Page:Hudibras - Volume 2 (Butler, Nash, Bohn; 1859).djvu/39

The strangest long-wing'd hawk that flies, 415
That, like a bird of Paradise,
Or herald's martlet, has no legs,^[1]
Nor hatches young ones, nor lays eggs;
His train was six yards long, milk white,
At th' end of which there hung a light, 420
Enclos'd in lanthorn made of paper,
That far off like a star did appear:
This Sidrophel by chance espy'd,
And with amazement staring wide:
Bless us, quoth he, what dreadful wonder 425
Is that appears in heaven yonder?
A comet, and without a beard!
Or star, that ne'er before appear'd!^[2]
I'm certain 'tis not in the scrowl
Of all those beasts, and fish, and fowl,^[3] 430
With which, like Indian plantations,
The learned stock the constellations;^[4]

1. The old naturalists, partly because the legs of the birds of Paradise are feathered down to the feet, and partly because the natives cut off the feet and used the whole skin as a plume, thought that they had no feet, and invented the most ridiculous fables about them. Martlets in heraldry are represented without feet. They are intended for the great black swallow, called the swift, or deviling, which has long and powerful wings, and is very seldom known to alight except on its nest.
2. There are several appearances (and disappearances) of new stars recorded. One in 1573, and another in 1604, which became almost as bright as the planet Venus. Another was seen in 1670; but that was after Butler had written these lines.
3. Astronomers have, from the earliest times, grouped the stars into constellations, which they have distinguished by the names of beasts, birds, fishes, &c., according to their supposed forms. Butler in his Genuine Remains, vol. i. p. 9, says:
   That elephants are in the moon,
   Though we had now discover'd none,
   Is easily made manifest;
   Since from the greatest to the least,
   All other stars and constellations
   Have cattle of all sorts of nations.
4. The old Cosmographers, when they found vast places, whereof they knew nothing, used to fill the same with an account of Indian plantation, strange birds, beasts, &c.