SWALLOWS.
The swallow, the only bird that is carnivorous among those which have
not hooked talons, takes its departure also during the winter months;
but it goes only to neighboring countries, seeking sunny retreats there
on the mountain sides; sometimes they have been found in such spots bare
and quite unfledged. This bird, it is said, will not enter a house in
Thebes, because that city has been captured so frequently; nor will it
approach the country of the Bizyæ, on account of the crimes committed
there by Tereus. Cæcina, a member of the equestrian order, and the owner
of several chariots, used to have swallows caught, and then carried them
with him to Rome. Upon gaining a victory, he would send the news by them
to his friends; for after staining them the color of the party that had
gained the day, he would let them go, immediately upon which they would
make their way to the nests they had previously occupied. Fabius Pictor
also relates, in his Annals, that when a Roman garrison was being
besieged by the Ligurians, a swallow which had been taken from its young
ones was brought to him, in order that he might give them notice, by the
number of knots on a string tied to its leg, on what day succor would
arrive, and a sortie might be made with advantage.