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.