94
The Natural Hiſtory
with a fine ſpeckled Plumage. Theſe build their Neſts upon the Iſlands as the Edder Fowls do. The ſecond ſort is of a leſſer Size, their Bills long and pointed; keep moſt in the Bays and in freſh Waters, where they neſt among the Reeds. Wood-Ducks are not engendred the ordinary way from Eggs, but from Muſcle-Shells.The third ſort are called Wood-Ducks, reſemble very much thoſe of the firſt ſort, though ſomewhat larger in Size; its Breaſt is black, the reſt of the Body is gray. Theſe do not propagate in the common Way of Generation by coupling like other Birds; but (which is very ſurprizing) from a ſlimy Matter in the Sea, which adheres to old Pieces of Wood driving in the Sea, of which firſt is generated a kind of Muſcles, and again in theſe is bred a little Worm, which in Length of Time is formed into a Bird, that comes out of the Muſcle-Shell, as other Birds come out of Egg-Shells[1]. Beſides theſe there is another Sea
Bird,
- ↑ What ſo many Authors of great Note relate of the Wood-Ducks, and affirm to be an unqueſtionable Truth, is by as many learned Writers treated as an old Woman's Tale, pretending that ſuch an heterogeneal Generation paſſes the ordinary Bounds of Nature. O-
thers
