Translated by H.Rackham (1952), with some minor alterations. Click on the L symbols to go to the Latin text of each chapter.
← Book 9
{1.} L [1] The next subject is the Nature of Birds. Of these the largest species, which almost belongs to the class of animals, the ostrich of Africa or Ethiopia exceeds the height and surpasses the speed of a mounted horseman, its wings being bestowed upon it merely as an assistance in running, but otherwise it is not a flying creature and does not rise from the earth. It has talons resembling a stag's hooves, which it uses as weapons ; they are cloven in two, and are useful for grasping stones which when in flight it flings with its feet against its pursuers. [2] Its capacity for digesting the objects that it swallows down indiscriminately is remarkable, but not less so is its stupidity in thinking that it is concealed when it has hidden its neck among bushes, in spite of the great height of the rest of its body. The eggs of the ostrich are extremely remarkable for their size ; some people use them as vessels, and the feathers for adorning the crests and helmets of warriors.
{2.} L [3] They say that Ethiopia and the Indians possess birds extremely variegated in colour and indescribable, and that Arabia has one that is famous before all others (though perhaps it is fabulous), the phoenix, the only one in the whole world and hardly ever seen. The story is that it is as large as an eagle, and has a gleam of gold round its neck and all the rest of it is purple, but the tail blue picked out with rose-coloured feathers and the throat picked out with tufts, and a feathered crest adorning its head. [4] The first and the most detailed Roman account of it was given by Manilius, the eminent senator famed for his extreme and varied learning acquired without a teacher : he stated that nobody has ever existed that has seen one feeding, that in Arabia it is sacred to the Sun-god, that it lives 540 years, that when it is growing old it constructs a nest with sprigs of wild cinnamon and frankincense, fills it with scents and lies on it till it dies ; that subsequently from its bones and marrow is born first a sort of maggot, and this grows into a chicken, and that this begins by paying due funeral rites to the former bird and carrying the whole nest down to the City of the Sun near Panchaia and depositing it upon an altar there. [5] Manilius also states that the period of the Great Year coincides with the life of this bird, and that the same indications of the seasons and stars return again, and that this begins about noon on the day on which the sun enters the sign of Aries, and that the year of this period had been 215, as reported by him, in the consulship of Publius Licinius and Gnaeus Cornelius { 97 B.C. }. Cornelius Valerianus reports that a phoenix flew down into Egypt in the consulship of Quintus Plautius and Sextus Papinius { 36 A.D. }; it was even brought to Rome in the censorship of the Emperor Claudius, A.U.C. 800 { 47 A.D. }, and displayed in the comitium, a fact attested by the Acta, although nobody would doubt that this phoenix was a fabrication.
{3.} L [6] Of the birds known to us the eagle is the most honourable and also the strongest. Of eagles there are six kinds. The one called by the Greeks the black eagle, and also the hare-eagle, is smallest in size and of outstanding strength ; it is of a blackish colour. It is the only eagle that rears its own young, whereas all the others, as we shall describe, drive them away ; and it is the only one that has no scream or cry. Its haunt is in the mountains. [7] To the second kind belongs the white-rump eagle found in towns and in level country ; it has a whitish tail. To the third the morphnos, which Homer also calls the dusky eagle, and some the plangos and also the duck-eagle ; it is second in size and strength, and it lives in the neighbourhood of lakes. Phemonoe, who was styled Daughter of Apollo, has stated that it possesses teeth, but that it is mute and voiceless ; also that it is the darkest of the eagles in colour, and has an exceptionally prominent tail. Boethus also agrees. It has a clever device for breaking tortoise-shells that it has carried off, by dropping them from a height ; this accident caused the death of the poet Aeschylus, who was trying to avoid a disaster of this nature that had been foretold by the fates, as the story goes, by trustfully relying on the open sky. [8] Next, the fourth class comprises the hawk-eagle, also called the mountain stork, which resembles a vulture in having very small wings but exceeds it in the size of its other parts, and yet is unwarlike and degenerate, as it allows a crow to flog it. It is always ravenously greedy, and keeps up a plaintive screaming. It is the only eagle that carries away the dead bodies of its prey ; all the others after killing alight on the spot. This species causes the fifth kind to be called the 'true eagle,' as being the genuine kind and the only pure-bred one ; it is of medium size and dull reddish colour, and it is rarely seen. There remains the osprey, which has very keen eye-sight, and which hovers at a great height and when it sees a fish In the sea drops on it with a swoop and cleaving the water with its breast catches it. [9] The species that we made the third hunts round marshes for waterbirds, which at once dive, till they become drowsy and exhausted, when it catches them. The duel is worth watching, the bird making for refuge on the shore, especially if there is a dense reed-bed, and the eagle driving it away from the shore with a blow of its wing ; and when it is hunting its quarry in a lake, soaring and showing its shadow to the bird swimming under water away from the shore, so that the bird turns back again and comes to the surface at a place where it thinks it is least expected. This is the reason why birds swim in flocks, because several are not attacked at the same time, since they blind the enemy by splashing him with their wings. Often even the eagles themselves cannot carry the weight of their catch and are drowned with it. [10] The sea-eagle only compels its still unfledged chicks by beating them to gaze full at the rays of the sun, and if it notices one blinking and with its eyes watering flings it out of the nest as a bastard and not true to stock, whereas one whose gaze stands firm against the light it rears. [11] Sea-eagles have no breed of their own but are born from cross-breeding with other eagles ; but the offspring of a pair of sea-eagles belongs to the osprey genus, from which spring the smaller vultures, and from these the great vultures which do not breed at all. Some people add a species of eagle which they call the bearded eagle, but which the Tuscans call an ossifrage.
{4.} L [12] The three first and the fifth kinds of eagle have the stone called eagle-stone (named by some gagites) built into their nests, which is useful for many cures, and loses none of its virtue by fire. The stone in question is big with another inside it, which rattles as if in a jar when you shake it. But only those taken from a nest possess the medicinal power referred to. [13] They build their nests in rocks and trees, and lay as many as three eggs at a time, but they shut out two chicks of the brood, and have been seen on occasion to eject even three. They drive out the other chick when they are tired of feeding it : indeed at this period nature has denied food to the parent birds themselves as a precaution, so that the young of all the wild animals should not be plundered ; also during those days the birds' talons turn inward, and their feathers grow white from want of food, so that with good reason they hate their own offspring. But the chicks thrown out by these birds are received by the kindred breed, the bearded eagles, who rear them with their own. [14] However the parent bird pursues them even when grown up, and drives them far away, doubtless because they are competitors in the chase. And apart from this a single pair of eagles in order to get enough food requires a large tract of country to hunt over; consequently they mark out districts, and do not poach on their neighbours' preserves. When they have made a catch they do not carry it off at once, but first lay it on the ground, and only fly away with it after first testing its weight. [15] They meet their end not from old age nor sickness but from hunger, as their upper mandible grows to such a size that it is too hooked for them to be able to open it. They get busy and fly in the afternoon, but in the earlier hours of the day they perch quite idle till the market-places fill with a gathering of people. If eagles' feathers have the feathers of any other birds mixed with them, they swallow them up. It is stated that this is the only bird that is never killed by a thunderbolt ; this is why custom has deemed the eagle to be Jupiter's armour-bearer.
{5.} L [16] The eagle was assigned to the Roman legions as their special badge by Gaius Marius in his second consulship { 104 B.C. }. Even previously it had been their first badge, with four others, wolves, minotaurs, horses and boars going in front of the respective ranks ; but a few years before the custom had come in of carrying the eagles alone into action, the rest being left behind in camp. Marius discarded them altogether. Thenceforward it was noticed that there was scarcely ever a legion's winter camp without a pair of eagles being in the neighbourhood.
[17] The first and second kinds not only carry off the stags and smaller four-footed animals but actually do battle with stags. The eagle collects a quantity of dust by rolling in it, and perching on the stag's horns shakes it off into its eyes, striking its head with its wings, until it brings it down on to the rocks. Nor is it content with one foe : it has a fiercer battle with a great serpent, and one that is of much more doubtful issue, even though it is in the air. The serpent with mischievous greed tries to get the eagle's eggs ; consequently the eagle carries it off wherever seen. The serpent fetters its wings by twining itself round them in manifold coils so closely that it falls to the ground itself with the snake.
{6.} L [18] At the city of Sestos the fame of an eagle is celebrated, the story being that it was reared by a maiden and that it repaid its gratitude by bringing to her first birds and soon afterwards big game, and when finally she died it threw itself upon her lighted pyre and was burnt with her. On account of this the inhabitants made what is called a heroön in that place, which is named the Shrine of Jupiter and the Maiden, because the bird is assigned to that deity.
{7.} L [19] Of vultures the black are the strongest. No one has ever reached their nests, and consequently there have actually been persons who have thought that they fly here from the opposite side of the globe. This is a mistake : they make their nests on extremely lofty crags. Their chicks indeed are often seen, usually in pairs. The most learned augur of our age, Umbricius, states that they lay thirteen eggs, but use one of them for cleaning the remaining eggs and the nest and then throw it away ; but that three days before they lay the eggs they fly to some place where there will be dead bodies.
{8.} L [20] There is great question among the Roman augurs about the sanqualis and the immusulus. Some think that the immusulus is the chick of the vulture and the sanqualis of the bearded vulture. Masurius says that the sanqualis is a bearded vulture and the immusulus an eagle's chick before its tail turns white. Some persons have asserted that they have not been seen at Rome since the time of the augur Mucius, but for my own part I think it more probable that in the general slackness that prevails they have not been recognised.
{9.} L [21] Of hawks we find sixteen kinds, and among these the aegithus, which when lame in one foot is of very fortunate omen for marriage contracts and for property in cattle, and the triorchis, named from the number of its testicles, the bird to which Phemonoe gave primacy among auguries. The Roman name for it is buteo, which is also the surname of a family, assumed because one perched on an admiral's ship with good omen. The Greeks give the name of merlin to the only species that appears at every season, whereas all the others go away in winter. [22] The varieties of hawks are distinguished by their appetite for food : some only snatch a bird off the ground, others only one fluttering round a tree, others one that perches high in the branches, others one flying in the open. Consequently even the doves know the risks that they run from hawks, and when they see one they alight, or else fly upward, safeguarding themselves by going counter to the hawk's nature. The hawks of the whole of Masaesylia lay their eggs on the ground in Cerne, an island of Africa in the Ocean, and they do not breed elsewhere, as they are accustomed to the natives of that island.
{10.} [23] In the district of Thrace inland from Amphipolis men and hawks have a sort of partnership for fowling : the men put up the birds from woods and reed-beds and the hawks flying overhead drive them down again ; the fowlers share the bag with the hawks. It is reported that when the birds have been put up the hawks intercept them in the air, and when it is time for a catch invite the sportsmen to take the opportunity by their screaming and their way of flying. Wolf-fish at the Maeotic Marsh act somewhat in the same way, for unless they get their share from fishermen they tear their nets when spread.
[24] Hawks do not eat the hearts of birds. The night hawk is called cybindis ; it is rare even in forests, and cannot see very well in the daytime. It wages war to the death with the eagle, and they are often taken clinging together in each other's clutches.
{11.} L [25] The cuckoo seems to be made by changing its shape out of a hawk at a certain season of the year, as the rest of the hawks do not appear then, except on a very few days, and the cuckoo itself also after being seen for a moderate period of the summer is not observed afterwards. But the cuckoo is alone among the hawks in not having crooked talons, and also it is not like the other hawks in the head or in anything else but colour : it rather has the general appearance of the pigeon. Moreover a hawk will eat a cuckoo, if ever both have appeared at the same time : the cuckoo is the only one of all the birds that is killed by its own kind. [26] And it also changes its voice. It comes out in the spring and goes into hiding at the rising of the dog-star, between which dates it lays its eggs in the nests of other birds, usually wood-pigeons, for the most part one egg at a time, as does no other bird ; it seldom lays two. Its reason for foisting its chicks on other birds is supposed to be that it knows itself to be hated by the whole of the birds, for even the very small birds attack it; consequently it thinks that a progeny will not be secured for its race unless it has escaped notice, for which reason it makes no nest ; it is a timid creature in general. Therefore the brooding hen in the nest thus cuckolded rears the changeling. [27] The young cuckoo being by nature greedy snatches the bits of food away from the rest of the chicks, and so gets fat and attracts the mother bird to itself by its sleek appearance. She delights in its beauty and admires herself for having borne such a child, while in comparison with it she convicts her own chicks of not belonging to her, and lets them be eaten up even under her own eyes, until finally the cuckoo, now able to fly, seizes the mother bird herself as well. At this stage no sort of bird will compare with a young cuckoo for savoury flavour.
{12.} L [28] Kites belong to the same genus as hawks but differ in size. It has been noticed in regard to this species that though a most rapacious bird and always hungry it never steals any edible from the oblations at funerals nor from the altar at Olympia and not even out of the hands of the people bringing the offsprings except with a gloomy portent for the slaves performing the sacrifice. Also it seems that this bird by its manipulation of its tail taught the art of steering boats, nature demonstrating in the sky what was required in the deep. Kites themselves also are not seen in the winter months, though not departing before the swallow ; it is reported however that they suffer from gout even from midsummer onward.
{13.} L [29] The primary distinction between birds is established especially by the feet ; for either they have hooked talons or claws or they are in the web-footed class like geese and water-fowl generally. If they have hooked talons they live for the most part only on flesh ; {14.} L [30] though crows eat other food as well, as if a nut is so hard that it resists their beak they fly up aloft and drop it two or more times on to rocks or roof-tiles, till it is cracked and they can break it open. The bird itself has a persistent croak that is unlucky, although some people speak well of it. It is noticed that from the rising of Arcturus to the arrival of the swallows it is rarely seen in groves and temples of Minerva and never at all elsewhere, as is the case at Athens ; it is most unlucky at its breeding season, that is, after midsummer. Moreover this bird alone continues feeding its chicks for some time even when they can fly ; {15.} L [31] whereas all the other birds of the same class drive their chicks out of the nests and compel them to fly, as also do ravens. These not only feed on flesh themselves too, but also drive away their chicks when strong to a considerable distance. Consequently in small villages there are not more than two pairs of ravens, and in fact in the neighbourhood of Crannon in Thessaly there is one pair permanently in each place ; the parents retire to make room for their offspring.
[32] There are certain points of difference between this bird and the one mentioned above. Ravens breed before midsummer, also they have 60 days of ill-health, principally owing to thirst, before the figs ripen in the autumn ; whereas the crow is seized with sickness from that day onward.
Ravens produce broods of five at most. There is a popular belief that they lay eggs, or else mate, with the beak (and that consequently if women with child eat a raven's egg they bear the infant through the mouth, and that altogether they have a difficult delivery if raven's eggs are brought into the house) ; but Aristotle says that this is not true of the raven, any more indeed than it is of the ibis in Egypt, but that the billing in question (which is often noticed) is a form of kissing, like that which takes place between pigeons. [33] Ravens seem to be the only birds that have an understanding of the meanings that they convey in auspices ; for when the guests of Medus were murdered, all the ravens in the Peloponnese and Attica flew away. It is a specially bad omen when they gulp down their croak as if they were choking.
{16.} L [34] Night birds also have hooked talons, for instance the little owl, the eagle-owl and the screech-owl. All of these are dim-sighted in the daytime. The eagle-owl is a funereal bird, and is regarded as an extremely bad omen, especially at public auspices ; it inhabits deserts and places that are not merely unfrequented but terrifying and inaccessible ; a weird creature of the night, its cry is not a musical note but a scream. [35] Consequently when seen in cities or by daylight in any circumstances it is a direful portent ; but I know several cases of its having perched on the houses of private persons without fatal consequences. It never flies in the direction where it wants to go, but travels slantwise out of its course. In the consulship of Sextus Palpellius Hister and Lucius Pedanius { 43 A.D. } an eagle-owl entered the very shrine of the Capitol, on account of which a purification of the city was held on March 7th in that year.
{17.} L [36] There is also a bird of ill-omen called the fire-bird, on account of which we find in the annals that the city has often had a ritual purification, for instance in the consulship of Lucius Cassius and Gaius Marius { 107 B.C. }, in which year the appearance of an eagle-owl also occasioned a purification. What this bird was I cannot discover, and it is not recorded. Some persons give this interpretation, that the fire-bird was any bird that was seen carrying a coal from an altar or altar-table ; others call it a 'spinturnix,' but I have not found anybody who professes to know what particular species of bird that is. [37] I also notice that the bird named by the ancients 'clivia' is unidentified - some call it 'screech-owl,' Labeo 'warning owl' ; and moreover a bird is cited in Nigidius that breaks eagles' eggs. There are besides a number of kinds described in Etruscan lore that have not been seen for generations, though it is surprising that they should have now become extinct when even kinds that are ravaged by man's greed continue plentiful.
{18.} L [38] On the subject of the auguries of foreign races the writings of an author named Hylas are deemed to be the most learned. He states that the night-owl, eagle-owl, woodpecker, trygona and raven come out of the egg tail first, because the eggs are turned the wrong way up by the weight of the heads and present the hinder part of the chicks' bodies to the mother to cherish.
{19.} L [39] Night-owls wage a crafty battle against other birds. When surrounded by a crowd that outnumbers them they lie on their backs and defend themselves with their feet, and bunching themselves up close are entirely protected by their beak and claws. Through a kind of natural alliance the hawk comes to their aid and takes part in the war. Nigidius relates that night-owls hibernate for 60 days every winter, and that they have nine cries.
{20.} L [40] There are also small birds with hooked claws, for instance the variety of woodpeckers called Birds of Mars that are important in taking auguries. In this class are the tree-hollowing woodpeckers that climb nearly straight upright in the manner of cats, but also the others that cling upside down, which know by the sound of the bark when they strike it that there is fodder underneath it. They are the only birds that rear their chicks in holes. There is a common belief that when wedges are driven into their holes by a shepherd the birds by applying a kind of grass make them slip out again. Trebius states that if you drive a nail or wedge with as much force as you like into a tree in which a woodpecker has a nest, when the bird perches on it it at once springs out again with a creak of the tree. [41] Woodpeckers themselves have been of the first importance among auguries in Latium from the time of the king { Picus } who gave his name to this bird. One presage of theirs I cannot pass over. When Aelius Tubero, City Praetor, was giving judgements from the bench in the forum, a woodpecker perched on his head so fearlessly that he was able to catch it in his hand. In reply to enquiry the seers declared that disaster was portended to the empire if the bird were released, but to the praetor if it were killed. Tubero however at once tore the bird in pieces ; and not long afterwards he fulfilled the portent.
{21.} L [42] Many birds in this class feed also on acorns and fruit, but those that eat only flesh do not drink, excepting the kite, and for a kite to drink counts in itself as a direful A CLASS="help" HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augury">augury. The birds having talons never live in flocks, and each hunts for itself. But they almost all except the night-birds among them fly high, and the bigger ones higher. All have large wings and a small body. They walk with difficulty. They rarely perch on rocks, as the curve of their talons prohibits this.
{22.} L [43] Now let us speak about the second class, which is divided into two kinds, song-birds and plumage-birds. The former kind are distinguished by their song and the latter by their size ; so the latter shall come first in order also, and among them before all the rest will come the peacock class, both because of its beauty and because of its consciousness of and pride in it. When praised it spreads out its jewelled colours directly facing the sun, because in that way they gleam more brilliantly ; and at the same time by curving its tail like a shell it contrives as it were reflexions of shadow for the rest of its colours, which actually shine more brightly in the dark, and it draws together into a cluster all the eyes of its feathers, as it delights in having them looked at. [44] Moreover when it moults its tail feathers every year with the fall of the leaves, it seeks in shame and sorrow for a place of concealment until others are born again with the spring flowers. It lives for 25 years, but it begins to shed its colours at the age of three. The authorities relate that this creature is not only ostentatious but also spiteful, just as the goose is said to be modest - since some writers have added these characteristics also in that species, though I do not accept them.
{23.} L [45] The first person at Rome to kill a peacock for the table was the orator Hortensius, at the inaugural banquet of his priesthood. Fattening peacocks was first instituted about the time of the last pirate war { 67 B.C. } by Marcus Aufidius Lurco, and he made 60,000 sestertii profit from this trade.
{24.} L [46] Nearly equally proud and self-conscious are also our Roman night-watchmen, a breed designed by nature for the purpose of awakening mortals for their labours and interrupting sleep. They are skilled astronomers, and they mark every three-hour period in the daytime with song, go to bed with the sun, and at the fourth camp-watch recall us to our business and our labour and do not allow the sunrise to creep upon us unawares, but herald the coming day with song, while they herald that song itself with a flapping of their wings against their sides. [47] They lord it over their own race, and exercise royal sway in whatever household they live. This sovereignty they win by duelling with one another, seeming to understand that weapons grow upon their legs for this purpose, and often the fight only ends when they die together. If they win the palm, they at once sing a song of victory and proclaim themselves the champions, while the one defeated hides in silence and with difficulty endures servitude. Yet even the common herd struts no less proudly, with uplifted neck and combs held high, and alone of birds casts frequent glances at the sky, also rearing its curved tail aloft. Consequently even the lion, the noblest of wild animals, is afraid of the cock. [48] Moreover some cocks are born solely for constant wars and battles - by which they have even conferred fame on their native places, Rhodes or Tanagra ; the fighting cocks of Melos and Chalcidice have been awarded second honours - so that the Roman purple confers its high honour on a bird full worthy of it. [49] These are the birds that give the Most-Favourable Omens { tripudia solistima }; these birds daily control our officers of state, and shut or open to them their own homes ; these send forward or hold back the Roman rods of office, and order or forbid battle formation, being the auspices of all our victories won all over the world ; these hold supreme empire over the empire of the world, being as acceptable to the gods with even their inward parts and vitals as are the costliest victims. Even their later and their evening songs contain portents ; for by crowing all the nights long they presaged to the Boeotians that famous victory against the Spartans, conjecture thus interpreting the sign because this bird when conquered does not crow.
{25.} L [50] Cocks when gelt stop crowing; the operation is performed in two ways - by searing with a glowing iron either the loins or the bottom parts of the legs, and then smearing the wound with potter's clay. This operation makes them easier to fatten. At Pergamum every year a public show is given of cocks fighting like gladiators. It is found in the Annals that in the consulship of Marcus Lepidus and Quintus Catulus { 78 B.C. }, at the country house of Galerius in the Ariminum district, a farmyard cock spoke - the only occasion, so far as I know, on which this has occurred.
{26.} L [51] The goose also keeps a careful watch, as is evidenced by its defence of the Capitol during the time when our fortunes were being betrayed by the silence of the dogs ; for which reason food for the geese is one of the first contracts arranged by the censors. Moreover there is the story of the goose at Aegium that fell in love with the supremely beautiful boy Amphilochus of Olenus, and also the goose that loved ē, the girl that played the harp for King Ptolemy, whom at the same time also a ram is said to have fallen in love with. These birds may possibly be thought also to possess the power of understanding wisdom : thus there is a story that a goose attached itself continually as a companion to the philosopher Lacydes, never leaving his side by night or day, either in public or at the baths.
{27.} L [52] Our countrymen are wiser, who know the goose by the excellence of its liver. Stuffing the bird with food makes the liver grow to a great size, and also when it has been removed it is made larger by being soaked in milk sweetened with honey. Not without reason is it a matter of enquiry who was the discoverer of so great a boon - was it Scipio Metellus the ex-consul, or his contemporary Marcus Seius, a Roman knight ? But it is an accepted fact that Messalinus Cotta, son of the orator Messala, invented the recipe for taking from geese the soles of the feet and grilling them and pickling them in dishes with the combs of domestic cocks ; for I will award the palm scrupulously to each man's culinary achievement. [53] A remarkable feat in the case of this bird is its coming on foot all the way to Rome from the Morini in Gaul : the geese that get tired are advanced to the front rank, and so all the rest drive them on by instinctively pressing forward in their rear.
White geese yield a second profit in their feathers. In some places they are plucked twice a year, and clothe themselves again with a feather coat. The plumage closest to the body is softer, and that from Germany is most esteemed. The geese there are a bright white, but smaller; the German word for this bird is 'ganta' ; [54] the price of their feathers is five denarii per pound. And owing to this officers in command of auxiliary troops frequently get into trouble for having sent whole cohorts away from outpost sentry duty to capture these fowls ; and luxury has advanced to such a pitch that now not even the male neck can endure to be without goose-feather bedding.
{28.} L [55] The part of Syria called Commagene has made another discovery, goose-fat mixed with cinnamon in a bronze bowl, covered with a quantity of snow and steeped in the icy mixture, to supply the famous medicine that is called after the tribe Commagenum.
{29.} L [56] To the goose kind belong the sheldrake and the barnacle-goose, the latter the most sumptuous feast that Britain knows ; both are rather smaller than the goose. The black grouse also makes a fine show with its gloss and its absolute blackness, with a touch of bright scarlet above the eyes. Another variety of these exceeds the size of vultures and also reproduces their colour, nor is there any bird except the ostrich that attains a greater weight of body, growing to such a size that it is actually caught motionless on the ground. They are a product of the Alps and the northern region. When kept in fishponds they lose their flavour, and obstinately hold their breath till they die. [57] Next to these are the birds that Spain calls tardae and Greece otides, which are condemned as an article of diet, because when the marrow is drained out of their bones a disgusting smell at once follows.
{30.} L [58] The race of Pygmies have a cessation of hostilities on the departure of the cranes that, as we have said { 7.26 }, carry o jn war with them. It is a vast distance, if one calculates it, over which they come from the eastern sea. They agree together when to start, and they fly high so as to see their route in front of them ; they choose a leader to follow, and have some of their number stationed in turns at the end of the line to shout orders and keep the flock together with their cries. [59] At night time they have sentries who hold a stone in their claws, which if drowsiness makes them drop it falls and convicts them of slackness, while the rest sleep with their head tucked under their wing, standing on either foot by turns ; but the leader keeps a lookout with neck erect and gives warning. [60] (The same birds when tamed are fond of play, and execute certain circles in a graceful swoop, even one bird at a time). It is certain that when they are going to fly across the Black Sea they first of all make for the straits between the two promontories of Criu Metopon and Carambis, and proceed to ballast themselves with sand ; and that when they have crossed the middle of the sea they throw away the pebbles out of their claws and, when they have reached the mainland, the sand out of their throats as well. Cornelius Nepos, who died in the principate of the deified Augustus, when he wrote that the practice of fattening thrushes was introduced a little before his time, added that storks were more in favour than cranes, although the latter bird is now one of those most in request, whereas nobody will touch the former.
{31.} L [61] Where exactly storks come from or where they go to has not hitherto been ascertained. There is no doubt that they come from a distance, in the same manner as do cranes, the former being winter visitors and the latter arriving in summer. When about to depart they assemble at fixed places, and forming a company, so as to prevent any of their class being left behind (unless one captured and in slavery), they withdraw as if at a date fixed in advance by law. No one has seen a band of storks departing, although it is quite clear that they are going to depart, nor do we see them arrive, but only see that they have arrived; both arrival and departure take place in the night-time, and although they fly to and fro across the country, it is thought that they have never arrived anywhere except by night. [62] There is a place in Asia called Pythonos Kōmē with a wide expanse of plains where cranes meet and babble to each other, and the one that arrives last they set upon with their claws, and so they depart ; it has been noticed that they have not frequently been seen there after the first fortnight of August. Some persons declare that storks have no tongue. They are held in such high esteem for destroying snakes that in Thessaly to kill them was a capital crime, for which the legal penalty was the same as for homicide.
{32.} L [63] Geese and swans also migrate on a similar principle, but the flight of these is seen. They travel in a pointed formation like fast galleys, so cleaving the air more easily than if they drove at it with a straight front ; while in the rear the flight stretches out in a gradually widening wedge, and presents a broad surface to the drive of a following breeze. They place their necks on the birds in front of them, and when the leaders are tired they receive them to the rear. (Storks return to the same nest. They nourish their parents' old age in their turn.) A story is told about the mournful song of swans at their death - a false story as I judge on the strength of a certain number of experiences. Swans are cannibals, and eat one another's flesh.
{33.} L [64] But this migration of birds of passage over seas and lands does not allow us to postpone the smaller breeds as well that have a similar nature. For however much the size and strength of body of the kinds above mentioned may appear to invite them to travel, [65] the quails always actually arrive before the cranes, though the quail is a small bird and when it has come to us remains on the ground more than it soars aloft ; but they too get here by flying in the same way as the cranes, not without danger to seafarers when they have come near to land : for they often perch on the sails, and they always do this at night, and sink the vessels. [66] Their route follows definite resting places. They do not fly in a south wind, doubtless because it is damp and rather heavy, yet they desire to be carried by the breeze, because of the weight of their bodies and their small strength (this is the reason for that mournful cry they give while flying, which is wrung from them by fatigue) ; consequently they fly mostly in a north wind, a landrail leading the way. The first quail approaching land is seized by a hawk ; from the place where this happens they always return and try to get an escort, and the tongue-bird, eared owl and ortolan are persuaded to make the journey with them. [67] The tongue-bird takes its name from the very long tongue that it puts out of its beak. At the start the charm of travelling lures this bird to sail on eagerly, but in the course of the flight repentance comes to it, no doubt with the fatigue ; but it does not like to return unaccompanied, and it goes on following, though never for more than one day - at the next resting place it deserts. But day after day the company find another one, left behind in a similar maimer the year before. [68] The ortolan is more persevering, and hurries on actually to complete the journey to the lands which they are seeking ; consequently it rouses up the birds in the night and reminds them of their journey. The eared owl is smaller than the eagle-owl and larger than night-owls; it has projecting feathery ears, whence its name - some give it the Latin name 'axio' ; moreover it is a bird that copies other kinds and is a hanger-on, and it performs a kind of dance. Like the night-owl it is caught without difficulty if one goes round it while its attention is fixed on somebody else. [69] If a wind blowing against them begins to hold up a flight of these birds, they pick up little stones as ballast or fill their throat with sand to steady their flight. Quails are very fond of eating poison seed, on account of which our tables have condemned them ; and moreover it is customary to spit at the sight of them as a charm against epilepsy, to which they are the only living creatures that are liable besides man.
{34.} L [70] Swallows, the only flesh-eating bird among those that have not hooked talons, also migrate in the winter months ; but they only retire to places near at hand, making for the sunny gulleys in the mountains, and they have before now been found there moulted and bare of feathers. It is said that they do not enter under the roofs of Thebes, because that city has been so often captured, nor at Bizye in Thrace on account of the crimes of Tereus. [71] A man of equestrian rank at Volaterrae, Caecina, who owned a quadriga, used to catch swallows and take them with him to Rome and despatch them to take the news of a win to his friends, as they returned to the same nest ; they had the winning colour painted on them. Also Fabius Pictor records in his Annals that when a Roman garrison was besieged by the Ligurians a swallow taken from her nestlings was brought to him for him to indicate by knots made in a thread tied to its foot how many days later help would arrive and a sortie must be made.
{35.} L [72] Blackbirds, thrushes and starlings also migrate in a similar way to neighbouring districts ; but these do not moult their plumage, and do not go into hiding, being often seen in the places where they forage for winter food. Consequently in Germany thrushes are most often seen in winter. The turtle-dove goes into hiding in a truer sense, and moults its feathers. Wood-pigeons also go into retreat, though in their case also it is not certain exactly where. [73] It is a peculiarity of the starling kind that they fly in flocks and wheel round in a sort of circular ball, all making towards the centre of the flock. The swallow is the only bird that has an extremely swift and swerving flight, owing to which it is also not liable to capture by the other kinds of birds. Also the swallow is the only bird that only feeds when on the wing.
{36.} L There is a great difference in the seasons of birds ; some stay all the year round, e.g. pigeons, some for six months, e.g. swallows, some for three months, e.g. thrushes and turtle-doves and those that migrate when they have reared their brood, such as woodpeckers and hoopoes.
{37.} L [74] Some authorities state that every year birds fly from Ethiopia to Troy and have a fight at Memnon's tomb, and consequently they call them 'Memnon's daughters.' Cremutius records having discovered that every four years they do the same things in Ethiopia round the royal palace of Memnon.
{38.} L The meleagrides in Boeotia fight in a similar manner ; this is a kind of hen belonging to Africa, hump-backed and with speckled plumage. This is the latest of the migratory birds admitted to the menu, because of its unpleasant pungent flavour ; but the Tomb of Meleager has made it famous.
{39.} L [75] There is a species called birds of Seleucis for whose arrival prayers are offered to Jupiter by the inhabitants of Mount Cadmus when locusts destroy their crops ; it is not known where they come from, nor where they go to when they depart, and they are never seen except when their protection is needed. {40.} L Also the people of Egypt invoke their ibis to guard against the arrival of snakes, and those of Elis invoke the god Myacores when a swarm of flies brings plague, the flies dying as soon as a sacrifice to this god has been performed.
{41.} L [76] But in the matter of the withdrawal of birds, it is stated that even night-owls go into retreat for a few days. It is said that this kind does not exist in the island of Crete and even that if one is imported there it dies off. For this also is a remarkable point of variety established by nature : to various places she denies various species of animals as well as of crops and shrubs. For those animals not to be born there is in the ordinary course of things, but their dying off when imported there is remarkable. What is the factor adverse to the health of a single genus that is involved, or what is the jealousy of nature that is indicated? Or what frontiers are prescribed for birds ? [77] Rhodes does not possess the eagle ; Transpadane Italy gives the name of Larius to a lake near the Alps graced with a wooded tract to which storks do not come ; and similarly jays and jackdaws - a bird whose unique fondness for stealing especially silver and gold is remarkable - though swarming in enormous numbers in the adjacent region of the Insubrians, do not come within eight miles of the lake. It is said that Mars's woodpecker is not found in the district of Tarentum. [78] The kinds of pie called chequered pies and distinguished for their long tail, though hitherto rare, have lately begun to be seen between the Apennines and Rome ; this bird has the peculiarity of moulting its feathers yearly at the time when the turnip is sown. Partridges do not fly across the frontier of Boeotia into Attica ; nor does any bird fly across the temple dedicated to Achilles on the island of the Black Sea where he is buried. In the district of Fidenae near Rome storks do not hatch chicks or make nests. But a quantity of pigeons every year fly from the sea to the district of Volaterrae. [79] Neither flies nor dogs enter the temple of Hercules in the Forum Boarium at Rome. There are many similar facts besides, which I am continually careful to omit in my account of the several kinds, to avoid being wearisome - for example Theophrastus states that even pigeons and peacocks and ravens are not indigenous in Asia, nor croaking frogs in Cyrenaica.
{42.} L [80] There is another remarkable fact about song-birds ; they usually change their colour and note with the season, and suddenly become different - which among the larger class of birds only cranes do, for these grow black in old age. The blackbird changes from black to red ; and it sings in the summer, and chirps in winter, but at midsummer is silent ; also the beak of yearling blackbirds, at all events the cocks, is turned to ivory colour. Thrushes are of a speckled colour round the neck in summer but self-coloured in winter.
{43.} L [81] Nightingales pour out a ceaseless gush of song for fifteen days and nights on end when the buds of the leaves are swelling - a bird not in the lowest variety of rank remarkable. In the first place there is so loud a voice and so persistent a supply of breath in such a tiny little body ; then there is the consummate knowledge of music in a single bird : the sound is given out with modulations, and now is drawn out into a long note with one continuous breath, now varied by managing the breath, now made staccato by checking it, or linked together by prolonging it, or carried on bv holding it back ; [82] or it is suddenly lowered, and at times sinks into a mere murmur, loud, low, bass, treble, with trills, with long notes, modulated when this seems good - soprano, mezzo, baritone ; and briefly all the devices in that tiny throat which human science has devised with all the elaborate mechanism of the flute, so that there can be no doubt that this sweetness was foretold by a convincing omen when it made music on the lips of the infant Stesichorus. And that no one may doubt its being a matter of science, the birds have several songs each, and not all the same but every bird songs of its own. [83] They compete with one another, and there is clearly an animated rivalry between them ; the loser often ends her life by dying, her breath giving out before her song. Other younger birds practise their music, and are given verses to imitate ; the pupil listens with close attention and repeats the phrase, and the two keep silence by turns : we notice improvement in the one under instruction and a sort of criticism on the part of the instructress. [84] Consequently they fetch the prices that are given for slaves, and indeed larger prices than were paid for armour-bearers in old days. I know of one bird, a white one it is true, which is nearly unprecedented, that was sold for 600,000 sestertii to be given as a present to the emperor Claudius's consort Agrippina. Frequent cases have been seen before now of nightingales that have begun to sing when ordered, and have sung in answer to an organ, as there have been found persons who could reproduce the birds' song with an indistinguishable resemblance by putting water into slanting reeds and breathing into the holes or by applying some slight check with the tongue. [85] But these exceptional and artistic trills after a fortnight gradually cease, though not in such a way that the birds could be said to be tired out or to have had enough of singing ; and later on when the heat has increased their note becomes entirely different, with no modulations or variations. Their colour also changes, and finally in winter the bird itself is not seen. Their tongues do not end in a point like those of all other birds. They lay in early spring, six eggs at most.
{44.} L [86] It is otherwise with the fig-pecker, as it changes its shape and colour at the same time ; it has this name in the autumn, but afterwards is called the blackcap. Similarly also the bird known as erithacus in winter is called redstart in summer. The hoopoe also changes its appearance, as the poet Aeschylus records ; it is moreover a foul-feeding bird, noticeable for its flexible crest, which it draws together and raises up along the whole length of its head.
{45.} L [87] The wheatear indeed actually has fixed days of retirement : it goes into hiding at the rising of the dog-star and comes out after its setting, doing both on the actual days, which is surprising. Also the golden oriole, which is yellow all over, is not seen in winter but comes out about midsummer. Blackbirds are born white at Cyllene in Arcadia, but nowhere else. The ibis is black only in the neighbourhood of Pelusium, being white in all other places.
{46.} L [88] Songbirds apart from some exceptions do not ordinarily breed before the spring equinox or after the autumn one ; and their eggs laid before midsummer are doubtful, but those after midsummer are fertile.
{47.} L [89] Kingfishers are especially remarkable for this : the seas and those who sail them know the days when they breed. The bird itself is a little larger than a sparrow, sea-blue in colour and reddish only on the underside, blended with white feathers in the neck, with a long slender beak. There is another kind of kingfisher different in size and note ; this smaller kind sings in beds of rushes. [90] A kingfisher is very rarely seen, and only at the setting of the Pleiades and about midsummer and midwinter, when it occasionally flies round a ship and at once goes away to its retreat. They breed at midwinter, on what are called 'the kingfisher days,' during which the sea is calm and navigable, especially in the neighbourhood of Sicily. They make their nests a week before the shortest day, and lay a week after it. [91] Their nests are admired for their shape, that of a ball slightly projecting with a very narrow mouth, resembling very large sponges ; they cannot be cut with a knife, but break at a strong blow, like dry sea-foam ; and it cannot be discovered of what they are constructed : people think they are made out of the spines of fishes' prickles, for the birds live on fish. They also go up rivers. They lay five eggs at a time.
{48.} L Gulls nest on rocks, divers also in trees. They lay at most three eggs at a time, sea-mews laying in summer and divers at the beginning of spring.
{49.} L [92] The structure of the kingfisher's nest reminds one of the skill of all the other birds as well ; and the ingenuity of birds is in no other department more remarkable. Swallows build with clay and strengthen the nest with straw ; if ever there is a lack of clay, they wet their wings with a quantity of water and sprinkle it on the dust. The nest itself, however, they carpet with soft feathers and tufts of wool, to warm the eggs and also to prevent it from being hard for the infant chicks. They dole out food in turns among their offspring with extreme fairness. They remove the chicks' droppings with remarkable cleanliness, and teach the older ones to turn round and relieve themselves outside of the nest. [93] There is another kind of swallow that frequents the country and the fields, which seldom nests on houses, and which makes its nest of a different shape though of the same material - entirely turned upward, with orifices projecting to a narrow opening and a capacious interior, and adapted with remarkable skill both to conceal the chicks and to give them a soft bed to lie on. [94] In Egypt, at the Heracleotic Mouth of the Nile, they block the outflow of the river with an irremovable mole of contiguous nests almost a stadion long, a thing that could not be achieved by human labour. Also in Egypt near the town of Coptos there is an island sacred to Isis which they fortify with a structure to prevent its being destroyed by the same river, strengthening its point with chaff and straw when the spring days begin, going on for three days all through the nights with such industry that it is agreed that many birds actually die at the work ; and this spell of duty always comes round again for them with the returning year. [95] There is a third kind of swallows that make holes in banks and so construct their nests in the ground. (Their chicks when burnt to ashes are a medicine for a deadly throat malady and many other diseases of the human body.) These birds do not build proper nests, and if a rise of the river threatens to reach their holes, they migrate many days in advance.
{50.} L [96] There is a species of titmouse that makes its nest of dry moss finished otf in such a perfect ball that its entrance cannot be found. The bird called the thistle-finch weaves its nest out of flax in the same shape. One of the woodpeckers hangs by a twig at the very end of the boughs, like a ladle on a peg, so that no four-footed animal can get to it. It is indeed asserted that the woodpecker purposely takes its sleep while hanging suspended by the feet, because it hopes thus to be safer. [97] Again, it is a common practice of them all carefully to choose a flooring of branches to support their nest, and to vault it over against the rain or roof it with a penthouse of thick foliage. In Arabia a bird called cinnamolgus makes a nest of cinnamon twigs ; the natives bring these birds down with arrows weighted with lead, to use them for trade. In Scythia a bird of the size of a bustard lays two eggs at a time in a hare-skin, which is always hung on the top boughs of trees. [98] When magpies notice a person observing their nest with special attention, they transfer the eggs somewhere else. It is reported that in the case of these birds, as their claws are not adapted for grasping and carrying the eggs, this is effected in a remarkable manner : they place a sprig on the top of two eggs at a time, and solder it with glue from their belly, and placing their neck under the middle of it so as to make it balance equally on both sides, carry it off somewhere else.
{51.} L [99] Nor yet are those species less cunning which, because the weight of their body forbids their soaring aloft, make their nests on the ground. The name of bee-eater is given to a bird that feeds its parents in their lair ; its wings are a pale colour inside and dark-blue above, reddish at the tip. It makes its nest in a hole dug in the ground to a depth of ten feet.
[100] Partridges fortify their retreat with thorn and bush in such a way as to be completely entrenched against wild animals ; they heap a soft covering of dust on their eggs. and they do not sit on them at the place where they laid them but remove them somewhere else, lest their frequently resorting there should cause somebody to suspect it. Hen partridges in fact deceive even their own mates, because these in the intemperance of their lust break the hens' eggs so that they may not be kept away by sitting on them ; and then the cocks owing to their desire for the hens fight duels with each other ; it is said that the one who loses has to accept the advances of the victor. [101] Trogus indeed says this also occurs occasionally with quails and farmyard cocks, but that wild partridges are promiscuously covered by tame ones, and also new-comers or cocks that have been beaten in a fight. They are also captured owing to the fighting instinct caused by the same lust, as the leader of the whole flock sallies out to battle against the fowler's decoy, and when he has been caught number two advances, and so on one after another in succession. Again about breeding time the hens are caught when they sally out against the fowlers' hen to hustle and drive her away. [102] And in no other creature is concupiscence so active. If the hens stand facing the cocks they become pregnant by the afflatus that passes out from them, while if they open their beaks and put out their tongue at that time they are sexually excited. Even the draught of air from cocks flying over them, and often merely the sound of a cock crowing, makes them conceive. And even their affection for their brood is so conquered by desire that when a hen is quietly sitting on her eggs in hiding, if she becomes aware of a fowler's decoy hen approaching her cock she chirps him back to her and recalls him and voluntarily offers herself to his desire. Indeed they are subject to such madness that often with a blind swoop they perch on the fowler's head. [103] If he starts to go towards a nest, the mother bird runs forward to his feet, pretending to be tired or lame, and in the middle of a run or a short flight suddenly falls as if with a broken wing or damaged feet, and then runs forward again, continually escaping him just as he is going to catch her and cheating his hope, until she leads him away in a different direction from the nests. On the other hand if the hen thus scared is free and not possessed with motherly anxiety she lies on her back in a furrow and catches hold of a clod of earth with her claws and covers herself with it.
The life of partridges is believed to extend to as much as sixteen years.
{52.} L [104] Next to partridges the habits of pigeons are most noticeable for a similar reason. These possess the greatest modesty, and adultery is unknown to either sex ; they do not violate the faith of wedlock, and they keep house in company - unless unmated or widowed a pigeon does not leave its nest. Also they say that the cock pigeon is domineering, and occasionally even unkind, as he is suspicious of adultery although not himself prone to it ; in this state his throat is full of complaining and his beak deals savage pecks, and upon his satisfaction there follows billing and fawning with repeated twirlings of his feet during his entreaties for indulgence. [105] Both partners have equal affection for their offspring ; this also often gives occasion for chastisement, when the hen is too slack in coming home to the chicks. When she is producing a brood she receives comfort and attendance from the cock. For the chicks at first they collect saltish earth in their throat and disgorge it into their beaks, to get them into proper condition for food. It is a peculiarity of this species and of the turtle-dove not to raise the neck backward when drinking, and to take copious draughts like cattle.
[106] We have authorities for saying that wood-pigeons live to be thirty and in some cases forty years old, only with the single inconvenience of their claws - this also a sign of old age - which have to be cut to prevent damage. The cooing of all is alike and the same, composed of a phrase repeated three times and then a sigh at the close ; in winter they are silent, but begin singing in spring. Nigidius thinks that a wood-pigeon when sitting on her eggs under a roof will leave her nest in answer to her name. They lay after midsummer. [107] Pigeons and turtle-doves live eight years. On the other hand the sparrow, their equal in salaciousness, has a very small span of life : the cocks are said not to last longer than a year, the proof being that at the beginning of spring no black colouring is seen on their beak, which begins with summer ; but the hens have a rather longer span of life. [108] However pigeons actually possess a certain sense of vanity - you would fancy them to be conscious of their own colours and the pattern of their marking; indeed this can be inferred from their flight - it is observed that they flap their wings in the sky and trace a variety of lines. During this display they expose themselves to the hawk as if fettered, folding their wings with a flapping noise that is only produced from the actual wing joints, though otherwise when flying freely they are much swifter. The highwayman hawk watches concealed in foliage, and seizes the exultant pigeon in the very act of showing off. [109] For that reason the bird called kestrel must be classed with these ; for it defends the pigeons, and scares the hawks by its natural powerfulness so much that they fly from sight and sound of it. For this reason wood-pigeons have a special love for kestrels, and they say that if kestrels put in new jars with their mouths sealed up are hidden in the four corners of the dovecot the pigeons do not change their abode (a result that some people have also sought to obtain by cutting the joints of their wings with gold, the only way of making a wound that does no harm), although otherwise the pigeon is a bird much given to straying. For they have a trick of exchanging blandishments and enticing other pigeons and coming back with a larger company won by intrigue. {53.} L [110] Moreover also they have acted as go-betweens in important affairs, when at the siege of Mutina Decimus Brutus sent to the consuls' camp despatches tied to their feet ; what use to Antonius were his rampart and watchful besieging force, and even the barriers of nets that he stretched in the river, when the message went by air? Also pigeon-fancying is carried to insane lengths by some people : they build towers on their roofs for these birds, and tell stories of the high breeding and pedigrees of particular birds, for which there is now an old precedent : before Pompey's civil war Lucius Axius, a Roman knight, advertised pigeons for sale at 400 denarii per brace - so Marcus Varro relates. Moreover the largest birds, which are believed to be produced in Campania, have conferred fame on their native place.
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