Selected quad for the lemma: life_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
life_n	exercise_n	flesh_n	peacock_n	16	3	15.9133	5	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

where very frequent It is proper to this Bird only the Turkey excepted to erect his Tail and spread it round as if it delighted and took pride to have the glistering Eyes thereof beheld But that he doth it upon being commended and that so soon as he casts down his Eyes and sees the deformity of his Feet out of shame he presently lets fall and contracts his Tail as if he were not altogether devoid of reason is without doubt false and fabulous It s flesh is esteemed harder colder drier and of more difficult concoction than that of Hens That being boiled or roast it will not putrefie but keep a year or more uncorrupt is commonly believed and proved by an experiment made by St. Augustine who in his 21. Book of the City of God Chap. 2. writes thus Who but God the Creator of all things gave to Peacocks flesh a faculty of not putrefying Which thing at first hearing seeming to me incredible it hapned that at Carthage there was set before us a roasted Peacock of the brawn of whose breast we caused to be kept so much as we thought convenient Which being produced after so many days space as any other roasted flesh would corrupt in did not at all offend our Nose Being laid up again after more than thirty days it was found the same as before and likewise the same after a year save that it was somewhat drier and a little contracted or shrunk To us it seems not so wonderful that the flesh of a Peacock which is of it self sufficiently hard and solid being rendred harder and drier by roasting should continue a long time uncorrupted in a hot Country such as Africa is especially if care be taken that in moist and rainy weather it take no wet but be kept always dry and I doubt not but the same would happen to Turkeys flesh or even to Pullets flesh boiled or roasted Let them abstain saith Aldrov from eating Peacocks flesh who live a sedentary or idle life using no exercise For it is more agreeable or at least less hurtful to those that exercise much I mean the flesh of young Peacocks only as being more tender but to those that are liver-grown or troubled with the Spleen or with the Piles very noxious But in my opinion and to my Palate the flesh of young Peacocks is very tender delicate and well tasted purely white and deservedly had by the Romans of old in high esteem and price nothing inferiour to that of Hens or Partridge Aristotle writes that Peacocks lay twelve Eggs but with us they seldom lay more than five or six before they sit They are pestilent things in Gardens doing a world of mischief They also throw down the Tiles and pluck off the Thatch of houses The Peacock saith Aldrovandus though he be a most beautiful bird to behold yet that pleasure of the Eyes is compensated with many an ungrateful stroke upon the Ears which are often afflicted with the odious noise of his horrid or as he calls it hellish cry Whence by the common people in Italy it is said to have the feathers of an Angel but the voice of a Devil and the guts of a Thief It is said and I can easily believe it to produce its life to an hundred years The Peacock saith Columella is no less salacious than the Dunghil-Cock and therefore requires five Hens Yea if there be no other Female for him to couple withal he will run upon and tread the sitting Hen and break her Eggs whereof she being conscious endeavours as much as she can to hide her Nest from him This bird is said to love cleanliness It sometimes varies in colour being found white especially in Northern Countries §. III. The Turkey Gallopavo sive Meleagris Numidica avis THe Turkey being now so well known and become so common every where in Europe needs no very minute and operose description wherefore we shall content our selves with that of Peter Gyllius sufficiently exact of it self and made up and perfected by Aldrovandus by the addition of whatsoever worthy the observation was by him omitted which runs thus It is as tall as a Peacock It s Neck together with its Head is altogether bare of feathers and only covered with a purplish-coloured skin so very thick that when it cries or prides it self it so stretches and as it were blows up the skin that before hung loose and flaggy that it approaches to the bigness of a mans arm The Crown of the Head is particoloured of white blue and purple It hath no Crest or Comb like a Cock but a certain red fleshy Appendix arising above the upper Chap of the Bill which is sometimes extended to that length that it not only reaches all along the declivity of the upper Chap but hangs down below the tip of the Bill at least an inch so that the Bill is covered with it that it cannot be seen but sideways This Appendix when it walks or feeds it contracts to that shortness that whereas before it hung down an inch lower than the Bill now being shrunk up it falls short of the length of the Bill it self The feathers of this bird do somewhat resemble a Hawks and have their ends white It hath very long Legs Its Toes and Claws have the same distinction and figure with the Dunghil-Cock The body of that I saw was round and taller than a Peacocks Round about the Eyes it was of a florid blue and purple colour The Eyes themselves were indued with a very quick and sharp sight like those of Hawks The Cock when any one came near the Hen bristled up his feathers and by his superb gate strutting up towards him endeavoured to drive him away The Hen was white and resembled a Peacock when he hath cast the feathers of his Tail Thus far Gyllius In which description saith Aldrovandus are two notes of no small moment wanting viz. That its Legs want Spurs and that the Cock is differenced from the Hen when they are come to their full growth and maturity by a bristly bush or beard before his Throat or in the upper part of his Breast Add hereto that the worm-like Caruncle on the Head is in the Hen very small What he saith of their feathers being like Hawks is to be understood by reason of their many spots wherein the likeness consists To this we may further add that the Tail of a Turkey is made up of eighteen feathers that each Wing hath twenty eight prime feathers or quils That the Legs have small Spurs or rather certain rudiments of Spurs and those very conspicuous and plain to be seen however Aldrovandus writes that they do altogether want Spurs Their Eggs are white but thick-speckled with sordid yellowish red spots much like to the freckles of the face of a man This stately Fowl at first sight from the shape of its body and also from its conditions one would take to be rather of the Hen than