Didjaknow T.H. White’s “The Book of Beasts” is a translation from a twelfth century Latin Bestiary? Strange animals and birds are described therein by those who contributed to the bestiary at that time. One Dr. Ansel Robins describes the unicorns, “which can only be captured by making them run their horns into trees, behind which the huntsman has dodged.” Also described are “Antalops, with saw like horns by which they can cut down large trees.” Field studies were then, as they are now, hard to prove.
Birds are given considerable attention in the Bestiary; most particularly bird migration is wondered about, several explanations being offered. One suggests, regarding swallows, that in off season, they fly to the moon. Another expert of the day states, “Swallows certainly sleep all winter. A number of them conglobulate together, by flying round and round, and then all in a heap throw themselves under water, and lie in the bed of a river.”
Of course we do know differently now, science has so much improved, what with banding and radio collars; robot watchers for the ivory billed wood peckers, and so forth … or do we?