BIRDS WHICH TAKE THEIR DEPARTURE FROM US IN WINTER.
In a similar manner also, the blackbird, the thrush, and the starling
take their departure to neighboring countries; but they do not lose
their feathers, nor conceal themselves, as they are often to be seen in
places where they seek their food during the winter: hence it is that in
winter, more especially, the thrush is so often to be seen in Germany.
It is, however, a well-ascertained fact, that the turtle-dove conceals
itself, and loses its feathers. The ring-dove, also, takes its
departure, yet it is a matter of doubt whither they go. A peculiarity of
the starling is to fly in troops, as it were, and then to wheel round in
a globular mass like a ball, the central troop acting as a pivot for the
rest. Swallows are the only birds that have a sinuous flight of
remarkable velocity; so that they are not exposed to the attacks of
other birds of prey: these are the only birds that take their food
solely on the wing.
The time during which birds show themselves differs very considerably.
Some, like the pigeon, remain with us all the year round, some for six
months, such as the swallow; and some again, for three months only, as
the thrush, the turtledove, and those which take their departure the
moment they have reared their young, like the witwall and the hoopoe.
There are some authors who say that every year certain birds fly from
Æthiopia to Ilium, and have a combat at the tomb of Memnon there; from
which circumstance they have received from them the name of Memnonides,
or birds of Memnon. Cremutius states it also as a fact, ascertained by
himself, that they do the same every fifth year in Æthiopia, around the
palace of Memnon.
In a similar manner, the birds called meleagrides fight in Boeotia. They
are a species of African poultry, having a hump on the back covered with
a mottled plumage. These are the latest among the foreign birds that
have been received at our tables, on account of their disagreeable
smell. The tomb, however, of Meleager has rendered them famous.
Those birds are called seleucides, which are sent by Jupiter at the
prayers offered up to him by the inhabitants of Mount Casius, when the
locusts are ravaging their crops of corn. Whence they come, or whither
they go, has never yet been ascertained, as, in fact, they are never to
be seen but when the people stand in need of their aid.
The Egyptians also invoke their ibis against the incursions of serpents;
and the people of Elis, their god Myiagros (the hunter of flies), when
the vast multitudes of flies are bringing pestilence among them; the
flies die immediately after the propitiatory sacrifice has been made to
this god.
Rhodes possesses no eagles. In Italy beyond the Padus, there is, near
the Alps, a lake known by the name of Larius, beautifully situated amid
a country covered with shrubs; and yet this lake is never visited by
storks, nor are they ever known to come within eight miles of it; while
in the neighboring territory of the Insubres there are immense flocks of
magpies and jackdaws, the only bird that is guilty of stealing gold and
silver, a very singular propensity.
It is said that in the territory of Tarentum, the woodpecker of Mars is
never found. It is only lately, and that very rarely, that various kinds
of pies have begun to be seen in the districts that lie between the
Apennines and the City. These birds are remarkable for the length of the
tail and for the peculiarity of becoming bald every year at the time of
sewing rape. The partridge does not fly beyond the frontiers of Boeotia,
into Attica; nor does any bird, in the island in the Black Sea in which
Achilles was buried, enter the temple there consecrated to him. In the
territory of Fidenæ, in the vicinity of the City, the storks have no
young nor do they build nests: but vast numbers of ringdoves arrive from
beyond sea every year in the district of Volaterræ. At Rome, neither
Hies nor dogs ever enter the temple of Hercules in the Cattle Market.
There are numerous other instances of a similar nature in reference to
all kinds of animals, which from time to time I feel myself prompted by
prudent considerations to omit, lest I should only weary the reader.
There is another remarkable fact, too, relative to the birds which give
omens by their note; they generally change their color and voice at a
certain season of the year, and suddenly become quite altered in
appearance; a thing that, among the larger birds, happens with the crane
only, which grows black in its old age. From black, the blackbird
changes to a reddish color, sings in summer, chatters in winter, and
about the summer solstice loses its voice; when a year old, the beak
also assumes the appearance of ivory; but only in the case of the male.
In summer, the thrush is mottled about the neck, but in winter it
becomes of one uniform color all over.