet not upon set days but appointed by the Cock-masters at their pleasure or when they agree among themselves Yea in many places there are Theaters built Cock-pits they call them where such shows are exhibited to which there is commonly a great concourse of people There are matches made and great Wagers laid besides bettings on either side of great sums of money which they carry away whose Cocks get the victory Right and well bred Cocks of the Game will sooner die upon the spot than yield and give over the fight or turn tail and run away No better flesh in the world in my opinion than that of a year-old Pullet well fed or a fat Capon nothing inferiour to not to say better than that of a Pheasant or Partridge Some there are that think and we also incline to their opinion that the flesh of those Hens is most sweet and delicate which are fed at the Barn-door running about and exercising themselves in getting their food by scraping with their feet And that the flesh of those is less pleasant and wholsom that are shut up in Coops and cram'd Some are so curious that they think those limbs most wholsom which are most exercised and therefore in Wild-Fowl they prefer the Wings in Tame the Legs A particular Anatomical description of the Cvarium or Egg-cluster the womb and other parts of generation in a Hen may be seen in Aldrovandus his Ornithology tom 2. p. 199 c. but a more exact in Dr. Harvey's Exercitations De Generatione Of the Coition of Cock and Hen laying of Eggs sitting and hatching of Chickens the same Authors may be consulted as also that great Anatomist and Naturalist Marcellus Malpighius in his little Tractate de Ovo who of all others doth most exactly describe the process of generation or of the formation and growth of the Chicken in the Egg during the whole time of incubation and hath also illustrated his descriptions with Figures Of the use of the flesh Eggs and all other parts of Pullen both in Food and Physic Gesner and Aldrovandus have writ sufficiently to whose works we refer those who desire to know all those particulars That the Lion is afraid of a Cock cannot endure the sight of him yea is terrified by his very crowing hath been delivered and received by Ancients and Moderns with unanimous consent and approbation and divers reasons sought and assigned for this