2873 See end of B. ii.
2874 See end of B. iii.
2875 See end of B. ii.
2876 Nothing whatever is known of him.
2877 See end of B. iii.
2878 Cuvier remarks, that the accounts given by the ancients of birds, are enveloped in greater obscurity than their information on quadrupeds, or fishes. The quadrupeds, he says, are not so numerous, and are known from their characteristics. The fishes also, which the ancients so highly esteemed as an article of food, were well known to them in general, and they have repeated occasions to speak of them: but as to the birds, the augurs were their principal informants. Pliny, in fact, often quotes their testimony; and we find, from what he says, that these men had not come to any agreement among themselves as to what were the names of divers species of birds, the movements of which announced, according to them, the success or misfortune of states equally with individuals. This portion, in fact, of the works of Pliny, Cuvier remarks, is an excellent commentary on the remark of Cicero, who, an augur himself, asked the question, how two augurs could look each other in the face without laughing. There are also several passages from Aristotle, who has, however, given but very little attention to the exterior characteristics of birds: it is only from the similarity of their habits and present names that we are able, in many cases, to guess what bird it is that is meant.
2879 “Struthiocamelus;” from the Greek, signifying a “little sparrow,” and a “camel.” Cuvier remarks, that Pliny’s description is correct, and that he is only mistaken in a few slight particulars.
2880 Pliny perhaps here uses the conjunction “vel” in the explanatory sense of “otherwise;” intending to distinguish Æthiopian Africa from the Roman province of that name.
2881 Cuvier remarks, that there is some truth in this, so far as that the ostrich has only two toes, like the stag and other ruminating animals; but then they are unequal in size, and not covered with hoofs.
2882 Father Lobo, in his account of Abyssinia, says that when the ostrich is running at great speed, it throws the stones behind with such violence, that they would almost seem to be thrown at those in pursuit.
2883 An ostrich, Cuvier says, will swallow anything, but it is by no means able to digest everything. He says, that he has seen ostriches with the stomach ruptured by nails which they have swallowed, or dreadfully torn by pieces of glass.
2884 It has been remarked by Diodorus Siculus, B. ii., that so far from displaying stupidity in acting thus, it adopts a wise precaution, its head being its most weak and defenceless part.
2885 Cuvier states that its egg is equal to twenty-four to twenty-eight fowls’ eggs, and that he had frequently eaten of them, and found them very delicate.
2886 “Ferunt.” With regard to this verb, Cuvier remarks, that it is equivocal; and that it is very possible that the writer intends to say, not that India and Æthiopia produce these marvellous birds, but that the people of those countries report or relate marvellous stories touching those birds. It is clear that he does not believe in the existence of the phœnix.
2887 Cuvier remarks, that all these relations are neither more nor less than so many absurd fables or pure allegories, but that the description given is exactly that of a bird which does exist, the golden pheasant, namely. The description given is probably taken from the pretended phœnix that Pliny mentions as having been brought to Rome in the reign of Claudius. It is not improbable, he thinks, that this may have been a golden pheasant, brought from the interior of Asia, when the pursuits of commerce had as yet hardly extended so far, and to which those who showed it gave, most probably, the name of the phœnix. Ajasson is of opinion, that under the story of the phœnix an allegory was concealed, and thinks it may not improbably have been employed to pourtray the doctrine of the immortality of the soul. Bailly, Hist. de l’Astronomie, thinks that it bore reference to the great canicular year of the Egyptians.
2888 Borrowed from Herodotus, B. ii. c. 73.
2889 The MSS. vary considerably as to the number. Some make it 540 years, others 511, others 40, and others 560.
2890 Mentioned also, B. vii. c. 57.
2891 532 years, according to Hardouin. Bailly says: “The first men who studied the heavens remarked that the revolution of the sun brought back the seasons in the same order. They thought that they observed that certain variations of the temperature depended upon the aspect of the moon, and attached different prognostics to the rising and setting of the stars, persuading themselves that the vicissitudes of things here below had regulated periods, like the movements of the heavenly bodies. From this arose the impression, that the same aspect, the same arrangement of all the stars, that had prevailed at the commencement of the world, would also attend its destruction; and that the period of this long revolution was the predestined duration of the life of nature. Another impression was the idea that the world would only perish at this epoch to be born again, and for the same order of things to recommence with the same series of celestial phenomena. Some fixed this universal renovation at the conjunction of all the planets, others at the return of the stars to the same point of the ecliptic; others, uniting these two kinds of revolutions, marked the term of the duration of all things at the moment at which the planets and the stars would return to the same primitive situation with regard to the ecliptic, or in other words, they conceived an immense period, which would include one or more complete revolutions of each of the planets. All these periods were called the ‘great year,’ or the ‘great revolution.’” Histoire de l’Astronomie Ancienne.
2892 A.U.C. 657.
2893 A.U.C. 789.
2894 A public place in the Forum, where the comitia curiata were held, and certain offences tried and punished.
2895 Cuvier remarks, that this passage is borrowed, with some changes, from Aristotle’s “History of Animals,” B. ix. c. 32, but that the account given by Pliny is not very easily explained, from the fact that the word eagle is not used by him in a rigorous acceptation of the word. Indeed it is only at the present day that any accurate knowledge has been obtained as to the different species of eagles, and the changes of colour to which they are subject with the advance of age; circumstances which have caused the species of them to be multiplied by naturalists. It is very doubtful, he says, whether Aristotle has distinguished the various kinds any better than Pliny; although Buffon, who himself was not very successful in distinguishing them, says that Aristotle understood more on the subject than the moderns.
2896 Μελανάετος, or the “black eagle.” Cuvier says, that this description is copied exactly from Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. ix. c. 32. This eagle, he says, cannot be, as is commonly supposed, the “common eagle.” It can only be, he thinks, the “small” eagle, the female of which, according to Nauman and Savigny, when it is old is almost all black, and without spots; only the young being spotted.
2897 From the Greek πυγὴ ἀργὴ, “white tail.” Cuvier remarks, that this is copied exactly from Aristotle, except that he says nothing about the whiteness of the tail, which is an interpolation. The feathers as described agree with those of the common eagle, the Falco fulvus, which is strong enough to seize a fawn. As regards its habit, he says, of dwelling on plains, that would agree better with the Jean le blanc of the French, the Falco Gallicus; while the name of pygargus is commonly applied, at the present day, to the great sea-eagle, the Falco albicilla; which frequents lakes and the sea-shore, and therefore corresponds more nearly with the haliætus of Pliny.
2898 Cuvier says, that he is almost tempted to believe that it is the balbusard, the Falco haliætus, that is here meant, as it has a black back, and lives in the vicinity of lakes. But then, he remarks, it lives on fish and not aquatic birds; while, on the other hand, the little eagle of Buffon, the Falco nævio, often seizes ducks and other aquatic animals. He is inclined then, notwithstanding the apparent confusion, to take this morphnos for the modern small eagle. The words μορφνὸς and περκνὸς signify “black.”
2899 From the Greek, meaning “black wing.”
2900 “Mountain stork.” Buffon thinks that this is the great brown vulture; Cuvier, the great white-headed eagle.
2901 Γνήσιος. “True-born,” “genuine.” Cuvier thinks that this may be the royal or imperial eagle, Falco imperialis.
2902 The great sea-eagle, according to Cuvier, the varieties of which (in age) are called by Linnæus “Falco albicaudus,” and “Falco ossifraga.”
2903 See Lucan, B. ix. l. 902.
2904 He contradicts himself, for he has already stated that it is the sixth species.
2905 “Barbata.” Cuvier takes it to be the læmmer-geyer, or Gypaëtus, the only bird of prey that has a beard.
2906 Or eagle-stone. See B. xxxvi. c. 39. He does not there mention that it is combustible. It is not impossible that pieces of aëtites, or ferruginous geodes, may have been found in an eagle’s nest.
2907 Fora.
2908 Albertus Magnus says that he knows this by actual experience: “credat Judæus.”
2909 Ordinem.
2910 See Virgil, Æn. B. xi. l. 755, et seq. By the “dragon,” he means some large serpent.
2911 “Heroum.”
2912 The great European vulture.
2913 Their nests are seldom seen, in consequence of being concealed in the crags of the highest mountains, the Pyrenees, for instance.
2914 “Three” seems a better reading. Aristotle says “two.”
2915 Ovid, in his “Art of Love,” speaks of the use of eggs in purifications made by lovesick damsels. See B. ii. l. 330.
2916 This story arises from the extreme acuteness of their power of smelling a dead body. The Egyptians said that the vulture foreknows the field of battle seven days.
2917 Festus says, also, that it is the ossifrage, and was so called from the god Sancus.
2918 Aristotle says ten.
2919 A mere fable. Cuvier says that the ægithus of Aristotle was probably a kind of sparrow.
2920 Said to be three in number; a mere fable. The buzzard probably is meant.
2921 The family of the Buteones belonged to the gens Fabia.
2922 Cuvier thinks that he means to identify this kind with the triorchis, of which Aristotle says that it is to be seen at all seasons.
2924 Cuvier remarks, that we here find the art of falconry in its rough state. It was restored to Europe, no doubt, by the Crusaders. See Beckmann’s Hist. Inventions, vol. i. p. 201. Bohn’s Edition.
2925 “Missas in sublime sibi excipere eos.” The meaning is very doubtful.
2926 The whole of this passage is, most probably, a gloss or interpolation.
2927 This is denied by Albertus Magnus.
2928 Cuvier remarks, that Pliny has erroneously joined the account given by Aristotle of the cybindis, to that of the hybris, or ptynx. He takes the cybindis to be the “Strix Uralensis” of Pallas.
2929 Cuvier says, that this notion is still entertained by the French peasantry.
2930 This is not the case. It only lays in the nests of insectivorous birds.
2931 Cuvier remarks, that this is not a very good reason; but we have not yet been able to find a better.
2932 Cuvier denies this story, but says, that when the foster-mother is a very small bird, the young cuckoo will take the whole of her head in his beak when receiving food.
2933 “Curse on your ill-betiding croak.” See “The Farmer’s Wife and the Raven,” in Gay’s Fables.
2934 Aristotle says, that it was never to be seen in the Acropolis or Citadel of Athens.
2935 Only the case with the large raven, or Corvus corax of Linnæus, the others living in flocks.
2936 Doé says, that this is incorrect; the beak of the raven not being of a similar form to that of the pigeon.
2937 Or else, “The Median guests.” It is not known to what he alludes. Alexander ab Alexandro says, that both Alexander the Great and Cicero were warned of their deaths by the raven.
2938 “Noctua, bubo, ulula.” It is very doubtful what birds are meant by these names. Cuvier has been at some pains to identify them, and concludes that the noctua, or glaux of Aristotle, is the Strix brachyotas of Linnæus, the “short-eared screech-owl;” the bubo, the Strix bubo of Linnæus, and the ulula, the Strix aluco of Linnæus; our madgehowlet, grey or brown owl.
2939 Seventh of March. The year of their consulship is not known.
2940 Cuvier suggests, that it may be the coracias of Aristotle, our jackdaw probably, the Corvus graculus of Linnæus. It has been said, that in its admiration of shining objects, it will take up a burning coal; a trick which has before now caused conflagrations. Servius speaks of it as frequenting funeral piles.
2941 A.U.C. 647.
2942 “Spinturnix” and “clivia” were names given by the augurs probably to some kinds of birds.
2943 Cuvier ridicules the excessive ignorance of the augurs. It is with the beak that the young bird breaks the shell.
2944 See B. xxv. c. 5.
2945 Picus, the son of Saturn, king of Latium. He was skilled in augury, and was said to have been changed into a woodpecker. See Ovid, Met. B. xiv. l. 314.; Virgil, Æn. B. vii. c. 187. See also Ovid, Fasti, B. iii. l. 37.
2946 Valerius Maximus, B. v. c. 6, says, that seventeen members of this family fell at the battle of Cannæ.
2947 “Oscines” and “alites.” This was a distinction made by the augurs, but otherwise of little utility, as all the birds with a note fly as well.
2948 See the story of the eyes of Argus transferred to the peacock’s tail. Ovid, Met. B. i. l. 616.
2949 It would be curious to know how the goose manifests its modesty, or “verecundia.” We are equally at a loss with Pliny to discover it.
2950 Tribune of the people, B.C. 61. He was maternal grandfather of the Empress Livia. “Lurco” means a “glutton.”
2951 About 12,270 francs, Ajasson says.
2953 Possibly Media; Varro says, “Medicos.”
2954 “Tripudia solistima.” An omen derived from the feeding of the fowls, when they devoured their food with such avidity, that it fell from their mouths and rebounded from the ground.
2955 By the auspices which they afforded.
2956 Mentioned by Cicero, De Divin. B. i.
2957 The same too at Athens, in one of the theatres, in remembrance, Ælian says, of the victory gained by Themistocles over the Persians.
2958 A.U.C. 676.
2959 When the Capitol was besieged by the Gauls.
2960 Near Patræ, in Achaia. Ælian gives his name as Amphilochus.
2961 A singular quality in a goose. Ælian says, that Lacydes was a peripatetic philosopher, and that he honoured the goose with splendid obsequies, when it died.
2963 “Lacte mulso.” Perhaps honey, wine, and milk.
2964 In Gaul. See B. iv. c. 31.
2965 “Gans” is still the German name. Hence our word “gander.”
2966 This medicament is further treated of in B. xxix. c. 13.
2967 “The Commagenian mixture.” For Commagene, see B. v. cc. 13 and 20.
2968 The “goose-fox,” so called, according to Ælian, for its cunning and mischievous qualities; and worshipped by the Egyptians for its affection for its young. It is supposed by Cuvier to be the Anas Ægyptiaca of Buffon.
2969 The Anas clypeata of Buffon, according to Cuvier.
2970 The Tetrao tetrix of Linnæus, or heathcock.
2971 The Tetrao urogallus of Linnæus, according to Cuvier.
2972 The Otis tarda of Linnæus. Cuvier says, that it is not the case that they are bad eating, and remarks that birds have no marrow in the larger bones.
2973 Doé thinks that the spinal marrow is meant.
2974 B. iv. c. 18, and B. vii. c. 2.
2975 In B. vii. c. 2, Pliny speaks of the Pygmies as living to the far East of India.
2977 The “village of the Python,” or “serpent.” Gueroult suggests that this may he Serponouwtzi, beyond the river Oby, in Siberia.
2978 Thirteenth of August.
2979 M. Mauduit has a learned discussion in Panckouke’s Translation, vol. viii., many pages in length; in which he satisfactorily shows that this is not entirely fabulous, but that the wild swan of the northern climates really is possessed of a tuneful note or cadence. Of course, the statement that it only sings just before its death, must be rejected as fabulous.
2980 The “mother of the quails.” Frederic II., in his work, De Arte Venandi, calls the “rallus,” or “rail,” the “leader of the quails.”
2981 From γλωττὰ, “a tongue.” It is not known what bird is alluded to.
2982 Bellon thinks that this is the proyer, or prayer, of the French; Aldrovandus considers it to be the ortolan.
2983 Gesner suggests from “asinus,” an “ass;” its feathers sticking up like the ears of that animal. Dalechamps thinks it is because its voice resembles the braying of an ass; the name “otus” is from the Greek for “ear.”
2984 Either hemlock or hellebore.
2985 “Despui suetum.” See B. xxviii. c. 7. As Hardouin says, in modern times they are considered delicate eating; but Schenkius, Obsers. Med. B. i., states, that if the bird has eaten hellebore, epilepsy is the consequence to the person who partakes of its flesh.
2986 See B. iv. c. 18.
2987 A friend of Augustus, sent by him with proposals to Antony, B.C. 41.
2989 Galgulus.
2990 Cuvier suggests, that these birds may have been the Tringa pugnax of Linnæus and Buffon, the males of which engage in most bloody combats with each other on the banks of rivers, in spring.
2991 No doubt, as Cuvier says, this was the Numida meleagris of Linnæus, Guinea hen, or pintada. Cuvier remarks that they are very pugnacious birds.
2992 See B. v. c. 22.
2993 Cuvier suggests, that these birds may have been of the starling genus, perhaps the Tardus roseus of Linnæus.
2994 The “hunter of flies.”
2995 Suetonius says, that when Tiberius was staying at Rhodes, an eagle perched on the roof of his house; such a bird having never been seen before on the island.
2996 See B. iii. c. 21.
2997 It is still noted for its thieving propensities; witness the English story of the Maid and the Magpie, and the Italian opera of “La Gazza Ladra.” Cicero says, “They would no more trust gold with you, than with a jackdaw.” See also Ovid’s Met. B. vii. It is the Corvus pica of Linnæus.
2998 “Mottled pies.”
2999 See B. iv. c. 12.
3000 Asia Minor, most probably. The assertion, though supported by Theophrastus, is open to doubt.
3002 It was the nightingale that was said to be “Vox et præterea nihil;” “A voice, and nothing else.”
3003 As there may be different opinions on the meaning of the various parts of this passage, it is as well to transcribe it for the benefit of the reader, the more especially as, contrary to his usual practice, Pliny is here in a particularly discursive mood. “Nunc continuo spiritu trahitur in longum, nunc variatur inflexo, nunc distinguitur conciso, copulatur intorto, promittitur revocato, infuscatur ex inopinato, interdum et secum ipse murmurat, plenus, gravis, acutus, creber, extentus; ubi visum est, vibrans, summus, medius, imus.”
3004 1227 francs, Ajasson says.
3005 Something very similar to this, we often see practised by the water-warblers in our streets.
3006 Cuvier supposes that this is one of the fly-catchers; the “Muscicapa atricapilla” of Linnæus, which changes in appearance entirely after the breeding season.
3007 The “black-head.”
3008 Cuvier thinks that this is the wall nightingale, the Motacilla phœnicurus of Linnæus, which is not seen in winter. On the other hand, the Motacilla rubecula of Linnæus, or red-throat, is only seen during the winter, and being like the other bird, may have been taken for it, and named “phœnicurus.”
3009 This is not the case. Aristotle only says that it builds its nest of human ordure; a story probably without any foundation, but still prevalent among the French peasantry.
3010 It has not been identified with precision. Pliny, B. xviii. c. 69 calls it a small bird. Some make it the popinjay; others, with more probability, the lapwing. Horace, B. iii. Ode 27, mentions it as the parra, a bird of ill omen.
3011 The Oriolus luteus, or witwall, according to Linnæus.
3012 White blackbirds (if we may employ the paradox) are a distinct variety, according to Cuvier, to be found in various countries, though but rarely.
3013 This is from Herodotus, but it is incorrect. The black, or rather green ibis, Cuvier says, the Scolopax falcinellus of Linnæus, is found not only near Pelusium, but all over the south of Europe.
3014 He alludes to the nightingale, mentioned in c. 43.
3015 The king-fisher, or Alcedo ispida of Linnæus. There is no truth whatever in this favourite story of the ancients.
3016 In copying from Aristotle, he has put “collum,” by mistake, for “rostrum,” the “beak.”
3017 This bird in reality builds no nest, but lays its eggs in holes on the water side. The objects taken for its nest are a zoophyte called halcyonium by Linnæus, as Cuvier informs us, and similar in shape to a nest.
3018 Or didapper.
3019 The first is the common chimney swallow. This latter one, Cuvier says, is either the window swallow, the Hirundo urbica of Linnæus, or else the martinet, the Hirundo apus of Linnæus.
3020 The bank swallow, or Hirundo riparia of Linnæus.
3021 Cuvier thinks that this is either the remiz, the Parus pendulinus of Linnæus, or else the moustache, the Parus biarmicus of Linnæus.
3022 Not moss, Cuvier says, but blades of grass, and the silken fibres of the poplar and other aquatic trees.
3023 Cuvier thinks that it is the same bird as the vitiparra of Pliny.
3024 Galgulus.
3025 This story, in all its extravagance, is related first by Herodotus, and then by Aristotle, who has reduced it to its present dimensions, as given by Pliny.
3026 Cuvier suggests that, if at all based upon truth, this may have been the case in one instance, and then ascribed to the whole species.
3027 The Merops apiaster of Linnæus, or bee-eater.
3028 Cuvier says that the red partridge, the Tetrao rufus of Linnæus, is meant.
3029 The same wonderful story is told by Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. v. c. 5, and by Ælian, Hist. Anim. B. xvii. c. 15.
3030 “Metu.” Aristotle says, by sexual passion. The reading is probably corrupt here.
3031 See B. xviii. c. 68; where he says that the summer solstice is past at the time of the incubation.
3032 Cuvier takes this to be the kestril, or Falco tinnunculus of Linnæus, and considers it to be synonymous with the cenchris, mentioned in c. 73, and in B. xxix. c. 6, though Pliny does not seem to be aware of the identity.
3033 Hirtius and Pansa. Frontinus, B. iii. c. 13. says that pigeons were sent by Hirtius to Brutus. At the present day, letters are sent fastened under their wings.
3034 B. iii. c. 7.
3035 “Without feet.” This was supposed to be the case with the martinet, the Hirundo apus of Linnæus.
3036 Or “goat-sucker.” The Caprimulgus Europæus of Linnæus.
3037 Cuvier says that this is the spoon-bill, the Platalea leucorodea of Linnæus. Some suppose it to be the bittern.
3038 By nestling in the dust. Throwing dust over the body was one of the ancient modes of purification.
3039 “Lustrant,” “perform a lustration.” This was done by the Romans with a branch of laurel or olive, and sometimes bean-stalks were used.
3040 The linnet, probably.
3041 The “bull.” This cannot possibly be the bittern, as some have suggested, for that is a large bird.
3042 Supposed to be the Motacilla flava of Linnæus, the spring wagtail.
3043 Hence the Latin name “psittacus.” From this, Cuvier thinks that the first known among these birds to the Greeks and Romans, was the green perroquet with a ringed neck, the Psittacus Alexandri of Linnæus.
3044 Cuvier says that this is the jay, the Corvus glandarius of Linnæus; but that they are not more apt at speaking than the other kinds.
3045 Cuvier remarks, that these can only be monstrosities.
3046 Britannicus, the son of Claudius, and Nero, his stepson.
3047 In the eighth region of the city.
3048 The nephew and son of Tiberius.
3049 Festus says that the “fane of Rediculus was without the Porta Capena; it was so called because Hannibal, when on the march from Capua, turned back (redierit) at that spot, being alarmed at certain portentous visions.”
3050 P. Cornelius Scipio Æmilianus Africanus Minor, the younger son of L. Æmilius Paulus, the conqueror of Macedonia. It is doubtful whether he died a natural death, or was privately assassinated by the partisans of the Gracchi. His wife, Cornelia, and his mother, Sempronia, were suspected by some persons.
3051 28th March.
3052 One would hardly think that there was anything wonderful in a crow being very black.
3053 The “one-horned.”
3054 Most probably in Asia Minor, and not Eriza in India.
3055 Cuvier is inclined to think that the Anas tadorna approaches most nearly the description given here. From Ovid’s description of their hard and pointed bills and claws, it would appear that a petrel (Procellaria), or else a white heron (Ardea garzetta), is intended; but these birds, he remarks, do not make holes in the earth. Linnæus has given the name of Diomedea exulans to the albatross, a bird of the Antarctic seas, which cannot have been known to the ancients.
3056 B. iii. c. 29.
3057 See Ovid’s Met. B. xiii.
3058 Albertus Magnus says that swallows can be tamed.
3059 The Fulica porphyrio of Linnæus, the Poule sultane of Buffon.
3060 Literally, “the blood-red foot.” Cuvier says that this description may apply to the sea-pie or oyster-eater, the Hæmatopus ostralegus of Linnæus, or else the long-legged plover, the Charadrius himantopus of Linnæus, but most probably the latter, more especially if the reading here is “himantopus,” as some editions have it.
3061 “Muscæ,” “flies,” is a mistake of the copyists, Cuvier thinks, for “musculi,” “mussels.”
3062 More especially the Larus parasiticus, Cuvier says.
3063 Dalechamps thinks that this story bears reference to the chatterer (the Ampelis garrulus of Linnæus), the ends of certain feathers of the wings being extended, and of a vermilion colour: but Cuvier looks upon Pliny’s account as almost nothing more than a poetical exaggeration.
3064 A species of duck, Cuvier thinks. from Aristophanes we learn that they were common in the markets of Athens. Cuvier suggests that it may, have been the Anas galericulata of Linnæus, the Chinese teal, which the Parthians may have received from the countries lying to the east of them.
3065 “Phasiana,” so called from the river Phasis.
3066 A variety of the guinea fowl; probably the Numida Meleagris of Linnæus.
3067 Literally, the “red-wing.” The modern flamingo.
3068 Buffon thinks that this is the grouse of the English, the Tetrao Scoticus of the naturalists; but Cuvier is of opinion that it is either the common wood-cock, the Tetrao bonasia of Linnæus, or else the wood-cock with pointed tail, of the south of Europe, the Tetrao alchata of Linnæus, most probably the latter, as the male has black and blue spots on the back; a fact which may explain the joke in the “Birds” of Aristophanes, where a run-away slave who has been marked with stripes, is called an attagen. By some it is called the “red-headed hazel-hen.”
3069 In allusion, perhaps, to the words of Horace, Epod. ii. 54.
3070 Literally, the “bald crow.” Pliny, B. xi. c. 47, says that it is an aquatic bird: and naturalists generally identify it with the cormorant, the Pelecanus carbo of Linnæus.
3071 Literally, the red crow, the chocard of the Alps, the Corvus pyrrhocorax of Linnæus.
3072 The “hare’s foot.” Identical with the snow partridge, the Tetrao lagopus of Linnæus; it is white in winter.
3073 The same bird, Cuvier says, as seen in summer, being then of a saffron colour, with blackish spots.
3074 Cuvier remarks, that the green courlis, the Scolopax falcinellus of Linnæus, which is not improbably the real ibis of the ancients, is by no means uncommon in Italy.
3075 “Novæ aves.” The grey partridge, Hardouin thinks.
3076 Flamingo.
3077 See B. xi. c. 44.
3078 Scythia and Æthiopia ought to be transposed here, as the griffons were said to be monsters that guarded the gold in the mountains of Scythia, the Uralian chain, probably.
3079 Literally, the “goat Pan.” Cuvier thinks that the bird here alluded to actually existed, and identifies it with the napaul, or horned pheasant of Buffon, the penelope satyra of Gmell, a bird of the north of India, and which answers the description here given by Pliny.
3080 See Ovid, Met. B. v. l. 553.
3081 A kind of crested lark.
3082 The Strix scops, probably, of Linn. See the Odyssey, B. v. l. 66.
3083 Those called Orchia, Didia, Oppia, Cornelia, Antia, and Julia namely.
3085 Valerius Maximus, B. ix. c. 1, tells this story of the profligate son of Æsopus.
3086 B. ix. c. 59.
3087 “Hominum linguas,” Pliny says; a singularly inappropriate expression, it would appear.
3089 The tinnunculus, probably, of c. 52.
3090 B. ii. Sat. 4, l. 12. “Longa quibus facies ovis erit, ille memento. Ut succi melioris, et ut magis alba rotundis.”
3091 Aristotle says just the reverse: but Hardouin thinks that the passage in Aristotle has been corrupted.
3092 This, Cuvier says, in reality is not the umbilical cord, but the chalasis, a little transparent and gelatinous ligament, by which the yolk is suspended like a globe. The true umbilical cord of the bird only makes its appearance after an incubation of some days.
3093 Produced in the territory of Adria. See B. iii. c. 18.
3094 Cuvier says, that after an egg has been set upon for some days, the heart of the chicken may be seen like a small red speck, that palpitates; but that no such thing is to be seen before incubation.
3095 Cuvier remarks, that the chicken is not formed exclusively from the white, and that the yellow is gradually displaced by it, as the chicken increases in size.
3096 Cuvier tells us, that in the Memoirs of the Academy of St. Petersburgh, there is a memoir by Wolf, entitled Ovum simplex gemelliferum, in which these twin chickens are described with great exactness.
3097 More generally eleven or thirteen in this country.
3098 To secure their being more equably covered.
3099 Or rather, will produce chickens hideously deformed. This trick is sometimes practised among the country people against those to whom they owe a grudge.
3100 Aristotle says with a straw mat.
3101 Similar, probably, to our bantam.
3102 In consequence, probably, of their smallness, and want of sufficient warmth.
3103 The pip.
3104 Meaning the “urine-egg.”
3106 The white heron.
3107 So called from its soaring towards the stars.
3108 The tawny or black heron.
3109 Possibly the night-hawk. Sillig says, that in the corresponding passage of Aristotle it is αἰτώλιος.
3111 Hardouin asserts that this is the fact.
3112 This is probably fabulous.
3113 B. vii. c. 4.
3114 Justly called by Juvenal, “meretricem Augustam,” Sat. vi. l. 118.
3115 B. viii. c. 54.
3116 Probably the goldfinch.
3117 A kind of large hound.
3118 The number that they bear.
3120 B. viii. c. 10, and in the present Chapter.
3121 B. vii. c. 13.
3122 Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. vi. c. 37, does not quite say this. He says that the young ones looked “as if” they were pregnant, οἷον κύοντα.
3123 Ovid, Met. B. xv. l. 389, makes mention of this belief.
3124 See the following Book.
3125 Known by us as the razor-sheath.
3126 Martial alludes to these fish-preserves, and the fish coming upon hearing their name, B. iv. Ep. 30, and B. x. Ep. 30.
3127 A species of origanum.
3128 As in the case of the galgulus, mentioned in c. 50.
3130 As to these monkies, see B. xviii. c. 30, and c. 80.
3131 I. e. lay by a store.
3132 B. viii. c. 34.
3134 Pliny alludes to dogs, cats, and similar mammifera, as having serrated teeth; the term, however, is quite inappropriate.
3136 Probably the chlorion of c. 45.
3137 Supposed to be the golden-crested wren.
3138 An insect. See B. xi. c. 42, if, indeed, this is the same that is there mentioned, which is somewhat doubtful.
3139 It is not known what bird is meant: perhaps the titmouse.
3140 A kind of hawk or falcon.
3141 Species unknown.
3142 Probably the spring wag-tail.
3143 In B. viii. c. 22.
3144 Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. iv. c. 10, maintains the contrary. But in B. vii. he asserts that infants do dream.
3145 See Lucretius, B. iv. l. 914, et seq.
3146 M. Manilius, mentioned in c. 2. Nothing certain is known of him, but by some he is supposed to have been the senator and jurisconsult of that name, contemporary with the younger Scipio. The astronomical poem which goes under his name was probably written at a much later period.
3147 See end of B. iii.
3148 See end of B. v.
3149 A famous soothsayer, who predicted to Galba, as we learn from Tacitus, the dangers to which he was about to be exposed. He wrote on the science of Divination, as practised by the Etruscans.
3151 A Roman legislator, proconsul of Gallia Narbonensis, and long a favourite of Augustus. According to Aulus Gellius, his works were very numerous. He also wrote a treatise on the Etruscan divination.
3154 See end of B. ii.
3157 See end of B. ii.
3158 See end of B. ii.
3159 He was the most ancient writer of Roman history in prose. His history, which was written in Greek, is supposed to have commenced with the arrival of Æneas in Italy, and to have come down to his own time. He was sent by the Romans to consult the oracle at Delphi, after the battle of Cannæ.
3160 The famous poet and writer on the Epicurean philosophy. He was born B.C. 98, and slew himself B.C. 54.
3162 Q. Horatius Flaccus, one of the greatest Roman poets.
3163 Nothing is known of this writer; indeed, the correct reading is a matter of doubt.
3164 See end of B. iii.
3165 Father and son, who wrote treatises on agriculture, as we learn from Columella.
3167 A writer on agriculture, mentioned by Columella.
3168 A priestess of Delphi, said to have been the inventor of hexameter verse. Servius identifies her with the Cumæan Sibyl. Pliny quotes from her in c. 8, probably from some work on augury attributed to her. A work in MS. entitled “Orneosophium,” or “Wisdom of Birds,” is attributed to Phemonoë. She is said to have been the first to pronounce the celebrated Γνῶθι σεαυτὸν, commonly attributed to Thales.
3169 An Athenian comic poet of the New Comedy, born either at Soli in Cilicia, or at Syracuse. Plautus has imitated several of his plays.
3170 Nothing is known of this writer, who wrote a poem on ornithology, as here stated. Athenæus is doubtful whether the writer was a poet, Bœus, or a poetess, Bœo.
3171 Nothing is known of this writer.
3172 See end of B. ii.
3173 See end of B. iii.
3174 See end of B. iv.
3175 The Greek tragic poet of Athens, several of whose plays still exist.
3192 See end of B. ii.
3194 See end of B. ii.
3195 Of this writer nothing whatever seems to be known.
3197 See end of B. v.
3201 Cassius Dionysius of Utica, flourished B.C. 40. He condensed the twenty-eight books of Mago into twenty, and dedicated them to the Roman prætor Sextilius.
3204 See end of B. ii.
END OF VOL. II.