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.