1. Among the herons, as it was before observed, the black heron
copulates with difficulty, but it is an ingenious bird. It carries its
food about, and is skilful in procuring it. It works during the day.
Its colour, however, is bad, and its stomach always fluid. Of the other
two (for there are three kinds of them), the white heron is beautifully
coloured and copulates without pain, and builds its nest and attends
its young carefully in trees. It inhabits marshes and lakes, plains
and meadows. The bittern, which is called ocnus (the idle), is said in
fables to have been originally a slave. Its name indicates its very
idle disposition.
2. The herons live in this manner. The bird called poyx is peculiar,
for it is its disposition to eat the eyes of other creatures, and is
therefore the enemy of the harpa, which lives upon the same food.