Several legends are attached to the Wood-pecker. Amongst others there is an idea that the root of the Peony is good for epilepsy, but should a Wood-pecker be in sight when the patient tastes it he would be forthwith struck blind! In Piedmont there is a little plant called the Herb of the Blessed Mary, which is fatal to birds, and there it is said that when young wild birds are caught and caged their parents bring them a sprig of it, that death rather than imprisonment may be their lot. De Gubernatis speaks of an oriental bird of greater resource, the _Paperone_, for when _his_ little ones are imprisoned he seeks and brings a root which breaks the iron bars and releases them. Parkinson tells of an Indian herb which “cast to the birds causeth as many as take it to fall downe to the ground as being stoned for a time, but if any take it too greedily it will kill them, if they bee not helped by cold water put on their heads, but Dawes above all other birds are soonest kild thereby.” There is a suggestion of comedy in this picture of a seventeenth century herbalist in a foreign land pouring cold water on the heads of wild birds.
“The raven, when he hath killed the chameleon, and yet perceiving he is hurt and poisoned by him, flyeth for remedy to the Laurell,” which “represseth and extinguisheth the venom,” says Pliny.[106] The elephant, under the same circumstances, recovers himself by eating “wild Olive, the only remedy he hath of this poison.... The storke, feeling himself amisse, goeth to the herbe Organ for remedy,” and Parkinson quotes Antigonas as saying that ring-doves cured their wounds with the same plant. Stock-doves, jays, merles, blackbirds and ousels recover “their appetite to meate,” by eating bay leaves; and ducks, geese and other waterfowl seek endive or chicory. Of course, chickweed and goosegrass have gained their names as the result of similar observations, more modern, and possibly more accurate. Elder-berries are eaten by birds, but they are said to have serious effects on chickens.
Lizards cure themselves of the biting of serpents with calaminth, and the tortoise cautiously eats a “kind of sauorie or marjerome” before the battle. Sir Francis Bacon mentions that, “the snake loveth fennel; that the toad will be much under sage; that frogs will be in cinquefoil”; though he unromantically doubts that the virtue of these herbs is the cause of these preferences. Turner also remarks on the toad’s liking for sage, and says: “Rue is good to be planted among Sage, to prevent the poison which may be in it by toads frequenting amongst it, but Rue being amongst it they will not come near it.” A toad recovers itself by means of the plantain from the poison of the spider, and Bullein[107] tells us of the frog’s fondness for the _Scabiosa_, under whose leaves they will “shadow themselves from the heate of the daie, poppyng and plaiying under these leaves, which to them is a pleasant Tent or Pavillion.” The reputed venom of toads was sometimes said to be sucked from camomile, of all plants!