Similar manners, if we may confide in Virgil,^[710] prevailed among the old inhabitants of Latium, and Xenophon^[711] in his monarchical Utopia trains the youth in the same habits.

On hunting,^[712] as practised in the civilised ages of Greece, we possess more ample details, and it is chiefly by the minuter touches that a picture of this kind can be invested with interest and utility. Xenophon, an aristocratic country gentleman, who living in a corrupt age was, as I have said, wisely partial to the nobler manners of the past, considers the chase as a branch of education.^[713] He does not, however, entertain upon this subject the heroic views of Plato, but, looking solely to utility, not only describes the physical conditions and mental qualities of the hunter, but the nets, poles, arms, and every implement made use of by the ancients in the chase.

Not to interfere with the discipline of the schools and the gymnasia, the youths were exhorted to betake themselves to field-sports about the age of twenty. Their notions of a sportsman’s costume differed materially from our own, for instead of decking themselves like our fox-hunters in scarlet, they selected the soberest and least brilliant colours both for their cloaks and chitons. The latter were in general extremely short, reaching merely to the hams, as Artemis is usually represented in works of art. But the chlamys was long and ample, that it might be twisted round the left arm in close contest with the larger animals. Their hunting boots reached to the knee, and were bound tight round the leg with thongs. Probably also, as in travelling, they covered their heads with a broad-brimmed hat.

The apparatus of a Greek sportsman would appear somewhat cumbersome, and perhaps a little ludicrous to a modern Nimrod. But understanding their own object they went their own way to work; their arms and implements, varying with the chase in which they were engaged, consisted of short swords, hunting knives^[714] for the purpose of cutting down brushwood to stop up openings in the forest, axes for felling trees, darts furnished with thongs for drawing them back when they had missed their aim, bows, boar-spears, weapons peculiarly formidable, nets small and large, some for setting up in the plains, some for traversing glades or narrow alleys in the woods, and others shaped like a female head-net, to be placed in small dusky openings, where being unperceived the game sprang into them as into a sack, which closed about it by means of a running cord, net-poles, forked stakes, snares, gins, nooses, and leashes for the dogs.^[715] The darts used on these occasions had ashen or beechen handles, and the nets were usually manufactured with flax imported from Colchis on the Phasis, Egypt, Carthage, and Sardinia.^[716] Generally, too, they took along with them the Lagobalon, a short, crooked stick with a knob at one end, with which they sometimes brought down the hare in its flight.^[717] This practice, common enough among poachers in our country, is by them denominated squailing.

Without the aid of dogs, however, hunting is a poor sport. The ancients, therefore, much addicted to this branch of education, paid great attention to the breed of these animals, of which some were sought to be rendered celebrated by heroic and fabulous associationsassociations. Thus the Castorides, it was said, sprang^[718] from a breed to which the twin god of Sparta was partial; the Alopecidæ were a cross between a dog and a she-fox; and a third kind^[719] arose from the mingling of these two races. Among modern sportsmen, there are also good authorities who prefer harriers with a quarter of the fox-strain.^[720] Other kinds of hounds, as the Menelaides and Harmodian derived their appellation from the persons who reared them.^[721]

But the whole breeds of certain countries^[722] were famous, as the Argive, the Locrian, the Arcadian, the Spanish, the Carian, the Eretrian; the Celtic or greyhound (not known^[723] in more ancient times); the Psyllian, so called from a city of Achaia; the dog of Elymæa, a country lying between Bactria and Hyrcania; the Hyrcanian, which was a cross with the lion; the Laconian, of which the bitch was more generous,^[724] sometimes crossed with the Cretan, which was itself renowned for its nose, strength and courage,^[725] those which kept watch in the temple of Artemis Dictynna having been reckoned a match even for bears; the Molossian, less valued for the chase than as a shepherd’s dog, on account of its great fierceness and power to contend with wild beasts;^[726] the Cyrenaic, a cross with the wolf, and lastly the Indian, on which the chief reliance was placed in the chase of the wild boar. This breed, according to Aristotle, was produced by crossing with the tiger, probably the Cheeta.^[727] The first and second removes were considered too fierce and unmanageable, and it was not until the third generation that these tiger-mules could be broken in to the use of the sportsman. Some sought in mythology the origin of this noble animal; for, according to Nicander, the hounds of Actæon, recovering their senses after the destruction of their master, fled across the Euphrates and wandered as far as India. Strange stories are related of this breed, of which some it is said would contend with no animal but the lion. Alexander’s dog, which he purchased in India for a hundred minæ, had twice overcome and slain the monarch of the forest.^[728]

Let us, therefore, now imagine the hounds exactly what they ought to be, and observe under what circumstances they were led afield. As in England, their principal sport was the hare. In winter,^[729] it was observed that puss, from the length of the nights, took a wider circuit, and therefore afforded the dogs a better chance of detecting her traces.^[730] But when in the morning the ground was covered with ice or white with hoar-frost, the dogs lost their scent, as also amidst abundant dews or after heavy rains. The sportsman accordingly waited till the sun was some way up the sky, and had begun to quicken the subtile odours communicated to the earth.^[731] The west wind,^[732] which covers the heavens with vast clouds and fills the air with moisture, and the south blowing warm and humid, weaken the scent; but the north wind fixes and preserves it.^[733] By moonlight, too, as the old sportsmen remark, and the warmth it emits, the scent is affected; besides that when the moon shines brightly, in their frolicsome and sportive mood the hares, in the secluded glades of the forest, take long leaps and bounds over the green sward, leaving wide intervals between their traces.^[734]

From a remark of Xenophon it appears that at least on one point the sportsmen of antiquity were less humane than the modern, since they pursued the chase even in breeding time.^[735] They, however, spared the young in honour of Artemis;^[736] the spirit even of false religion, on this, as on many other occasions, strengthening the impulses of humanity.

Several causes coöperated to render hares unplentiful on the Hellenic continent,—the number of sportsmen, of foxes which devoured both them and their young, and of eagles that delighted in its lofty and almost inaccessible mountains, and shared its game with the huntsman and the fox. Homer, in a few picturesque words, describes the war carried on against puss by this destructive bird.^[737] On the islands, whether inhabited or not, few of these obstacles to their increase existed. Sportsmen rarely passed over to them, and in such as were sacred to any of the gods the introduction of dogs was not permitted, so that, like the pigeons and turtle-doves of Mekka, they multiplied in those holy haunts prodigiously.

It was prohibited by the laws of Attica^[738] to commit the slightest trespass during the chase. The sportsman was not allowed to traverse any ground under cultivation, to disturb the course of running water, or to invade the sanctity of fountains. The scene of action accordingly lay among the woods and mountains, the common property of the republic, or, if not, abandoned by general consent to the use of the sportsman. Such were, for example, the woodland districts of Parnes and Cithæron on the borders of Bœotia. Towards these the huntsman, well shod, plainly and lightly dressed,^[739] and with a stick in his hand, set out about sunrise in winter, in summer before day.^[740] On the road strict silence was observed^[741] lest the hare should take the alarm and to her heels. Having reached the cover, the dogs were tied separately that they might be let slip the more easily, the nets were spread in the proper places, the net-guards set, and the huntsman with his dogs proceeded to start the game, first piously making a votive offering of the primitiæ to Apollo and Artemis,^[742] divinities of the chase.^[743]

And now, exclaims the leader of the Ten Thousand, I behold the hounds, joyous and full of fire, spring forward in the track of their game. Eagerly and ardently do they pursue it—they traverse—they run about in a circle—they advance now in a straight line, now bounding away obliquely—they plunge into the thickets, across the glades, through the paths, known or unknown, hurrying one before the other, shaking their tails, their ears hanging low,^[744] their eyes flashing with fire. Drawing near the game they indicate the fact to their master by their movements, kindling up into a warlike humour, bounding emulously forward, scorning all thought of fatigue,—now in a body, now singly,—till reaching the hiding-place^[745] of the hare they spring towards it all at once. In the midst of shouts and barking the swift animal glances from her form with the hounds at her heels. The huntsman, his left hand wrapped in his chlamys, follows staff in hand, animating his dogs, but avoiding, even if in his power, to head the game.^[746]

A singular species of chase, now common in our own rabbit-warrens, appears to have passed over from Africa to the Balearic Isles, in an ancient account of which the first mention of it occurs. Those islands, it is said, were almost entirely exempted from vermin, but, on the other hand, contained prodigious numbers of rabbits, which almost destroyed every herb and plant by biting their roots. At length, however, they discovered a remedy for this evil. They imported ferrets from Africa, which, having first muzzled them, they let loose in the rabbit-warrens. Creeping into the holes they scared forth the inmates, which were caught by the sportsman. Strabo, who relates the circumstance, calls the ferret a “wild cat.” Pliny, having likewise described the devastations of the rabbits, speaks of it under the name of viverra, and says it was held in great estimation for its utility in this chase, which in the seventeenth century was practised in the island of Procida, where they procured the animal from Sicily, and denominated it Foretta, whence the English name. The common Italian appellation was donnola.^[747]

It is clear, however, that in classic times the ferret was unknown in Greece, otherwise we should never have heard of the proverb of the Carpathian and his Hare^[748] applied to persons who brought evil upon themselves. Originally, we are told, the Island of Carpathos^[749] was, like Ithaca, entirely destitute of hares; but a pair having been at length introduced, multiplied so prodigiously that they almost depopulated the island by devouring the fruits of the earth. A similar fact is related of the island Porto Santo, near Madeira, for Prince Henry of Portugal, immediately after its discovery, “sent Bartholomew Perestrello with seeds to sow and cattle to stock the place; but one couple of rabbits put in among the rest increased so prodigiously that all corn and plants being destroyed by them it was found necessary to unpeople the place.”^[750]

A peculiar kind of hare is commemorated by the ancients as found in Elymœa. It is said to have been little inferior in size to the fox, to have been elongated and slender in shape, and blackish in colour, with a long white tip at the end of the tail. It is remarked by the same writer that the scent left by leverets on the ground is stronger and more pungent than that of the grown hare, so that the dogs become furious on getting wind of it.^[751]

From the chase of the hare and rabbit we pass on to that of the fawn and the stag, in which they made use of Indian dogs,^[752] animals of great strength, size, speed, and courage. Fawns^[753] were hunted in spring, the season of their birth. The first step was for the sportsman to beat up the woods to discover where the deer were numerous; and having found a proper place he returned thither before day, armed with javelins, and accompanied by a game-keeper with a pack of hounds. The dogs were kept in leash afar off, lest they should give tongue at the sight of the deer. He himself took his station on the look-out. At break of day^[754] the does, with their yellowish and richly-speckled skins, were seen issuing from the thickets, followed by their still more delicately-spotted fawns, which they led to the places^[755] where they usually suckled them, while the stags stationed themselves at a distance, as an advanced guard, to defend them from all intruders. The graceful creatures then lay down to perform their matronly office, looking round watchfully the while to observe whether they were discovered. This pleasing task completed, they, like the stags, posted themselves in a circle about their fawns to protect them. Sportsmen have no sentiment. At the very moment when this most beautiful exhibition of mute affection would have warmed with sympathy the heart of the philosopher or the poet, the dogs were let loose, while their master and his companions, armed with javelins, closed upon the game. The fawn itself, unless chilled and drenched by the dew—in which case it frisked about—would remain still in its place and be taken. But on hearing its cries the doe rushed forward to deliver it, and was smitten down by the javelins or torn to pieces by the dogs. The chase of the female elephant in Africa exhibits the same traits of affection in the brute and ferocity in man. In this case the young will fight for his mother, or the mother for her young till death.

When the fawn had attained any considerable size, and begun to feed among the herd, the chase of it became more arduous. The fidelity of instinctive love, opposed to human sagacity, exhibited all its force. Closing round their young and drawing up in front of them, the stags, emboldened by affection, trampled the dogs under their feet, frequently to death, unless the huntsman, dashing into the midst of them, could succeed in detaching a single animal from the herd. But, supposing this done, the hounds at first remained far behind the fawn, which, terrified at finding itself alone, bounded along with incredible velocity, though, its strength soon failing, it in the end fell a prey to the hunter.

The object of the ancients, however, in the chase not being simple sport, but to obtain possession by the shortest method possible of the game, they set snares in the narrows of the mountains, around the meadows, near the streams and freshes, and in the thickets—wherever, in short, stags could be taken. Pitfalls, too, were dug, as in Africa for the lion,^[756] and most of those stratagems resorted to which the Nubians and Egyptian Arabs put in practice against the gazelle. It was in fact common to erect, with rough stones or wood, a sort of skreen, perhaps semicircular, like those behind which the hunters of the desert hide, to conceal themselves when lying in wait for the game.^[757]

For the chase of the wild boar,^[758] at once a manly and a useful sport, somewhat complicated preparations were necessary. In this the dogs of India, of Crete, of Locris, of Sparta, hunted side by side, and the sportsman took the field armed with strong nets, javelins, hunting poles, and snares. The boar-spears of the ancients^[759] were most carefully fashioned, with a broad sharp head and handle of tough wood. So likewise were their hunting-poles armed with long iron points, fixed in brazen sockets, with a shaft of service wood. Footsnares of great strength were set at intervals. This was not the sport of a solitary hunter. They went out in considerable numbers, and kept close together, finding still, for lack of fire-arms, no small difficulty in coping with the foe. On reaching the spot where they supposed the hog to be ensconced, the dogs were all led carefully in leash with the exception of one Spartan hound, which was let loose and accompanied in all his movements. When he appeared to have found the track, they followed him, and he thus took the lead in the chase. Numerous signs also directed the movements of the hunter; in soft places the track, broken branches in thickets, and in forests the wounds on the bark of trees, given by the boar in sharpening his tusks as he passed.^[760]

Generally the traces were found leading to some sheltered nook, warm in winter, in summer cool, where the boar made his lair. On discovering him the dog gave tongue, but the animal in general refused to rise. The hound was then withdrawn and put in leash with the others, and every opening, save one, leading to the place, closed with nets, the upper ends of which were passed over the forks of trees. The nets were hung so as to belly outwards, and carefully disposed so that they could be seen through. Bushes cut hastily supported them on either side, and closed every aperture through which the game could attempt to force a way. This done the hounds were all slipped, and the hunters, armed with pikes and spears, entered the netted enclosure. One of the boldest and most experienced led the dogs; the others followed at intervals, leaving an ample space between them for the boar, which if closely hemmed in might have inflicted on his opponents the fate of Adonis. Presently the hounds sprang all at once upon the game, which rising in sudden alarm tossed the first it encountered into the air, and breaking through the pack made away towards the nets, followed by men and dogs in full cry. On finding the unaccustomed opposition, he would, if running down hill, plunge right forward to force his way through; if in a plain he would stand still, glaring fiercely around.

The dogs, however, soon closed upon his track, while the hunters galled him with javelins and stones, approaching closer and closer till he was driven by his own impetuosity into the nets. Upon this the most daring of his pursuers drew near, pike in hand, and sought to put an end to the contest by piercing him in the head. Sometimes, notwithstanding all they could do, instead of plunging into the toils he would turn upon them; in which case some dexterous sportsman, armed with spear or pike, usually presented himself to receive his charge with one foot advanced, impelling the weapon with the right hand, directing it with the left. Instead, however, of rushing on at once the hog would perhaps pause a moment to reconnoitre, when it behoved his antagonist carefully to mark every movement of his head or glance of his eye.^[761] For in the very moment that a blow was aimed at him, he would sometimes dash the spear aside with tusk or snout, and the next moment be upon his enemy, whose only chance of safety now consisted in throwing himself instantaneously on his face, and holding fast by whatever he could grasp, since, the tusks of the boar curving upwards, he found it difficult to gore his enemy thus lying, and failing to turn him over would in his fury trample on him. A second hunter now rushed forward to deliver his companion, and usually drew off the hog by dexterous attacks in flank. The fallen sportsman, recovering at the same time his feet and his spear, must by the laws of the chase return to the combat, and could only secure his reputation by immolating his foe. By this time, indeed, the task had generally become easier; for, rendered reckless by fury, he would throw himself impetuously on their pikes, which, but for the protecting guards at the head, would have gone through him handle and all. His whole frame now appeared to be kindled with rage, his blood boiling, his eyes flashing, and his tusks so nearly on fire that if brought in contact with hair at the moment of death, they would frizzle it like a red-hot iron.^[762]

Of the hunting of the bear^[763] the ancients have left us no exact description. As this animal abounded, however, in most parts of Greece, where it was extremely troublesome and destructive, particularly to the fruit-trees, various expedients were hit upon for taking and destroying it. Sometimes it was pursued as game and brought down by the bow; but the common method appears to have been to make use of traps and snares. They dug, for example, a deep trench round one of those trees in the fruit of which the bear particularly delighted, and covering it with reeds or brittle branches, they sprinkled thereon a thin layer of earth, and concealed the whole apparatus with fresh grass. The bear, proceeding as usual towards the tree on his thievish errand, broke in the roof of the pit with his weight, and was caught. Even in the most civilised times this animal had not been wholly extirpated from Attica,^[764] but, as well as the boar, was found on Mount Parnes. In Laconia also, through the whole range of Taygetos, it abounded, together with hogs, deer, and wild goats. Bruin was sacrificed in Achaia to Artemis Laphria. In Thrace the white bear was found.^[765]

Respecting the habits of the Grecian bear the ancients have left us some few facts which may be worth repeating. When it comes forth from the den,^[766] where it has passed the winter, it is said to chew bits of wood, and to feed on snake-weed, wake-robin, or cuckoo-pint (arum maculatum^[767]), which has a purgative power. These operations performed, its ravenous appetites immediately awake, and it commences its devastations in the farm-yard, the orchard and the apiary. Delighting greatly in honey it attacks and overthrows the hives which it tears to pieces in order to devour the combs, though Pliny^[768] adduces another reason for this fact, exceedingly characteristic of that writer. He says that the bear, after his winter sleep, finding his eyes dim and his head heavy, applies to the bees as to skilful oculists, that in revenge for robbing them of their honey, sting him angrily about the face, which by letting much blood relieves him at once from his ophthalmia and his headacheheadache. The bear, it is well known, is omnivorous like man. He accordingly plunders the bean-fields, and feeds on every kind of pulse. In robbing orchards,^[769] too, his courage and ability are great, being as I have said as complete an adept as a school-boy in climbing trees, out of which when he has satisfied himself he descends, like the aforesaid mischievous beast, feet foremost. When none of the delicacies above enumerated was within his reach, the bear would feed on ants, crabs, or any kind of vermin, but preferred of course the flesh of the larger animals, such as the stag, the wild boar, and the bull. His mode of taking his prey was curious. Upon the boar and stag he probably dropped from his hiding place in the trees, but the stratagem by which he usually got the bull into his power was this.^[770] Throwing himself on the ground directly in his way he provoked the lord of the herd to gore him, upon which, seizing his horns, and fastening ravenously upon his shoulder, he brought him to the ground, where he fed upon his carcass at leisure. When flying from the more terrible face of man, the female usually drove her young before her, or taking them up in her mouth or on her back, she would endeavour to escape with them into the trees.^[771]

As the lion was not found in Greece in the civilised periods of its history, the chase of it cannot be said to have formed an Hellenic amusement.^[772] They might, however, by proceeding a little beyond the borders in their colonies of Thrace and Asia Minor, on Mount Pangæos, on the Mysian Olympos, and in Syria, enjoy this dangerous pastime if they desired it. In all those countries, however, both the lion,^[773] the panther, the pard, the lynx, and other animals of this destructive class had been confined to the mountains, where, as an acute and experienced observer has remarked, they lose much of their force and ferocity. The expression made use of by Xenophon proves in fact that the dread of man had driven them almost into inaccessible fastnesses, whither they could not be pursued by the hunter, so that they were chiefly taken in their descent to the lowlands by poisoning, with aconite,^[774] the waters or the baits which they set for them: sometimes, indeed, when want compelled them into the plains, parties of hunters on horseback, and armed to the teeth, would assault and destroy them, not without imminent peril. Pitfalls, too, of ingenious construction were dug for them, having an earthen pillar in the centre on which a goat was tied.^[775] The encircling moat, like that above described, destined for the bear, was concealed by a covering of slender bushes which, breaking under them, they were precipitated to the bottom and there killed. The wolf, though a sacred animal^[776] in Attica, had by the laws a price set upon his head, at which Menage^[777] wonders, though the Egyptians also slaughtered their sacred crocodiles, when they exceeded a certain size.

In the chase of the wild goat the bow, among the mountains of Crete, was made use of, and so skilful as marksmen were the Cretans^[778] that from the depths of the valleys they would bring down their game from the pinnacles of the loftiest cliffs.^[779] They were fabled to have been taught the art of hunting by the Curetes, and, practising it constantly in steep and difficult places, they acquired great suppleness and agility of body, and were exceedingly swift of foot.^[780]

The Macedonians, too, were both practised and enthusiastic sportsmen, and delighted in the amusement even whilst engaged in their most toilsome expeditions. Thus during the campaigns of Alexander in Asia, we find the generals Leonatos and Menelaos or Philotas^[781] carrying about among their baggage, linen skreens, ten or twelve miles in length, which during their halts they caused to be stretched round a given district, where they hunted as in a park. An anecdote is related strikingly illustrating the high estimation in which the chase was held at the court and among the nobles of Macedonia, where it was customary for the son to sit upright on a chair at his father’s table and not to recline among the guests until he had slain a wild boar out of the toils. Cassander, son of Antipater, continued, it is said,^[782] up to his thirty-fifth year bolt upright at the regal board, because, though a brave man and a skilful hunter, fortune had constantly denied him the pleasure of despatching the hog after the prescribed fashion.

There is one department of the chase, and that perhaps the most curious and interesting, which was not practised by the Greeks of classical times, though it cannot be said to have been unknown to them; I mean falconry, described by several ancient writers as it was pursued in India and in Thrace. If I give a short description of it, therefore, it must be regarded as a digression introduced for the purpose of completing, as far as possible, the circle of ancient amusements. Ctesias,^[783] who was contemporary with Socrates, and published his Indian history four hundred years before Christ, seems to be the oldest writer by whom falconry is mentioned. He tells us that among the Hindùs hares and foxes were hunted with kites, ravens, and eagles, and minutely describes the way in which the birds were broken in. Having been caught while young, they were first taught to fly at tame hares and foxes in the following manner. The animals with pieces of flesh tied to them were started in sight of the falcons, which were immediately let loose and sent in pursuit. When they caught and brought back the game the flesh was given them as their reward, and by this bait and allurement they were encouraged to persevere. When sufficiently trained, they were taken to the mountains and flown against wild hares and foxes. The passion for falconry is still kept alive in the East, particularly in Persia, where the shâh-baz, or royal falcon, is flown against hares and antelopes, occasionally invested with leathers, which protect him from being torn asunder.^[784] But the most daring and dangerous service in which falcons have ever been employed is the chase of the wild horse by the Turcomâns of Khiva on the eastern shores of the Caspian.^[785] A more detailed description of ancient falconry than that given by Ctesias is found in a work attributed to Aristotle.^[786] It is said, observes this writer, that the youth of Thrace, who were addicted to hunting, pursued their game by the assistance of hawks. On arriving upon the ground, the falcon, which had evidently been trained for the purpose, obeyed the calls of the sportsmen and chased the birds into the thickets, where they were knocked down with hunting-poles and taken. Even when the falcons themselves captured the game, they brought it to the hunters, who as in modern times gave them, as a reward, some portion of the animal.

In their fowling they made use of great cruelty:—Pigeons and turtle-doves were commonly blinded, to be used as decoys, and in this condition would sometimes live eight years.^[787] Partridges were employed for the same purpose in a different manner. The male bird having been tamed was put out in the neighbourhood of a covey, upon which the boldest of the wild birds came forward to fight him, and was secured with the net. The challenge was usually accepted by every male bird in the covey until one after another they were all taken. When the female was employed she drew them successively to the nets by her call.^[788] The first that is deluded is generally the principal cock in the covey, which the others collecting together seek to drive away. To elude their pursuit the leader sometimes drew near the decoy in silence, that he might not have to contend with the other males. Not unfrequently they would descend and allow themselves at such times to be caught on the roofs of the houses.^[789]

The Greeks established at Alexandria had, according to Athenæus, who was a native of Egypt, a kind of chase peculiar to themselves, viz. that of the horned owl. The sophist of Naucratis has indeed been suspected of confounding the ὠτὸς with the ὠτὶς, that is, the owl with the bustard;^[790] but it having been in his power to examine what he relates, I shall lay his account before the reader, who will judge for himself. This bird, it is said, is found in great numbers in the desert near Alexandria, (though I myself saw none there,) and is as much given to mimicry as a monkey. Above all things he is ambitious of imitating man, and, as far as possible, will do whatever he sees done by the fowler. Aware of his propensity in this way, these gentlemen, when desirous of taking an owl, carried along with them into the desert a thick tenacious glue, with which on coming within eyeshot of the Otos they affected to anoint their eyes. Then laying down the glue-pot on the sand they retreated to some hollow for concealment. Upon this the owl having watchfully observed their movements, approached, and covering his eyes with the treacherous ointment was blinded and taken.

Another mode of catching this bird also prevailed. It having been discovered that he was as partial as the Bedouin Arab to the company of a horse, the fowlers covered themselves with horses’ skins, and in this disguise approaching the flock were enabled to catch as many as they pleased. A third method of taking the Otos was one which exposed the unfortunate bird to the ridicule of the comic poets. The fowlers setting out upon the chase in pairs, separated at coming in sight of the game. One of the two then stepped out in front of the game and commenced a jig, upon which the thoughtless mimic immediately did the same, beating exact time with his feet, and keeping his eye fixed upon his wily teacher. While the merry victim was thus engaged, capering, springing, and pirouetting like a feathered Taglioni, the other bird-catcher approached from behind and seized him by the neck.

The same story is related by other writers of the Scops or mocking-owl, in imitation of whose movements, the ancients had a celebrated dance.^[791]

Quails in certain seasons of the year frequent Greece in vast numbers, as they do Egypt and Southern Italy.^[792] It has been supposed that the island of Delos received the name of Ortygia from the quails (ὄρτυγες), which alighted on it in great numbers during their migration towards the north. They were likewise plentiful in Phœnicia,^[793] where they sacrificed them to Heracles. Numerous contrivances were resorted to for catching this bird. During pairing time it was taken as follows: mirrors were set up in the fields with snares in front of them, and the quail running towards the imaginary bird was there entrapped. Clearchos of Soli describes a curious mode of capturing jackdaws. In places frequented by those birds they used, he says, to lay broad vessels filled to the brim with oil. Presently the jackdaws, curious and prying in their temper, would alight on the edges, and, being vastly pleased with the reflection of their own beauty, would chuckle over it and clap their wings, till becoming saturated with oil the feathers stuck together and they could no longer fly.