The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 2 (of 6)

Chapter 332: CHAP. 57. (41.)—THE INSTINCTS OF BIRDS—THE CARDUELIS, THE TAURUS, THE ANTHUS.

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About This Book

The volume assembles an encyclopedic survey of the known world and its living inhabitants, moving from detailed regional geography and descriptions of seas, rivers, islands, and peoples to extended treatments of humanity, its generation, anatomy, and the origins and inventions of arts. Subsequent books catalog terrestrial animals—their habits, capture, and uses—followed by comprehensive observations on fish and marine creatures, their sizes and behaviors. Accounts mix naturalistic description, reported marvels, medicinal uses derived from animals, and travel and secondhand reports, organized as topical chapters intended as a practical compendium of natural and human phenomena.

CHAP. 57. (41.)—THE INSTINCTS OF BIRDS—THE CARDUELIS, THE TAURUS, THE ANTHUS.

The farm-yard fowls have also a certain notion of religion; upon laying an egg they shudder all over, and then shake their feathers; after which they turn round and purify 3038 themselves, or else hallow 3039 themselves and their eggs with some stalk or other. (42.) The carduelis,3040 which is the very smallest bird of any, will do what it is bid, not only with the voice but with the feet as well, and with the beak, which serves it instead of hands. There is one bird, found in the territory of Arelate, that imitates the lowing of oxen, from which circumstance it has received the name of “taurus.”3041 In other respects it is of small size. Another bird, called the “anthus,”3042 imitates the neighing of the horse; upon being driven from the pasture by the approach of the horses, it will mimic their voices—and this is the method it takes of revenging itself.