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The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 3 (of 6) cover

The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 3 (of 6)

Chapter 47: CHAP. 44. (37.)—THE NATURE AND CHARACTERISTICS OF ALL ANIMALS CONSIDERED LIMB BY LIMB. THOSE WHICH HAVE TUFTS AND CRESTS.
By the Elder Pliny
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The work assembles systematic observations on animals, insects, and trees, combining natural history with practical notes. It surveys insect forms and habits, including bees, silk‑producing worms, spiders, and parasitic species, and discusses reproduction, classification, diseases, and useful products like honey and silk. It then examines animal anatomy in detail, limb by limb and organ by organ, comparing organs, vital functions, and bodily peculiarities across species. Later sections catalogue trees and exotic plants, describing aromatic gums, spices, frankincense, myrrh, and methods for producing and testing unguents and perfumes, and noting their uses and regions of origin.

CHAP. 44. (37.)—THE NATURE AND CHARACTERISTICS OF ALL ANIMALS CONSIDERED LIMB BY LIMB. THOSE WHICH HAVE TUFTS AND CRESTS.

In addition to what is already stated, we will add an account of every part of the body of an animal, taken limb by limb.

All those which have blood, have a head as well. A small number of animals, and those only among the birds, have tufts of various kinds upon the head. The phœnix161 has a long row of feathers on it, from the middle of which arises another row; peacocks have a hairy tuft, resembling a bushy shrub; the stymphalis162 has a sort of pointed crest, and the pheasant, again, small horns. Added to these, there is the lark, a little bird, which, from the appearance of its tuft, was formerly called “galerita,” but has since received the Gallic name of “alauda,”163 a name which it has transferred to one of our legions.164 We have already made mention, also, of one bird165 to which Nature has given a crest, which it can fold or unfold at pleasure: the birds of the coot kind166 have also received from her a crest, which takes its rise at the beak, and runs along the middle of the head; while the pie of Mars, and the Balearic crane, are furnished with pointed tufts. But the most remarkable feature of all, is the crest which we see attached to the heads of our domestic fowls, substantial and indented like a saw; we cannot, in fact, strictly call it flesh, nor can we pronounce it to be cartilage or a callosity, but must admit that it is something of a nature peculiar to itself. As to the crests of dragons, there is no one to be found who ever saw one.