166 CORVO the eighth century to the twelfth. Edrisi, 4 greatest of Arab geog- raphers, writing for King Roger of Sicily about the middle of the twelfth century, tells us, among other items, of the eastern Atlantic: Near this isle is that of Rica, which is "the isle of the birds" (Djazirato 't-Toyour) . It is reported that a species of birds resembling eagles is found there, red and armed with fangs; they hunt marine animals upon which they feed and never leave these parts. This statement recalls the cormorants, which are supposed to be meant by the sea crows, "corvi marinis" of the later maps. They would naturally flock about the submerged ledges and the wild shore of Corvo and may be held to suggest either the crow or the eagle, though not closely resembling either. Everywhere they are the scavengers of the deep seas. Edrisi mentions a legendary expedition sent by the "King of France" after these birds. It ended in disaster. The pictorial record on the Pizigani map of I367 6 (Fig. 2), of Breton ships in great trouble with a dragon of the air and a kraken, or decapod, on the extreme western border of navigation, may conceivably refer to this ex- perience. ANCIENT MEMORIALS But Corvo has even more ancient traditions and associations, Diodorus Siculus, 6 in the first century before the Christian era, wrote of a great Atlantic island, probably Madeira, which the 4 Edrisi's "Geography," in two versions, the first based on two, the second on four manuscripts, viz.: (i) P. A. Jaubert (translator): Geographic d'Edrisi, traduite de 1'Arabe en Francais, 2 vols. (Recueil de Voyages et de Memoires public par la Society de Geographic, Vols. 5 and 6), Paris, 1836 and 1840; reference in Vol. I, p. 201; (2) R. Dozy et M. J. De Goeje (translators): Description de 1'Afrique et de L'Espagne par Edrisi: Texte arabe public pour la premiere fois d'aprds les man. de Paris et d 'Oxford, Leiden, 1866, pp. 63-64. 5 [E. F.] Jomard: Les monuments de la geographic, ou recueil d'anciennes cartes europeennes et orientales .... Paris, [1842-62], PI. X, I. Also W. H. Babcock: Early Norse Visits to North America, Smithsonian Misc. Colls,, Vol. 59, No. 19, Washington, D. C., 1913, Pis. i and 2. The Historical Library of Diodorus the Sicilian, in 15 Books: to which are added the fragments of Diodorus, and those published by H. Valesius, I. Rhodo- mannus, and F. Ursinus, transl. by G. Booth, Esq., 2 vols., London, 1814; reference in Vol. i, Bk. 5, Ch. 2, pp. 308-309.
