their perpetual flying, which they more copiously imbibe by reason of their exercise: That the thicker parts of this moisture stick and convert into Flesh, and that the lightness of their feathers is so great, that their pains in sustaining themselves are not overmuch: That what is homogeneal & simple to our sight, is fit enough to be the rudiments Generation (all Animals being generated of a kind of clear Crystalline liquour) and that therefore it may be also of Nutrition: That Orpine and Sea House-leek are nourished and grow being hung in the Aire, and that Duck-weed has its root no deeper then near the upper parts of the Water: and lastly, That the Bills of these Birds are for their better flying, by cutting the way, and for better ornament; for the rectifying also and composing of their feathers, while they swim in the Aire with as much ease as Swans do in the Rivers.
9. To his great impatiency against their manner of Incubation they would haply return this Answer; That the way is not ridiculous, but, it maybe, rather necessary, from what Aldrovandus himself not onely acknowledges, but contends for, namely, that they have no Feet at all. For hence it is manifest that they cannot light on the ground, nor any where rest on their bellies and be able to get on wing again; because they cannot creep out of holes of rocks, as Swifts and such like short-footed Birds can, they having no Feet at all to creep with. Besides, as Aristotle well argues concerning the long Legs of certain Water-Fowl, that they were made so long because they were to wade in the water and catch Fish, adding that excellent Aphorism, De part. Animal. lib. 4. c. 12.Τὰ γὰρ ὄργανα πρὸς τὸ ἔργον ἡ φύσις ποιεῖ, ἀλλ' οὐ τὸ ἔργον πρὸς τὰ ὄργανα so may we rationally conclude, will they say, that as the long Legs of these Water-fowl imply a design of their hanting the Water, so want of Legs in these Manucodiata's argue they are never to come down to the Earth, because they can neither stand there, nor goe, nor get off again. And if they never come on the Earth or any other resting-place, where can their Eggs be lay'd or hatched but on the back of the Male?
Besides that Cardan pleases himself with that Antiphonie in Nature, that as the Ostrich being a Bird, yet never shes in the Aire, so this Bird of Paradise should alwayes be in the Aire, and never rest upon the Earth. And as tor Aldrovandus his presumption from the five several Manucodiata's that he had seen, and in which he could observe no such figuration of parts as imply'd a fitness for such a manner of Incubation, Cardan will answer, my self has seen three and Scaliger one, who both agree against you.
10. However, you see that both Cardan, Aldrovandus and the rest do joyntly agree in allowing the Manucodiata no feet, as also in furnishing her with two strings hanging at the hinder parts of her body; which Aldrovandus will have to be in the Female as well as the Male, though Cardan's experience reached not so farre.
11. But Pighafetta and Clusius will easily end this grand controversy betwixt Cardan and Aldrovandus, if it be true which they report, and if they speak of the same kind of Birds of Paradise. For they both affirm that they have Feet a palme long, and that with all confidence imaginable.
