Memorials of John Ray / edited by Edwin Lankester.

Date:
1846
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Memorials of John Ray / edited by Edwin Lankester. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Near Tenby Castle is a little island, which hath a chapel upon it, dedicated to St. Catharine ; it is ascended by stone stairs cut out of the rock. There is a castle at Kidwelly; the town is in a ruinous condition. On the sandy meadows near the town, I observed six sorts of rushes, among which that of Harlech [Juncus acutus, Linn.,| and Juncus acutus mart- timus |J. maritimus, Limn.| Near Aberavon, on the sandy meadows by the sea-side, I saw growing, Conyza helenitis foliis lacimatis [Cineraria palustris, Linn.) A bird breeds there supposed to be the Hamantopus mag- nitudine inter vanellum et gallinaginem minorem media | Black-winged stilt ? Himantopus melanopterus, | of a dark grey on the head and back, a light grey on the breast and under the belly, the five or six first feathers of the wing above of a dark or fuscous colour, near black, un- derneath more light or dunnish, the rest of the feathers party-coloured, the tops white, the bottom dark. The tail and feathers near it waved transversely with black and white lines, like the feathers of some turkeys, as likewise are the tips of some of the feathers of the wing above the remiges. The feathers upon the top of the back, between the shoulders and the tail, are some of them almost white, which, when the bird flies, represent a triangle of white. The bill of this bird is in figure like a snipe’s, but not so long, pro ratione, by a great deal, of a dark red at the base, black toward the end ; the legs long and red, the ungues black; it hath the posticus ; these she stretches backward in flying, which make amends for the shortness of the tail; it makes a piping noise.. Friday, June the 13th, we proceeded on to Landaffe ; by the way we saw a stone lying near Margam, near half a mile off, in the way to Newton, with this inscription, «Pymprivs CARANTORIVS; whether or no there had been another line of letters was uncertain. At Newton we saw the well called St. John’s Well, which ebbs and flows (as the people generally there affirm) quite contrary to the sea; but we found that it ebbed as the sea ebbed, and 12