Chapter 401

3012White blackbirds (if we may employ the paradox) are a distinct variety, according to Cuvier, to be found in various countries, though but rarely.

3013This 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.

3014He alludes to the nightingale, mentioned in c. 43.

3015The king-fisher, or Alcedo ispida of Linnæus. There is no truth whatever in this favourite story of the ancients.

3016In copying from Aristotle, he has put “collum,” by mistake, for “rostrum,” the “beak.”

3017This 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 calledhalcyoniumby Linnæus, as Cuvier informs us, and similar in shape to a nest.

3018Or didapper.

3019The 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.

3020The bank swallow, or Hirundo riparia of Linnæus.

3021Cuvier thinks that this is either theremiz, the Parus pendulinus of Linnæus, or else the moustache, the Parus biarmicus of Linnæus.

3022Not moss, Cuvier says, but blades of grass, and the silken fibres of the poplar and other aquatic trees.

3023Cuvier thinks that it is the same bird as the vitiparra of Pliny.

3024Galgulus.

3025This 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.

3026Cuvier suggests that, if at all based upon truth, this may have been the case in one instance, and then ascribed to the whole species.

3027The Merops apiaster of Linnæus, or bee-eater.

3028Cuvier says that the red partridge, the Tetrao rufus of Linnæus, is meant.

3029The 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.

3031See B. xviii. c. 68; where he says that the summer solstice is past at the time of the incubation.

3032Cuvier 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.

3033Hirtius 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.

3034B. iii. c. 7.

3035“Without feet.” This was supposed to be the case with the martinet, the Hirundo apus of Linnæus.

3036Or “goat-sucker.” The Caprimulgus Europæus of Linnæus.

3037Cuvier says that this is the spoon-bill, the Platalea leucorodea of Linnæus. Some suppose it to be the bittern.

3038By 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.

3040The linnet, probably.

3041The “bull.” This cannot possibly be the bittern, as some have suggested, for that is a large bird.

3042Supposed to be the Motacilla flava of Linnæus, the spring wagtail.

3043Hence 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.

3044Cuvier says that this is the jay, the Corvus glandarius of Linnæus; but that they are not more apt at speaking than the other kinds.

3045Cuvier remarks, that these can only be monstrosities.

3046Britannicus, the son of Claudius, and Nero, his stepson.

3047In the eighth region of the city.

3048The nephew and son of Tiberius.

3049Festus 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.”

3050P. 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.

305128th March.

3052One would hardly think that there was anything wonderful in a crow beingveryblack.

3053The “one-horned.”

3054Most probably in Asia Minor, and not Eriza in India.

3055Cuvier 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.

3056B. iii. c. 29.

3057See Ovid’s Met. B. xiii.

3058Albertus Magnus says that swallowscanbe tamed.

3059The Fulica porphyrio of Linnæus, the Poule sultane of Buffon.

3060Literally, “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.”

3062More especially the Larus parasiticus, Cuvier says.

3063Dalechamps 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.

3064A 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.

3066A variety of the guinea fowl; probably the Numida Meleagris of Linnæus.

3067Literally, the “red-wing.” The modern flamingo.

3068Buffon 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.”

3069In allusion, perhaps, to the words of Horace, Epod. ii. 54.Non attagen IonicusJucundior, quam lecta de pinguissimisOliva ramis arborum.

3069In allusion, perhaps, to the words of Horace, Epod. ii. 54.

Non attagen IonicusJucundior, quam lecta de pinguissimisOliva ramis arborum.

Non attagen Ionicus

Jucundior, quam lecta de pinguissimis

Oliva ramis arborum.

3070Literally, 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.

3071Literally, the red crow, the chocard of the Alps, the Corvus pyrrhocorax of Linnæus.

3072The “hare’s foot.” Identical with the snow partridge, the Tetrao lagopus of Linnæus; it is white in winter.

3073The same bird, Cuvier says, as seen in summer, being then of a saffron colour, with blackish spots.

3074Cuvier 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.

3076Flamingo.

3077See B. xi. c. 44.

3078Scythia 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.

3079Literally, 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.

3080See Ovid, Met. B. v. l. 553.

3081A kind of crested lark.

3082The Strix scops, probably, of Linn. See the Odyssey, B. v. l. 66.

3083Those called Orchia, Didia, Oppia, Cornelia, Antia, and Julia namely.

3084Repositoria. See B. xxxiii. c. 49. See also B. ix. c.13.

3085Valerius Maximus, B. ix. c. 1, tells this story of the profligate son of Æsopus.

3086B. ix. c. 59.

3087“Hominum linguas,” Pliny says; a singularly inappropriate expression, it would appear.

3088See B. viii. c.37.

3089The tinnunculus, probably, of c. 52.

3090B. ii. Sat. 4, l. 12. “Longa quibus facies ovis erit, ille memento. Ut succi melioris, et ut magis alba rotundis.”

3091Aristotle says just the reverse: but Hardouin thinks that the passage in Aristotle has been corrupted.

3092This, Cuvier says, in reality is not the umbilical cord, but thechalasis, 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.

3093Produced in the territory of Adria. See B. iii. c. 18.

3094Cuvier 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.

3095Cuvier 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.

3096Cuvier tells us, that in the Memoirs of the Academy of St. Petersburgh, there is a memoir by Wolf, entitledOvum simplex gemelliferum, in which these twin chickens are described with great exactness.

3097More generally eleven or thirteen in this country.

3098To secure their being more equably covered.

3099Or rather, will produce chickens hideously deformed. This trick is sometimes practised among the country people against those to whom they owe a grudge.

3100Aristotle says with a straw mat.

3101Similar, probably, to our bantam.

3102In consequence, probably, of their smallness, and want of sufficient warmth.

3103The pip.

3104Meaning the “urine-egg.”

3105Or “wind” eggs. See cc.75and80.

3106The white heron.

3107So called from its soaring towards the stars.

3108The tawny or black heron.

3109Possibly the night-hawk. Sillig says, that in the corresponding passage of Aristotle it isαἰτώλιος.

3110“Dog’s-urine.” See the lastChapter.

3111Hardouin asserts that this is the fact.

3112This is probably fabulous.

3113B. vii. c. 4.

3114Justly called by Juvenal, “meretricem Augustam,” Sat. vi. l. 118.

3115B. viii. c. 54.

3116Probably the goldfinch.

3117A kind of large hound.

3118The number that they bear.

3119See B. viii. c.81.

3120B. viii. c. 10, and in the present Chapter.

3121B. vii. c. 13.

3122Aristotle, 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.

3123Ovid, Met. B. xv. l. 389, makes mention of this belief.

3124See the following Book.

3125Known by us as the razor-sheath.

3126Martial alludes to these fish-preserves, and the fish coming upon hearing their name, B. iv. Ep. 30, and B. x. Ep. 30.

3127A species of origanum.

3128As in the case of the galgulus, mentioned in c. 50.

3129See c.33of the present Book, as to quails.

3130As to these monkies, see B. xviii. c. 30, and c. 80.

3131I. e.lay by a store.

3132B. viii. c. 34.

3133Probably the ermine. See B. viii. c.55.

3134Pliny alludes to dogs, cats, and similar mammifera, as havingserratedteeth; the term, however, is quite inappropriate.

3135See B. viii. c.79.

3136Probably the chlorion of c. 45.

3137Supposed to be the golden-crested wren.

3138An insect. See B. xi. c. 42, if, indeed, this is the same that is there mentioned, which is somewhat doubtful.

3139It is not known what bird is meant: perhaps the titmouse.

3140A kind of hawk or falcon.

3141Species unknown.

3142Probably the spring wag-tail.

3143In B. viii. c. 22.

3144Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. iv. c. 10, maintains the contrary. But in B. vii. he asserts that infants do dream.

3145See Lucretius, B. iv. l. 914,et seq.

3146M. 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.

3147See end of B. iii.

3148See end of B. v.

3149A 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.

3150See end of B.vii.

3151A 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.

3152Trogus Pompeius. See end of B.vii.

3153See end of B.vii.

3154See end of B. ii.

3155See end of B.ix.

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