Judging by the bestiary texts I have readily available, the reference
to "ducks" might have behind it the fairly standard description of
the ibis, which is characterized as keeping to the shallow shorelines
of lakes and rivers, where it eats dead fish and carrion, and its
pleasure in doing so prevents it from seeking the deep waters, where
healthy fish can be found. The moralization of this likens the water
to the celestial waters, into which one should penetrate deeply to
seek spiritual nourishment. Avoiding the deep waters, one grows fat
on repugnant carrion, which is likened morally to fornication,
luxury, drunkenness and cupidity. Both the bestairies of Pierre de
Beauvais and Guillaume le Clerc de Normandie have similar accounts.
Ostriches are also mentioned in both, but it is doubtful that they
formed the source of your imagery. Apart from noting that their
wings are distinctive, they make no further mention of this, nor do
they moralize it negatively. In fact, Guillaume le Clerc, focuses
more on its propensity to observe the stars to determine the right
time of year to bear its young, and likens the ostrich to the wise
man of saintly life, who abandons terrestrial things and attaches
himself to the heavens. Brunetto Latini, in his Livre du Tresor,
goes a bit further with the wings, saying that the ostrich cannot
fly, for its proper nature is to be heavy and lumbering, a nature
that renders it so profoundly forgetful that it doesn't remember past
things. But Latini is not so interested in moralization, and takes
this line no further.
Just in passing, none of the bestiary texts I have looked at include
cats.
Cheers,
Jim Bugslag
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