Described
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Giraldus
Cambrensis- " They are like marsh-geese, but smaller.
They
are produced from fir timber tossed about at sea, and are at first like
geese upon it. Afterwards they hang down by their beaks...in the
course of time.. they either fall into the water, or seek their liberty
in the air by flight... I have seen with my own eyes more than a
thousand
minute bodies of these birds hanging from one piece of timber on the
shore,
enclosed in shells and already formed...Hence the bishops and clergy in
some parts of Ireland are in the habit of partaking of these birds, on
fast days, without scruple".
Sir John Mandeville- "in my
countrey are trees
that beare fruit, that become byrds flying, and they are good to eate,
and that that falleth on the water, liveth, andthat that falleth on the
earth, dyeth."
Sebastian Muenster- "We find trees
in Scotland which
produce a fruit enveloped in leaves, and when it drops into the water
at
a suitable time, it takes life and is turned into a live bird, which
they
call the tree bird."
Also described by Olaus Magnus,
Gerat de Veer, Aldrovandus,
and Gesner.
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