Well, in the Medieval times, scientific research wasn't performed, like, at all.
Also, the Medieval bestiaries weren't only supposed to give factual information, but moral lessons as well...
[QUOTE=Dbuhos;20799759][IMG]http://bestiary.ca/beastimage/img4995.jpg[/IMG]
[I]As young pelicans grow, they begin to strike their parents in the face with their beaks. Though the pelican has great love for its young, it strikes back and kills them. After three days, the mother pierces her side or her breast and lets her blood fall on the dead birds, and thus revives them. Some say it is the male pelican that kills the young and revives them with his blood.
Pelicans live in Egypt. There are two kinds: one kind lives on water and eats poisonous animals like crocodiles and lizards; the other kind, with a long neck and beak, makes a sound like an ass when it drinks (this kind is called the onocrotalus). Some say that the two kinds are distinguished by other attributes: the kind that live in water eat fish, while the kind that live on islands eat dirty animals. The pelican has an insatiable hunger, and because its stomach cannot hold food for long, everything it eats is immediately digested.[/I]
Seriously, what the fuck.[/QUOTE]
That is one badass bird.
[IMG]http://bestiary.ca/beastimage/img8107.jpg[/IMG]
[QUOTE][b]Ant-lion[/b]
Latin name: Myrmecoleon
Other names: Formicaleon, Formicaleun, Mirmicioleon
The offspring of an ant and a lion, or the lion of ants[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE][b]General Attributes[/b]
There are two interpretations of what an ant-lion is. In one version, the ant-lion is so called because it is the "lion of ants," a large ant or small animal that hides in the dust and kills ants. In the other version, it is a beast that is the result of a mating between a lion and an ant. It has the face of a lion and and the body of an ant, with each part having its appropriate nature. Because the lion part will only eat meat and the ant part can only digest grain, the ant-lion starves.
The ant-lion story may come from a mistranslation of a word in the Septuagint version of the biblical Old Testament, from the book of Job (4:11). The word in Hebrew is lajisch, an uncommon word for lion, which in other translations of Job is rendered as either lion or tiger; in the Spetuagint it is translated as mermecolion, ant-lion.[/QUOTE]
:ms:
[QUOTE=TheBrokenHobo;20802676][IMG]http://bestiary.ca/beastimage/img8107.jpg[/IMG]
:ms:[/QUOTE]
Watch out for the antlions, Mr. Freeman!
[QUOTE=Zeke129;20800767]The cock is a bird that can tell time
[editline]03:16PM[/editline]
[url=http://bestiary.ca/beasts/beast251.htm]It's amazing how terrifying they make the raven seem.[/url]
[editline]03:17PM[/editline]
What the christ[/QUOTE]
I want THAT Raven as a pet
You're not kidding about Pliny the Elder being a bullshitter:
Pliny the Elder [1st century CE] (Natural History, Book 11, 36): Ants are blah blah yeah whatever... [b]In the Dardae region of Indian are ants colored like cats but the size of Egyptian wolves, that carry gold out of caves in the earth. This gold, which is dug out in the winter, the Indians steal in the summer when the ants stay in their burrows because of the heat; but even then the the ants are ferocious in defence of their gold, flying out and stinging the men even as they retreat on fast camels.[/b]
SyFy should make a movie based on that.
I want to go back in time and slap that guy in the face.
A time of such scientific prowess...
[editline]06:34PM[/editline]
[img]http://bestiary.ca/beastimage/img4534.jpg[/img]
Hyena
A beast that eats human corpses and changes sex.
At least he didn't say "A beast that sexes human corpses and eats change" which is what Pliny the Elder would have wrote.
Oh wait, I'm being too hard on him. Here's what he actually wrote: "Any animal that a hyena looks at three times will be unable to move."
[U][B]Panther[/B][/U]
The panther is a gentle beast; only the [URL="http://bestiary.ca/beasts/beast262.htm"]dragon[/URL] is its enemy. It is a beautiful, multicolored animal; its coat is spotted with white or black disks. After the panther has feasted, it goes into a cave and sleeps for three days. When it wakes up it gives a loud roar, and while it is roaring a sweet odor comes out of its mouth. Any animal that hears the roar follows the sweet smell to reach the panther. Only the dragon stays away, hiding in a hole because it is afraid of the panther. The female panther can only give birth once, because the young in her womb tear at her with their claws, wounding her so that she can no longer conceive.
Here's what Old Man Pliny has to say about them:
[I]"Panthers are light-colored but have small spots like eyes. Their wonderful smell attracts all four-footed creatures, but the savagery of their heads frightens the creatures away. Therefore, to catch prey, panthers hide their heads as their smell attracts the prey animals within reach. Some people say that panthers have a mark on their[/I] [I]shoulder that resembles a crescent moon. Panthers occur most frequently in Africa and Syria."[/I]
[IMG]http://bestiary.ca/beastimage/img2134.jpg[/IMG]
Panthers are friends of everybody (except dragons) and they smell good.
[QUOTE=DR.QUAD QUE;20806703]Beastiality?[/QUOTE]
[img]http://www.facepunch.com/image.php?u=265177&dateline=1266195994[/img]
Yeah you would like that
Can one of you in here please tell me what the hell a "Will-O-The-Wisp" is? How did it get such a name, also?
[img]http://fantasycreaturesdb.com/images/spirit-will-001.jpg[/img]
[i]As seen in Oblivion[/i]
Well, it's quite obvious the medieval authors most probably wrote about animals without seeing them even once. :v:
[QUOTE=darkheadcrab;20816225]Can one of you in here please tell me what the hell a "Will-O-The-Wisp" is? How did it get such a name, also?
[i]As seen in Oblivion[/i][/QUOTE]
Swamp gas.
[B][U]Barnacle Goose...[/U][/B]
[QUOTE]
Barnacle geese (Geeze...) come from trees that grow over water. These trees produce birds that look like small geese; the young birds hang from their beaks from the trees. When the birds are mature enough, they fall from the trees; any that fall into the water float and are safe, but those that fall on land die.
[/QUOTE]
[IMG]http://bestiary.ca/beastimage/img4465.jpg[/IMG]
My grandmother makes often marmelade of them.
Holy shit this is gold
[QUOTE=Halahazam;20819504][B][U]Barnacle Goose...[/U][/B]
[IMG]http://bestiary.ca/beastimage/img4465.jpg[/IMG]
My grandmother makes often marmelade of them.[/QUOTE]
lol, reminds me of the cartoons in [i]Monty Python[/i] :v:
[IMG]http://bestiary.ca/beastimage/img4951.jpg[/IMG]
[QUOTE]Crocodile
Latin name: Crocodilus
Other names: Cocatris, Cocodrille, Cocodrillus, Coquatrix, Corchodrillus
A beast that weeps after eating a man[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE]The crocodile is a four-footed beast, about twenty cubits long, that is born in the Nile River. Its skin is very hard, so that it is not hurt when struck by stones. It spends the day on land and the night in the water. It is armed with cruel teeth and claws; it is the only animal that can move the upper part of its jaw while keeping the lower part still. Its dung can be used to enhance a person's beauty: [B]the excrement (or the contents of the intestines) is smeared on the face and left there until sweat washes it off[/B]. Crocodiles [B]always weep after eating a man[/B]. Despite the hardness of the crocodile's skin, there are two animals that can kill it. The sawfish (serra) can cut the crocodile's stomach, and [B]the hydrus can crawl into the crocodile's mouth and kill it from the inside[/B].[/QUOTE]
:wtc:
[editline]10:46PM[/editline]
[QUOTE]Sources:
Pliny the Elder[/QUOTE]
That explains it.
[quote=madman_andre;20798344]it came a brick. :v:[/quote]
kkkkkkkkkkkidney stone!!!!!
[url=http://bestiary.ca/beasts/beast284.htm][img]http://i42.tinypic.com/wrf2iv.jpg[/img][/url]
That looks like a pretty bad ass dolphin to me.
[quote]Dolphins are the swiftest creature in the sea. They can fly over ships that attack them. They follow the sound of human voices, and gather together in crowds to sing at the sound of music. When dolphins play and leap in strong waves they seem to forecast storms. There is a kind of dolphin in the Nile that has a serrated back, which kills crocodiles by cutting into the soft parts of the belly.[/quote]
Testicles growing form the chin, awesome !
He-goat, and the masters of the universe!
[img]http://bestiary.ca/beastimage/img4965.jpg[/img]
General Attributes
The he-goat is a lascivious beast, known for its lusty nature. This nature makes the he-goat so hot that its blood can disolve diamond, a stone neither fire nor iron can harm.
[QUOTE=joost1120;20835214][IMG]http://bestiary.ca/beastimage/img4438.jpg[/IMG]
?![/QUOTE]
The text in the image says it's a crocodile eating a hydrus
Well those were like the two words I was able to make out due to the font. Cocodrillus and hydrus.
Who came up with the bright idea of making every letter in the alphabet look like one or multiple vertical bars
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