No More Learning

When the serpent begins to slough, the skin peels off at first from
the eyes, so that any one ignorant of the phenomenon would suppose the
animal were going blind; after that it peels off the head, and so
on, until the creature presents to view only a white surface all over.
The sloughing goes on for a day and a night, beginning with the head
and ending with the tail. During the sloughing of the skin an inner
layer comes to the surface, for the creature emerges just as the
embryo from its afterbirth.

All insects that slough at all slough in the same way; as the
silphe, and the empis or midge, and all the coleoptera, as for
instance the cantharus-beetle. They all slough after the period of
development; for just as the afterbirth breaks from off the young of
the vivipara so the outer husk breaks off from around the young of the
vermipara, in the same way both with the bee and the grasshopper.
The cicada the moment after issuing from the husk goes and sits upon
an olive tree or a reed; after the breaking up of the husk the
creature issues out, leaving a little moisture behind, and after a
short interval flies up into the air and sets a. chirping.

Of marine animals the crawfish and the lobster slough sometimes in
the spring, and sometimes in autumn after parturition. Lobsters have
been caught occasionally with the parts about the thorax soft, from
the shell having there peeled off, and the lower parts hard, from
the shell having not yet peeled off there; for, by the way, they do
not slough in the same manner as the serpent. The crawfish hides for
about five months. Crabs also slough off their old-age; this is
generally allowed with regard to the soft-shelled crabs, and it is
said to be the case with the testaceous kind, as for instance with the
large 'granny' crab. When these animals slough their shell becomes
soft all over, and as for the crab, it can scarcely crawl. These
animals also do not cast their skins once and for all, but over and
over again.

So much for the animals that go into hiding or torpidity, for
the times at which, and the ways in which, they go; and so much also
for the animals that slough off their old-age, and for the times at
which they undergo the process.

18

Animals do not all thrive at the same seasons, nor do they
thrive alike during all extremes of weather. Further animals of
diverse species are in a diverse way healthy or sickly at certain
seasons; and, in point of fact, some animals have ailments that are
unknown to others. Birds thrive in times of drought, both in their
general health and in regard to parturition, and this is especially
the case with the cushat; fishes, however, with a few exceptions,
thrive best in rainy weather; on the contrary rainy seasons are bad
for birds-and so by the way is much drinking-and drought is bad for
fishes. Birds of prey, as has been already stated, may in a general
way be said never to drink at all, though Hesiod appears to have
been ignorant of the fact, for in his story about the siege of Ninus
he represents the eagle that presided over the auguries as in the
act of drinking; all other birds drink, but drink sparingly, as is the
case also with all other spongy-lunged oviparous animals. Sickness
in birds may be diagnosed from their plumage, which is ruffled when
they are sickly instead of lying smooth as when they are well.

19

The majority of fishes, as has been stated, thrive best in rainy
seasons. Not only have they food in greater abundance at this time,
but in a general way rain is wholesome for them just as it is for
vegetation-for, by the way, kitchen vegetables, though artificially
watered, derive benefit from rain; and the same remark applies even to
reeds that grow in marshes, as they hardly grow at all without a
rainfall. That rain is good for fishes may be inferred from the fact
that most fishes migrate to the Euxine for the summer; for owing to
the number of the rivers that discharge into this sea its water is
exceptionally fresh, and the rivers bring down a large supply of food.
Besides, a great number of fishes, such as the bonito and the
mullet, swim up the rivers and thrive in the rivers and marshes. The
sea-gudgeon also fattens in the rivers, and, as a rule, countries
abounding in lagoons furnish unusually excellent fish. While most
fishes, then, are benefited by rain, they are chiefly benefited by
summer rain; or we may state the case thus, that rain is good for
fishes in spring, summer, and autumn, and fine dry weather in
winter. As a general rule what is good for men is good for fishes
also.

Fishes do not thrive in cold places, and those fishes suffer
most in severe winters that have a stone in their head, as the
chromis, the basse, the sciaena, and the braize; for owing to the
stone they get frozen with the cold, and are thrown up on shore.

Whilst rain is wholesome for most fishes, it is, on the
contrary, unwholesome for the mullet, the cephalus, and the
so-called marinus, for rain superinduces blindness in most of these
fishes, and all the more rapidly if the rainfall be superabundant. The
cephalus is peculiarly subject to this malady in severe winters; their
eyes grow white, and when caught they are in poor condition, and
eventually the disease kills them. It would appear that this disease
is due to extreme cold even more than to an excessive rainfall; for
instance, in many places and more especially in shallows off the coast
of Nauplia, in the Argolid, a number of fishes have been known to be
caught out at sea in seasons of severe cold. The gilthead also suffers
in winter; the acharnas suffers in summer, and loses condition. The
coracine is exceptional among fishes in deriving benefit from drought,
and this is due to the fact that heat and drought are apt to come
together.

Particular places suit particular fishes; some are naturally
fishes of the shore, and some of the deep sea, and some are at home in
one or the other of these regions, and others are common to the two
and are at home in both. Some fishes will thrive in one particular
spot, and in that spot only. As a general rule it may be said that
places abounding in weeds are wholesome; at all events, fishes
caught in such places are exceptionally fat: that is, such fishes a
a habit all sorts of localities as well. The fact is that
weed-eating fishes find abundance of their special food in such
localities, and carnivorous fish find an unusually large number of
smaller fish. It matters also whether the wind be from the north or
south: the longer fish thrive better when a north wind prevails, and
in summer at one and the same spot more long fish will be caught
than flat fish with a north wind blowing.

The tunny and the sword-fish are infested with a parasite
about the rising of the Dog-star; that is to say, about this time both
these fishes have a grub beside their fins that is nicknamed the
'gadfly'. It resembles the scorpion in shape, and is about the size of
the spider. So acute is the pain it inflicts that the sword-fish
will often leap as high out of the water as a dolphin; in fact, it
sometimes leaps over the bulwarks of a vessel and falls back on the
deck. The tunny delights more than any other fish in the heat of the
sun. It will burrow for warmth in the sand in shallow waters near to
shore, or will, because it is warm, disport itself on the surface of
the sea.

The fry of little fishes escape by being overlooked, for it is
only the larger ones of the small species that fishes of the large
species will pursue. The greater part of the spawn and the fry of
fishes is destroyed by the heat of the sun, for whatever of them the
sun reaches it spoils.

Fishes are caught in greatest abundance before sunrise and after
sunset, or, speaking generally, just about sunset and sunrise.
Fishermen haul up their nets at these times, and speak of the hauls
then made as the 'nick-of-time' hauls. The fact is, that at these
times fishes are particularly weak-sighted; at night they are at rest,
and as the light grows stronger they see comparatively well.

We know of no pestilential malady attacking fishes, such as
those which attack man, and horses and oxen among the quadrupedal
vivipara, and certain species of other genera, domesticated and
wild; but fishes do seem to suffer from sickness; and fishermen
infer this from the fact that at times fishes in poor condition, and
looking as though they were sick, and of altered colour, are caught in
a large haul of well-conditioned fish of their own species. So much
for sea-fishes.

20

River-fish and lake-fish also are exempt from diseases of a
pestilential character, but certain species are subject to special and
peculiar maladies. For instance, the sheat-fish just before the rising
of the Dog-star, owing to its swimming near the surface of the
water, is liable to sunstroke, and is paralysed by a loud peal of
thunder. The carp is subject to the same eventualities but in a
lesser degree. The sheatfish is destroyed in great quantities in
shallow waters by the serpent called the dragon. In the balerus and
tilon a worm is engendered about the rising of the Dog-star, that
sickens these fish and causes them to rise towards the surface,
where they are killed by the excessive heat. The chalcis is subject to
a very violent malady; lice are engendered underneath their gills in
great numbers, and cause destruction among them; but no other
species of fish is subject to any such malady.

If mullein be introduced into water it will kill fish in its
vicinity. It is used extensively for catching fish in rivers and
ponds; by the Phoenicians it is made use of also in the sea.

There are two other methods employed for catch-fish. It is a
known fact that in winter fishes emerge from the deep parts of
rivers and, by the way, at all seasons fresh water is tolerably
cold. A trench accordingly is dug leading into a river, and wattled at
the river end with reeds and stones, an aperture being left in the
wattling through which the river water flows into the trench; when the
frost comes on the fish can be taken out of the trench in weels.
Another method is adopted in summer and winter alike. They run
across a stream a dam composed of brushwood and stones leaving a small
open space, and in this space they insert a weel; they then coop the
fish in towards this place, and draw them up in the weel as they
swim through the open space.

Shell-fish, as a rule, are benefited by rainy weather. The
purple murex is an exception; if it be placed on a shore near to where
a river discharges, it will die within a day after tasting the fresh
water. The murex lives for about fifty days after capture; during this
period they feed off one another, as there grows on the shell a kind
of sea-weed or sea-moss; if any food is thrown to them during this
period, it is said to be done not to keep them alive, but to make them
weigh more.

To shell-fish in general drought is unwholesome. During dry
weather they decrease in size and degenerate in quality; and it is
during such weather that the red scallop is found in more than usual
abundance. In the Pyrrhaean Strait the clam was exterminated, partly
by the dredging-machine used in their capture, and partly by
long-continued droughts. Rainy weather is wholesome to the
generality of shellfish owing to the fact that the sea-water then
becomes exceptionally sweet. In the Euxine, owing to the coldness of
the climate, shellfish are not found: nor yet in rivers, excepting a
few bivalves here and there. Univalves, by the way, are very apt to
freeze to death in extremely cold weather. So much for animals that
live in water.

21

To turn to quadrupeds, the pig suffers from three diseases, one of
which is called branchos, a disease attended with swellings about
the windpipe and the jaws. It may break out in any part of the body;
very often it attacks the foot, and occasionally the ear; the
neighbouring parts also soon rot, and the decay goes on until it
reaches the lungs, when the animal succumbs. The disease develops with
great rapidity, and the moment it sets in the animal gives up
eating. The swineherds know but one way to cure it, namely, by
complete excision, when they detect the first signs of the disease.
There are two other diseases, which are both alike termed craurus. The
one is attended with pain and heaviness in the head, and this is the
commoner of the two, the other with diarrhoea. The latter is
incurable, the former is treated by applying wine fomentations to
the snout and rinsing the nostrils with wine. Even this disease is
very hard to cure; it has been known to kill within three or four
days. The animal is chiefly subject to branchos when it gets extremely
fat, and when the heat has brought a good supply of figs. The
treatment is to feed on mashed mulberries, to give repeated warm
baths, and to lance the under part of the tongue.

Pigs with flabby flesh are subject to measles about the legs,
neck, and shoulders, for the pimples develop chiefly in these parts.
If the pimples are few in number the flesh is comparatively sweet, but
if they be numerous it gets watery and flaccid. The symptoms of
measles are obvious, for the pimples show chiefly on the under side of
the tongue, and if you pluck the bristles off the chine the skin
will appear suffused with blood, and further the animal will be unable
to keep its hind-feet at rest. Pigs never take this disease while they
are mere sucklings. The pimples may be got rid of by feeding on this
kind of spelt called tiphe; and this spelt, by the way, is very good
for ordinary food. The best food for rearing and fattening pigs is
chickpeas and figs, but the one thing essential is to vary the food as
much as possible, for this animal, like animals in general lights in a
change of diet; and it is said that one kind of food blows the
animal out, that another superinduces flesh, and that another puts
on fat, and that acorns, though liked by the animal, render the
flesh flaccid. Besides, if a sow eats acorns in great quantities, it
will miscarry, as is also the case with the ewe; and, indeed, the
miscarriage is more certain in the case of the ewe than in the case of
the sow. The pig is the only animal known to be subject to measles.

22

Dogs suffer from three diseases; rabies, quinsy, and sore feet.
Rabies drives the animal mad, and ary animal whatever, excepting
man, will take the disease if bitten by a dog so afflicted; the
disease is fatal to the dog itself, and to any animal it may bite, man
excepted. Quinsy also is fatal to dogs; and only a few recover from
disease of the feet. The camel, like the dog, is subject to rabies.
The elephant, which is reputed to enjoy immunity from all other
illnesses, is occasionally subject to flatulency.

23

Cattle in herds are liable to two diseases, foot, sickness and
craurus. In the former their feet suffer from eruptions, but the
animal recovers from the disease without even the loss of the hoof. It
is found of service to smear the horny parts with warm pitch. In
craurus, the breath comes warm at short intervals; in fact, craurus in
cattle answers to fever in man. The symptoms of the disease are
drooping of the ears and disinclination for food. The animal soon
succumbs, and when the carcase is opened the lungs are found to be
rotten.

24

Horses out at pasture are free from all diseases excepting disease
of the feet. From this disease they sometimes lose their hooves: but
after losing them they grow them soon again, for as one hoof is
decaying it is being replaced by another. Symptoms of the malady are a
sinking in and wrinkling of the lip in the middle under the
nostrils, and in the case of the male, a twitching of the right
testicle.

Stall-reared horses are subject to very numerous forms of disease.
They are liable to disease called 'eileus'. Under this disease the
animal trails its hind-legs under its belly so far forward as almost
to fall back on its haunches; if it goes without food for several days
and turns rabid, it may be of service to draw blood, or to castrate
the male. The animal is subject also to tetanus: the veins get
rigid, as also the head and neck, and the animal walks with its legs
stretched out straight. The horse suffers also from abscesses. Another
painful illness afflicts them called the 'barley-surfeit'. The are a
softening of the palate and heat of the breath; the animal may recover
through the strength of its own constitution, but no formal remedies
are of any avail.

There is also a disease called nymphia, in which the animal is
said to stand still and droop its head on hearing flute-music; if
during this ailment the horse be mounted, it will run off at a
gallop until it is pulled. Even with this rabies in full force, it
preserves a dejected spiritless appearance; some of the symptoms are a
throwing back of the ears followed by a projection of them, great
languor, and heavy breathing. Heart-ache also is incurable, of which
the symptom is a drawing in of the flanks; and so is displacement of
the bladder, which is accompanied by a retention of urine and a
drawing up of the hooves and haunches. Neither is there any cure if
the animal swallow the grape-beetle, which is about the size of the
sphondyle or knuckle-beetle. The bite of the shrewmouse is dangerous
to horses and other draught animals as well; it is followed by
boils. The bite is all the more dangerous if the mouse be pregnant
when she bites, for the boils then burst, but do not burst
otherwise. The cicigna-called 'chalcis' by some, and 'zignis' by
others-either causes death by its bite or, at all events, intense
pain; it is like a small lizard, with the colour of the blind snake.
In point of fact, according to experts, the horse and the sheep have
pretty well as many ailments as the human species. The drug known
under the name of 'sandarace' or realgar, is extremely injurious to
a horse, and to all draught animals; it is given to the animal as a
medicine in a solution of water, the liquid being filtered through a
colander. The mare when pregnant apt to miscarry when disturbed by the
odour of an extinguished candle; and a similar accident happens
occasionally to women in their pregnancy. So much for the diseases
of the horse.

The so-called hippomanes grows, as has stated, on the foal,
and the mare nibbles it off as she licks and cleans the foal. All
the curious stories connected with the hippomanes are due to old wives
and to the venders of charms. What is called the 'polium' or foal's
membrane, is, as all the accounts state, delivered by the mother
before the foal appears.

A horse will recognize the neighing of any other horse with
which it may have fought at any previous period. The horse delights in
meadows and marshes, and likes to drink muddy water; in fact, if water
be clear, the horse will trample in it to make it turbid, will then
drink it, and afterwards will wallow in it. The animal is fond of
water in every way, whether for drinking or for bathing purposes;
and this explains the peculiar constitution of the hippopotamus or
river-horse. In regard to water the ox is the opposite of the horse;
for if the water be impure or cold, or mixed up with alien matter,
it will refuse to drink it.

25

The ass suffers chiefly from one particular disease which they
call 'melis'. It arises first in the head, and a clammy humour runs
down the nostrils, thick and red; if it stays in the head the animal
may recover, but if it descends into the lungs the animal will die. Of
all animals on its of its kind it is the least capable of enduring
extreme cold, which circumstance will account for the fact that the
animal is not found on the shores of the Euxine, nor in Scythia.

26

Elephants suffer from flatulence, and when thus afflicted can void
neither solid nor liquid residuum. If the elephant swallow earth-mould
it suffers from relaxation; but if it go on taking it steadily, it
will experience no harm. From time to time it takes to swallowing
stones. It suffers also from diarrhoea: in this case they administer
draughts of lukewarm water or dip its fodder in honey, and either
one or the other prescription will prove a costive. When they suffer
from insomnia, they will be restored to health if their shoulders be
rubbed with salt, olive-oil, and warm water; when they have aches in
their shoulders they will derive great benefit from the application of
roast pork. Some elephants like olive oil, and others do not. If there
is a bit of iron in the inside of an elephant it is said that it
will pass out if the animal takes a drink of olive-oil; if the
animal refuses olive-oil, they soak a root in the oil and give it
the root to swallow. So much, then, for quadrupeds.

27

Insects, as a general rule, thrive best in the time of year in
which they come into being, especially if the season be moist and
warm, as in spring.

In bee-hives are found creatures that do great damage to the
combs; for instance, the grub that spins a web and ruins the
honeycomb: it is called the 'cleros'. It engenders an insect like
itself, of a spider-shape, and brings disease into the swarm. There is
another insect resembling the moth, called by some the 'pyraustes',
that flies about a lighted candle: this creature engenders a brood
full of a fine down. It is never stung by a bee, and can only be got
out of a hive by fumigation. A caterpillar also is engendered in
hives, of a species nicknamed the teredo, or 'borer', with which
creature the bee never interferes. Bees suffer most when flowers are
covered with mildew, or in seasons of drought.

All insects, without exception, die if they be smeared over with
oil; and they die all the more rapidly if you smear their head with
the oil and lay them out in the sun.

28

Variety in animal life may be produced by variety of locality:
thus in one place an animal will not be found at all, in another it
will be small, or short-lived, or will not thrive. Sometimes this sort
of difference is observed in closely adjacent districts. Thus, in
the territory of Miletus, in one district cicadas are found while
there are none in the district close adjoining; and in Cephalenia
there is a river on one side of which the cicada is found and not on
the other. In Pordoselene there is a public road one side of which the
weasel is found but not on the other. In Boeotia the mole is found
in great abundance in the neighbourhood of Orchomenus, but there are
none in Lebadia though it is in the immediate vicinity, and if a
mole be transported from the one district to the other it will
refuse to burrow in the soil. The hare cannot live in Ithaca if
introduced there; in fact it will be found dead, turned towards the
point of the beach where it was landed. The horseman-ant is not
found in Sicily; the croaking frog has only recently appeared in the
neighbourhood of Cyrene. In the whole of Libya there is neither wild
boar, nor stag, nor wild goat; and in India, according to Ctesias-no
very good authority, by the way-there are no swine, wild or tame,
but animals that are devoid of blood and such as go into hiding or
go torpid are all of immense size there. In the Euxine there are no
small molluscs nor testaceans, except a few here and there; but in the
Red Sea all the testaceans are exceedingly large. In Syria the sheep
have tails a cubit in breadth; the goats have ears a span and a palm
long, and some have ears that flap down to the ground; and the
cattle have humps on their shoulders, like the camel. In Lycia goats
are shorn for their fleece, just as sheep are in all other
countries. In Libya the long-horned ram is born with horns, and not
the ram only, as Homer' words it, but the ewe as well; in Pontus, on
the confines of Scythia, the ram is without horns.

In Egypt animals, as a rule, are larger than their congeners
in Greece, as the cow and the sheep; but some are less, as the dog,
the wolf, the hare, the fox, the raven, and the hawk; others are of
pretty much the same size, as the crow and the goat. The difference,
where it exists, is attributed to the food, as being abundant in one
case and insufficient in another, for instance for the wolf and the
hawk; for provision is scanty for the carnivorous animals, small birds
being scarce; food is scanty also for the hare and for all frugivorous
animals, because neither the nuts nor the fruit last long.

In many places the climate will account for peculiarities;
thus in Illyria, Thrace, and Epirus the ass is small, and in Gaul
and in Scythia the ass is not found at all owing to the coldness of
the climate of these countries. In Arabia the lizard is more than a
cubit in length, and the mouse is much larger than our field-mouse,
with its hind-legs a span long and its front legs the length of the
first finger-joint. In Libya, according to all accounts, the length of
the serpents is something appalling; sailors spin a yarn to the effect
that some crews once put ashore and saw the bones of a number of oxen,
and that they were sure that the oxen had been devoured by serpents,
for, just as they were putting out to sea, serpents came chasing their
galleys at full speed and overturned one galley and set upon the crew.
Again, lions are more numerous in Libya, and in that district of
Europe that lies between the Achelous and the Nessus; the leopard is
more abundant in Asia Minor, and is not found in Europe at all. As a
general rule, wild animals are at their wildest in Asia, at their
boldest in Europe, and most diverse in form in Libya; in fact, there
is an old saying, 'Always something fresh in Libya. '

It would appear that in that country animals of diverse
species meet, on account of the rainless climate, at the
watering-places, and there pair together; and that such pairs will
often breed if they be nearly of the same size and have periods of
gestation of the same length. For it is said that they are tamed
down in their behaviour towards each other by extremity of thirst.
And, by the way, unlike animals elsewhere, they require to drink
more in wintertime than in summer: for they acquire the habit of not
drinking in summer, owing to the circumstance that there is usually no
water then; and the mice, if they drink, die. Elsewhere also
bastard-animals are born to heterogeneous pairs; thus in Cyrene the
wolf and the bitch will couple and breed; and the Laconian hound is
a cross between the fox and the dog. They say that the Indian dog is a
cross between the tiger and the bitch, not the first cross, but a
cross in the third generation; for they say that the first cross is
a savage creature. They take the bitch to a lonely spot and tie her
up: if the tiger be in an amorous mood he will pair with her; if not
he will eat her up, and this casualty is of frequent occurrence.

29

Locality will differentiate habits also: for instance, rugged
highlands will not produce the same results as the soft lowlands.
The animals of the highlands look fiercer and bolder, as is seen in
the swine of Mount Athos; for a lowland boar is no match even for a
mountain sow.

Again, locality is an important element in regard to the bite of
an animal. Thus, in Pharos and other places, the bite of the
scorpion is not dangerous; elsewhere-in Caria, for instances-where
scorpions are venomous as well as plentiful and of large size, the
sting is fatal to man or beast, even to the pig, and especially to a
black pig, though the pig, by the way, is in general most singularly
indifferent to the bite of any other creature. If a pig goes into
water after being struck by the scorpion of Caria, it will surely die.

There is great variety in the effects produced by the bites of
serpents. The asp is found in Libya; the so-called 'septic' drug is
made from the body of the animal, and is the only remedy known for the
bite of the original. Among the silphium, also, a snake is found,
for the bite or which a certain stone is said to be a cure: a stone
that is brought from the grave of an ancient king, which stone is
put into water and drunk off. In certain parts of Italy the bite of
the gecko is fatal. But the deadliest of all bites of venomous
creatures is when one venomous animal has bitten another; as, for
instance, a viper's after it has bitten a scorpion. To the great
majority of such creatures man's is fatal. There is a very little
snake, by some entitled the 'holy-snake', which is dreaded by even the
largest serpents. It is about an ell long, and hairy-looking; whenever
it bites an animal, the flesh all round the wound will at once
mortify. There is in India a small snake which is exceptional in
this respect, that for its bite no specific whatever is known.

30

Animals also vary as to their condition of health in connexion
with their pregnancy.

Testaceans, such as scallops and all the oyster-family, and
crustaceans, such as the lobster family, are best when with spawn.
Even in the case of the testacean we speak of spawning (or pregnancy);
but whereas the crustaceans may be seen coupling and laying their
spawn, this is never the case with testaceans. Molluscs are best in
the breeding time, as the calamary, the sepia, and the octopus.

Fishes, when they begin to breed, are nearly all good for the
table; but after the female has gone long with spawn they are good
in some cases, and in others are out of season. The maenis, for
instance, is good at the breeding time. The female of this fish is
round, the male longer and flatter; when the female is beginning to
breed the male turns black and mottled, and is quite unfit for the
table; at this period he is nicknamed the 'goat'.

The wrasses called the owzel and the thrush, and the smaris have
different colours at different seasons, as is the case with the
plumage of certain birds; that is to say, they become black in the
spring and after the spring get white again. The phycis also changes
its hue: in general it is white, but in spring it is mottled; it is
the only sea-fish which is said make a bed for itself, and the
female lays her spawn in this bed or nest. The maenis, as was
observed, changes its colour as does the smaris, and in summer-time
changes back from whitish to black, the change being especially marked
about the fins and gills. The coracine, like the maenis, is in best
condition at breeding time; the mullet, the basse, and scaly fishes in
general are in bad condition at this period. A few fish are in much
the same condition at all times, whether with spawn or not, as the
glaucus. Old fishes also are bad eating; the old tunny is unfit even
for pickling, as a great part of its flesh wastes away with age, and
the same wasting is observed in all old fishes.
The age of a scaly
fish may be told by the size and the hardness of its scales. An old
tunny has been caught weighing fifteen talents, with the span of its
tail two cubits and a palm broad.

River-fish and lake-fish are best after they have discharged the
spawn in the case of the female and the milt in the case of the
male: that is, when they have fully recovered from the exhaustion of
such discharge. Some are good in the breeding time, as the saperdis,
and some bad, as the sheat-fish. As a general rule, the male fish is
better eating than the female; but the reverse holds good of the
sheat-fish. The eels that are called females are the best for the
table: they look as though they were female, but they really are not
so.

Book IX

1

OF the animals that are comparatively obscure and short-lived
the characters or dispositions are not so obvious to recognition as
are those of animals that are longer-lived. These latter animals
appear to have a natural capacity corresponding to each of the
passions: to cunning or simplicity, courage or timidity, to good
temper or to bad, and to other similar dispositions of mind.

Some also are capable of giving or receiving instruction-of
receiving it from one another or from man: those that have the faculty
of hearing, for instance; and, not to limit the matter to audible
sound, such as can differentiate the suggested meanings of word and
gesture.

In all genera in which the distinction of male and female is
found, Nature makes a similar differentiation in the mental
characteristics of the two sexes. This differentiation is the most
obvious in the case of human kind and in that of the larger animals
and the viviparous quadrupeds. In the case of these latter the
female softer in character, is the sooner tamed, admits more readily
of caressing, is more apt in the way of learning; as, for instance, in
the Laconian breed of dogs the female is cleverer than the male. Of
the Molossian breed of dogs, such as are employed in the chase are
pretty much the same as those elsewhere; but sheep-dogs of this
breed are superior to the others in size, and in the courage with
which they face the attacks of wild animals.

Dogs that are born of a mixed breed between these two kinds
are remarkable for courage and endurance of hard labour.

In all cases, excepting those of the bear and leopard, the
female is less spirited than the male; in regard to the two
exceptional cases, the superiority in courage rests with the female.
With all other animals the female is softer in disposition than the
male, is more mischievous, less simple, more impulsive, and more
attentive to the nurture of the young: the male, on the other hand, is
more spirited than the female, more savage, more simple and less
cunning. The traces of these differentiated characteristics are more
or less visible everywhere, but they are especially visible where
character is the more developed, and most of all in man.

The fact is, the nature of man is the most rounded off and
complete, and consequently in man the qualities or capacities above
referred to are found in their perfection. Hence woman is more
compassionate than man, more easily moved to tears, at the same time
is more jealous, more querulous, more apt to scold and to strike.
She is, furthermore, more prone to despondency and less hopeful than
the man, more void of shame or self-respect, more false of speech,
more deceptive, and of more retentive memory. She is also more
wakeful, more shrinking, more difficult to rouse to action, and
requires a smaller quantity of nutriment.

As was previously stated, the male is more courageous than the
female, and more sympathetic in the way of standing by to help. Even
in the case of molluscs, when the cuttle-fish is struck with the
trident the male stands by to help the female; but when the male is
struck the female runs away.

There is enmity between such animals as dwell in the same
localities or subsist on the food. If the means of subsistence run
short, creatures of like kind will fight together. Thus it is said
that seals which inhabit one and the same district will fight, male
with male, and female with female, until one combatant kills the
other, or one is driven away by the other; and their young do even
in like manner.

All creatures are at enmity with the carnivores, and the
carnivores with all the rest, for they all subsist on living
creatures. Soothsayers take notice of cases where animals keep apart
from one another, and cases where they congregate together; calling
those that live at war with one another 'dissociates', and those
that dwell in peace with one another 'associates'. One may go so far
as to say that if there were no lack or stint of food, then those
animals that are now afraid of man or are wild by nature would be tame
and familiar with him, and in like manner with one another. This is
shown by the way animals are treated in Egypt, for owing to the fact
that food is constantly supplied to them the very fiercest creatures
live peaceably together. The fact is they are tamed by kindness, and
in some places crocodiles are tame to their priestly keeper from being
fed by him. And elsewhere also the same phenomenon is to be observed.

The eagle and the snake are enemies, for the eagle lives on
snakes; so are the ichneumon and the venom-spider, for the ichneumon
preys upon the latter. In the case of birds, there is mutual enmity
between the poecilis, the crested lark, the woodpecker (? ), and the
chloreus, for they devour one another's eggs; so also between the crow
and the owl; for, owing to the fact that the owl is dim-sighted by
day, the crow at midday preys upon the owl's eggs, and the owl at
night upon the crow's, each having the whip-hand of the other, turn
and turn about, night and day.

There is enmity also between the owl and the wren; for the
latter also devours the owl's eggs. In the daytime all other little
birds flutter round the owl-a practice which is popularly termed
'admiring him'-buffet him, and pluck out his feathers; in
consequence of this habit, bird-catchers use the owl as a decoy for
catching little birds of all kinds.

The so-called presbys or 'old man' is at war with the weasel and
the crow, for they prey on her eggs and her brood; and so the
turtle-dove with the pyrallis, for they live in the same districts and
on the same food; and so with the green wood pecker and the libyus;
and so with kite and the raven, for, owing to his having the advantage
from stronger talons and more rapid flight the former can steal
whatever the latter is holding, so that it is food also that makes
enemies of these. In like manner there is war between birds that get
their living from the sea, as between the brenthus, the gull, and
the harpe; and so between the buzzard on one side and the toad and
snake on the other, for the buzzard preys upon the eggs of the two
others; and so between the turtle-dove and the chloreus; the
chloreus kills the dove, and the crow kills the so-called
drummer-bird.

The aegolius, and birds of prey in general, prey upon the
calaris, and consequently there is war between it and them; and so
is there war between the gecko-lizard and the spider, for the former
preys upon the latter; and so between the woodpecker and the heron,
for the former preys upon the eggs and brood of the latter. And so
between the aegithus and the ass, owing to the fact that the ass, in
passing a furze-bush, rubs its sore and itching parts against the
prickles; by so doing, and all the more if it brays, it topples the
eggs and the brood out of the nest, the young ones tumble out in
fright, and the mother-bird, to avenge this wrong, flies at the
beast and pecks at his sore places.

The wolf is at war with the ass, the bull, and the fox, for as
being a carnivore, he attacks these other animals; and so for the same
reason with the fox and the circus, for the circus, being
carnivorous and furnished with crooked talons, attacks and maims the
animal. And so the raven is at war with the bull and the ass, for it
flies at them, and strikes them, and pecks at their eyes; and so
with the eagle and the heron, for the former, having crooked talons,
attacks the latter, and the latter usually succumbs to the attack; and
so the merlin with the vulture; and the crex with the eleus-owl, the
blackbird, and the oriole (of this latter bird, by the way, the
story goes that he was originally born out of a funeral pyre): the
cause of warfare is that the crex injures both them and their young.
The nuthatch and the wren are at war with the eagle; the nuthatch
breaks the eagle's eggs, so the eagle is at war with it on special
grounds, though, as a bird of prey, it carries on a general war all
round. The horse and the anthus are enemies, and the horse will
drive the bird out of the field where he is grazing: the bird feeds on
grass, and sees too dimly to foresee an attack; it mimics the
whinnying of the horse, flies at him, and tries to frighten him
away; but the horse drives the bird away, and whenever he catches it
he kills it: this bird lives beside rivers or on marsh ground; it
has pretty plumage, and finds its without trouble. The ass is at
enmity with the lizard, for the lizard sleeps in his manger, gets into
his nostril, and prevents his eating.

Of herons there are three kinds: the ash coloured, the white,
and the starry heron (or bittern). Of these the first mentioned
submits with reluctance to the duties of incubation, or to union of
the sexes; in fact, it screams during the union, and it is said
drips blood from its eyes; it lays its eggs also in an awkward manner,
not unattended with pain. It is at war with certain creatures that
do it injury: with the eagle for robbing it, with the fox for worrying
it at night, and with the lark for stealing its eggs.

The snake is at war with the weasel and the pig; with the weasel
when they are both at home, for they live on the same food; with the
pig for preying on her kind. The merlin is at war with the fox; it
strikes and claws it, and, as it has crooked talons, it kills the
animal's young. The raven and the fox are good friends, for the
raven is at enmity with the merlin; and so when the merlin assails the
fox the raven comes and helps the animal. The vulture and the merlin
are mutual enemies, as being both furnished with crooked talons. The
vulture fights with the eagle, and so, by the way, does does swan; and
the swan is often victorious: moreover, of all birds swans are most
prone to the killing of one another.

In regard to wild creatures, some sets are at enmity with
other sets at all times and under all circumstances; others, as in the
case of man and man, at special times and under incidental
circumstances. The ass and the acanthis are enemies; for the bird
lives on thistles, and the ass browses on thistles when they are young
and tender. The anthus, the acanthis, and the aegithus are at enmity
with one another; it is said that the blood of the anthus will not
intercommingle with the blood of the aegithus. The crow and the
heron are friends, as also are the sedge-bird and lark, the laedus and
the celeus or green woodpecker; the woodpecker lives on the banks of
rivers and beside brakes, the laedus lives on rocks and bills, and
is greatly attached to its nesting-place. The piphinx, the harpe,
and the kite are friends; as are the fox and the snake, for both
burrow underground; so also are the blackbird and the turtle-dove. The
lion and the thos or civet are enemies, for both are carnivorous and
live on the same food. Elephants fight fiercely with one another,
and stab one another with their tusks; of two combatants the beaten
one gets completely cowed, and dreads the sound of his conqueror's
voice. These animals differ from one another an extraordinary extent
in the way of courage. Indians employ these animals for war
purposes, irrespective of sex; the females, however, are less in
size and much inferior in point of spirit. An elephant by pushing with
his big tusks can batter down a wall, and will butt with his
forehead at a palm until he brings it down, when he stamps on it and
lays it in orderly fashion on the ground. Men hunt the elephant in the
following way: they mount tame elephants of approved spirit and
proceed in quest of wild animals; when they come up with these they
bid the tame brutes to beat the wild ones until they tire the latter
completely. Hereupon the driver mounts a wild brute and guides him
with the application of his metal prong; after this the creature
soon becomes tame, and obeys guidance. Now when the driver is on their
back they are all tractable, but after he has dismounted, some are
tame and others vicious; in the case of these latter, they tie their
front-legs with ropes to keep them quiet. The animal is hunted whether
young or full grown.

Thus we see that in the case of the creatures above mentioned
their mutual friendship or the is due to the food they feed on and the
life they lead.

2

Of fishes, such as swim in shoals together are friendly to one
another; such as do not so swim are enemies. Some fishes swarm
during the spawning season; others after they have spawned. To state
the matter comprehensively, we may say that the following are shoaling
fish: the tunny, the maenis, the sea-gudgeon, the bogue, the
horse-mackerel, the coracine, the synodon or dentex, the red mullet,
the sphyraena, the anthias, the eleginus, the atherine, the
sarginus, the gar-fish, (the squid,) the rainbow-wrasse, the
pelamyd, the mackerel, the coly-mackerel. Of these some not only
swim in shoals, but go in pairs inside the shoal; the rest without
exception swim in pairs, and only swim in shoals at certain periods:
that is, as has been said, when they are heavy with spawn or after
they have spawned.

The basse and the grey mullet are bitter enemies, but they swarm
together at certain times; for at times not only do fishes of the same
species swarm together, but also those whose feeding-grounds are
identical or adjacent, if the food-supply be abundant. The grey mullet
is often found alive with its tail lopped off, and the conger with all
that part of its body removed that lies to the rear of the vent; in
the case of the mullet the injury is wrought by the basse, in that
of the conger-eel by the muraena. There is war between the larger
and the lesser fishes: for the big fishes prey on the little ones.
So much on the subject of marine animals.

3

The characters of animals, as has been observed, differ in respect
to timidity, to gentleness, to courage, to tameness, to
intelligence, and to stupidity.

The sheep is said to be naturally dull and stupid. Of all
quadrupeds it is the most foolish: it will saunter away to lonely
places with no object in view; oftentimes in stormy weather it will
stray from shelter; if it be overtaken by a snowstorm, it will stand
still unless the shepherd sets it in motion; it will stay behind and
perish unless the shepherd brings up the rams; it will then follow
home.

If you catch hold of a goat's beard at the extremity-the beard
is of a substance resembling hair-all the companion goats will stand
stock still, staring at this particular goat in a kind of
dumbfounderment.

You will have a warmer bed in amongst the goats than among the
sheep, because the goats will be quieter and will creep up towards
you; for the goat is more impatient of cold than the sheep.

Shepherds train sheep to close in together at a clap of their
hands, for if, when a thunderstorm comes on, a ewe stays behind
without closing in, the storm will kill it if it be with young;
consequently if a sudden clap or noise is made, they close in together
within the sheepfold by reason of their training.

Even bulls, when they are roaming by themselves apart from the
herd, are killed by wild animals.

Sheep and goats lie crowded together, kin by kin. When the sun
turns early towards its setting, the goats are said to lie no longer
face to face, but back to back.

4

Cattle at pasture keep together in their accustomed herds, and
if one animal strays away the rest will follow; consequently if the
herdsmen lose one particular animal, they keep close watch on all
the rest.

When mares with their colts pasture together in the same field,
if one dam dies the others will take up the rearing of the colt. In
point of fact, the mare appears to be singularly prone by nature to
maternal fondness; in proof whereof a barren mare will steal the
foal from its dam, will tend it with all the solicitude of a mother,
but, as it will be unprovided with mother's milk, its solicitude
will prove fatal to its charge.

5

Among wild quadrupeds the hind appears to be pre-eminently
intelligent; for example, in its habit of bringing forth its young
on the sides of public roads, where the fear of man forbids the
approach of wild animals. Again, after parturition, it first
swallows the afterbirth, then goes in quest of the seseli shrub, and
after eating of it returns to its young. The mother takes its young
betimes to her lair, so leading it to know its place of refuge in time
of danger; this lair is a precipitous rock, with only one approach,
and there it is said to hold its own against all comers. The male when
it gets fat, which it does in a high degree in autumn, disappears,
abandoning its usual resorts, apparently under an idea that its
fatness facilitates its capture. They shed their horns in places
difficult of access or discovery, whence the proverbial expression
of 'the place where the stag sheds his horns'; the fact being that, as
having parted with their weapons, they take care not to be seen. The
saying is that no man has ever seen the animal's left horn; that the
creature keeps it out of sight because it possesses some medicinal
property.

In their first year stags grow no horns, but only an excrescence
indicating where horns will be, this excrescence being short and
thick. In their second year they grow their horns for the first
time, straight in shape, like pegs for hanging clothes on; and on this
account they have an appropriate nickname. In the third year the
antlers are bifurcate; in the fourth year they grow trifurcate; and so
they go on increasing in complexity until the creature is six years
old: after this they grow their horns without any specific
differentiation, so that you cannot by observation of them tell the
animal's age. But the patriarchs of the herd may be told chiefly by
two signs; in the first place they have few teeth or none at all, and,
in the second place, they have ceased to grow the pointed tips to
their antlers. The forward-pointing tips of the growing horns (that is
to say the brow antlers), with which the animal meets attack, are
technically termed its 'defenders'; with these the patriarchs are
unprovided, and their antlers merely grow straight upwards. Stags shed
their horns annually, in or about the month of May; after shedding,
they conceal themselves, it is said, during the daytime, and, to avoid
the flies, hide in thick copses; during this time, until they have
grown their horns, they feed at night-time. The horns at first grow in
a kind of skin envelope, and get rough by degrees; when they reach
their full size the animal basks in the sun, to mature and dry them.
When they need no longer rub them against tree-trunks they quit
their hiding places, from a sense of security based upon the
possession of arms defensive and offensive. An Achaeine stag has
been caught with a quantity of green ivy grown over its horns, it
having grown apparently, as on fresh green wood, when the horns were
young and tender. When a stag is stung by a venom-spider or similar
insect, it gathers crabs and eats them; it is said to be a good
thing for man to drink the juice, but the taste is disagreeable. The
hinds after parturition at once swallow the afterbirth, and it is
impossible to secure it, for the hind catches it before it falls to
the ground: now this substance is supposed to have medicinal
properties. When hunted the creatures are caught by singing or
pipe-playing on the part of the hunters; they are so pleased with
the music that they lie down on the grass. If there be two hunters,
one before their eyes sings or plays the pipe, the other keeps out
of sight and shoots, at a signal given by the confederate. If the
animal has its ears cocked, it can hear well and you cannot escape its
ken; if its ears are down, you can.

6

When bears are running away from their pursuers they push their
cubs in front of them, or take them up and carry them; when they are
being overtaken they climb up a tree. When emerging from their
winter-den, they at once take to eating cuckoo-pint, as has been said,
and chew sticks of wood as though they were cutting teeth.

Many other quadrupeds help themselves in clever ways. Wild goats
in Crete are said, when wounded by arrows, to go in search of dittany,
which is supposed to have the property of ejecting arrows in the body.
Dogs, when they are ill, eat some kind of grass and produce
vomiting. The panther, after eating panther's-bane, tries to find some
human excrement, which is said to heal its pain. This panther's-bane
kills lions as well. Hunters hang up human excrement in a vessel
attached to the boughs of a tree, to keep the animal from straying
to any distance; the animal meets its end in leaping up to the
branch and trying to get at the medicine. They say that the panther
has found out that wild animals are fond of the scent it emits;
that, when it goes a-hunting, it hides itself; that the other
animals come nearer and nearer, and that by this stratagem it can
catch even animals as swift of foot as stags.

The Egyptian ichneumon, when it sees the serpent called the asp,
does not attack it until it has called in other ichneumons to help; to
meet the blows and bites of their enemy the assailants beplaster
themselves with mud, by first soaking in the river and then rolling on
the ground.

When the crocodile yawns, the trochilus flies into his mouth and
cleans his teeth. The trochilus gets his food thereby, and the
crocodile gets ease and comfort; it makes no attempt to injure its
little friend, but, when it wants it to go, it shakes its neck in
warning, lest it should accidentally bite the bird.

The tortoise, when it has partaken of a snake, eats marjoram; this
action has been actually observed. A man saw a tortoise perform this
operation over and over again, and every time it plucked up some
marjoram go back to partake of its prey; he thereupon pulled the
marjoram up by the roots, and the consequence was the tortoise died.
The weasel, when it fights with a snake, first eats wild rue, the
smell of which is noxious to the snake. The dragon, when it eats
fruit, swallows endive-juice; it has been seen in the act. Dogs,
when they suffer from worms, eat the standing corn. Storks, and all
other birds, when they get a wound fighting, apply marjoram to the
place injured.

Many have seen the locust, when fighting with the snake get a
tight hold of the snake by the neck. The weasel has a clever way of
getting the better of birds; it tears their throats open, as wolves do
with sheep. Weasels fight desperately with mice-catching snakes, as
they both prey on the same animal.

In regard to the instinct of hedgehogs, it has been observed
in many places that, when the wind is shifting from north to south,
and from south to north, they shift the outlook of their
earth-holes, and those that are kept in domestication shift over
from one wall to the other. The story goes that a man in Byzantium got
into high repute for foretelling a change of weather, all owing to his
having noticed this habit of the hedgehog.

The polecat or marten is about as large as the smaller breed of
Maltese dogs. In the thickness of its fur, in its look, in the white
of its belly, and in its love of mischief, it resembles the weasel; it
is easily tamed; from its liking for honey it is a plague to
bee-hives; it preys on birds like the cat. Its genital organ, as has
been said, consists of bone: the organ of the male is supposed to be a
cure for strangury; doctors scrape it into powder, and administer it
in that form.

7

In a general way in the lives of animals many resemblances to
human life may be observed. Pre-eminent intelligence will be seen more
in small creatures than in large ones, as is exemplified in the case
of birds by the nest building of the swallow. In the same way as men
do, the bird mixes mud and chaff together; if it runs short of mud, it
souses its body in water and rolls about in the dry dust with wet
feathers; furthermore, just as man does, it makes a bed of straw,
putting hard material below for a foundation, and adapting all to suit
its own size. Both parents co-operate in the rearing of the young;
each of the parents will detect, with practised eye, the young one
that has had a helping, and will take care it is not helped twice
over; at first the parents will rid the nest of excrement, but, when
the young are grown, they will teach their young to shift their
position and let their excrement fall over the side of the nest.

Pigeons exhibit other phenomena with a similar likeness to the
ways of humankind. In pairing the same male and the same female keep
together; and the union is only broken by the death of one of the
two parties. At the time of parturition in the female the
sympathetic attentions of the male are extraordinary; if the female is
afraid on account of the impending parturition to enter the nest,
the male will beat her and force her to come in. When the young are
born, he will take and masticate pieces of suitable food, will open
the beaks of the fledglings, and inject these pieces, thus preparing
them betimes to take food. (When the male bird is about to expel the
the young ones from the nest he cohabits with them all. ) As a
general rule these birds show this conjugal fidelity, but occasionally
a female will cohabit with other than her mate. These birds are
combative, and quarrel with one another, and enter each other's nests,
though this occurs but seldom; at a distance from their nests this
quarrelsomeness is less marked, but in the close neighbourhood of
their nests they will fight desperately. A peculiarity common to the
tame pigeon, the ring-dove and the turtle-dove is that they do not
lean the head back when they are in the act of drinking, but only when
they have fully quenched their thirst. The turtle-dove and the
ring-dove both have but one mate, and let no other come nigh; both
sexes co-operate in the process of incubation. It is difficult to
distinguish between the sexes except by an examination of their
interiors. Ring-doves are long-lived; cases have been known where such
birds were twenty-five years old, thirty years old, and in some
cases forty. As they grow old their claws increase in size, and
pigeon-fanciers cut the claws; as far as one can see, the birds suffer
no other perceptible disfigurement by their increase in age.
Turtle-doves and pigeons that are blinded by fanciers for use as
decoys, live for eight years. Partridges live for about fifteen years.
Ring-doves and turtle-doves always build their nests in the same place
year after year. The male, as a general rule, is more long-lived
than the female; but in the case of pigeons some assert that the
male dies before the female, taking their inference from the
statements of persons who keep decoy-birds in captivity. Some
declare that the male sparrow lives only a year, pointing to the
fact that early in spring the male sparrow has no black beard, but has
one later on, as though the blackbearded birds of the last year had
all died out; they also say that the females are the longer lived,
on the grounds that they are caught in amongst the young birds and
that their age is rendered manifest by the hardness about their beaks.
Turtle-doves in summer live in cold places, (and in warm places during
the winter); chaffinches affect warm habitations in summer and cold
ones in winter.

8

Birds of a heavy build, such as quails, partridges, and the
like, build no nests; indeed, where they are incapable of flight, it
would be of no use if they could do so. After scraping a hole on a
level piece of ground-and it is only in such a place that they lay
their eggs-they cover it over with thorns and sticks for security
against hawks and eagles, and there lay their eggs and hatch them;
after the hatching is over, they at once lead the young out from the
nest, as they are not able to fly afield for food for them. Quails and
partridges, like barn-door hens, when they go to rest, gather their
brood under their wings. Not to be discovered, as might be the case if
they stayed long in one spot, they do not hatch the eggs where they
laid them. When a man comes by chance upon a young brood, and tries to
catch them, the hen-bird rolls in front of the hunter, pretending to
be lame: the man every moment thinks he is on the point of catching
her, and so she draws him on and on, until every one of her brood
has had time to escape; hereupon she returns to the nest and calls the
young back. The partridge lays not less than ten eggs, and often
lays as many as sixteen. As has been observed, the bird has
mischievous and deceitful habits. In the spring-time, a noisy
scrimmage takes place, out of which the male-birds emerge each with
a hen. Owing to the lecherous nature of the bird, and from a dislike
to the hen sitting, the males, if they find any eggs, roll them over
and over until they break them in pieces; to provide against this
the female goes to a distance and lays the eggs, and often, under
the stress of parturition, lays them in any chance spot that offers;
if the male be near at hand, then to keep the eggs intact she refrains
from visiting them. If she be seen by a man, then, just as with her
fledged brood, she entices him off by showing herself close at his
feet until she has drawn him to a distance. When the females have
run away and taken to sitting, the males in a pack take to screaming
and fighting; when thus engaged, they have the nickname of 'widowers'.
The bird who is beaten follows his victor, and submits to be covered
by him only; and the beaten bird is covered by a second one or by
any other, only clandestinely without the victor's knowledge; this
is so, not at all times, but at a particular season of the year, and
with quails as well as with partridges. A similar proceeding takes
place occasionally with barn-door cocks: for in temples, where cocks
are set apart as dedicate without hens, they all as a matter of course
tread any new-comer. Tame partridges tread wild birds, pecket their
heads, and treat them with every possible outrage. The leader of the
wild birds, with a counter-note of challenge, pushes forward to attack
the decoy-bird, and after he has been netted, another advances with
a similar note. This is what is done if the decoy be a male; but if it
be a female that is the decoy and gives the note, and the leader of
the wild birds give a counter one, the rest of the males set upon
him and chase him away from the female for making advances to her
instead of to them; in consequence of this the male often advances
without uttering any cry, so that no other may hear him and come and
give him battle; and experienced fowlers assert that sometimes the
male bird, when he approaches the female, makes her keep silence, to
avoid having to give battle to other males who might have heard him.
The partridge has not only the note here referred to, but also a
thin shrill cry and other notes. Oftentimes the hen-bird rises from
off her brood when she sees the male showing attentions to the
female decoy; she will give the counter note and remain still, so as
to be trodden by him and divert him from the decoy. The quail and
the partridge are so intent upon sexual union that they often come
right in the way of the decoy-birds, and not seldom alight upon
their heads. So much for the sexual proclivities of the partridge, for
the way in which it is hunted, and the general nasty habits of the
bird.

As has been said, quails and partridges build their nests upon
the ground, and so also do some of the birds that are capable of
sustained flight. Further, for instance, of such birds, the lark and
the woodcock, as well as the quail, do not perch on a branch, but
squat upon the ground.

9

The woodpecker does not squat on the ground, but pecks at the bark
of trees to drive out from under it maggots and gnats; when they
emerge, it licks them up with its tongue, which is large and flat.
It can run up and down a tree in any way, even with the head
downwards, like the gecko-lizard. For secure hold upon a tree, its
claws are better adapted than those of the daw; it makes its way by
sticking these claws into the bark. One species of woodpecker is
smaller than a blackbird, and has small reddish speckles; a second
species is larger than the blackbird, and a third is not much
smaller than a barn-door hen. It builds a nest on trees, as has been
said, on olive trees amongst others. It feeds on the maggots and
ants that are under the bark: it is so eager in the search for maggots
that it is said sometimes to hollow a tree out to its downfall. A
woodpecker once, in course of domestication, was seen to insert an
almond into a hole in a piece of timber, so that it might remain
steady under its pecking; at the third peck it split the shell of
the fruit, and then ate the kernel.

10

Many indications of high intelligence are given by cranes. They
will fly to a great distance and up in the air, to command an
extensive view; if they see clouds and signs of bad weather they fly
down again and remain still. They, furthermore, have a leader in their
flight, and patrols that scream on the confines of the flock so as
to be heard by all. When they settle down, the main body go to sleep
with their heads under their wing, standing first on one leg and
then on the other, while their leader, with his head uncovered,
keeps a sharp look out, and when he sees anything of importance
signals it with a cry.

Pelicans that live beside rivers swallow the large smooth
mussel-shells: after cooking them inside the crop that precedes the
stomach, they spit them out, so that, now when their shells are
open, they may pick the flesh out and eat it.

11

Of wild birds, the nests are fashioned to meet the exigencies of
existence and ensure the security of the young. Some of these birds
are fond of their young and take great care of them, others are
quite the reverse; some are clever in procuring subsistence, others
are not so. Some of these birds build in ravines and clefts, and on
cliffs, as, for instance, the so-called charadrius, or stone-curlew;
this bird is in no way noteworthy for plumage or voice; it makes an
appearance at night, but in the daytime keeps out of sight.

The hawk also builds in inaccessible places. Although a ravenous
bird, it will never eat the heart of any bird it catches; this has
been observed in the case of the quail, the thrush, and other birds.
They modify betimes their method of hunting, for in summer they do not
grab their prey as they do at other seasons.

Of the vulture, it is said that no one has ever seen either
its young or its nest; on this account and on the ground that all of a
sudden great numbers of them will appear without any one being able to
tell from whence they come, Herodorus, the father of Bryson the
sophist, says that it belongs to some distant and elevated land. The
reason is that the bird has its nest on inaccessible crags, and is
found only in a few localities. The female lays one egg as a rule, and
two at the most.

Some birds live on mountains or in forests, as the hoopoe and
the brenthus; this latter bird finds his food with ease and has a
musical voice.