A Year with the Birds

48

It is worth noting that Knox observed that the progress of the Pied Wagtail is chiefly observable between daybreak and 10 a.m. All the movements I noticed in the Alps were observed during the earlier morning hours.

49

Ancient Lives of Virgil (Prof. Nettleship), p. 33.

50

I Virgil then, of sweet Parthenope
The nursling, woo’d the flowery walks of peace
Inglorious, &c.

51

“Habuit domum Romae Esquiliis juxta hortos Maecenatianos, quamquam secessu Campaniae Siciliaeque plurimum uteretur.” (Life by Suetonius, ch. 13.)

52

Plin., N. H. x. 60. Aristotle refutes the fable, which is alluded to by Aristophanes in the Birds (1137). See Arist., H. N. viii. 14. 5.

53

And all the while, with hollow voice, thine own
Loved wood-pigeon shall soothe thee, nor alone,
For from the lofty elm the dove shall ever moan.

54

Eclogue iii. 68.

55

Columella viii. 8. Cato de Re Rustica, 90.

56

Philemon Holland so translates palumbes in his version of Pliny.

57

Nissen, Italische Landeskunde, p. 374.

58

But no whit the more
For all expedients tried and travail borne
By man and beast in turning oft the soil,
Do greedy goose and Strymon-haunting cranes
And succory’s bitter fibres not molest
Or shade not injure —

59

Time it is to set
Snares for the crane, and meshes for the stag,
And hunt the long-eared hares.

60

The Dardanians on the walls raise a shout to the sky.
Hope comes to kindle wrath; they hurl their missiles strongly;
even as under black clouds cranes from the Strymon utter
their signal notes and sail clamouring across the sky, and
noisily stream down the gale.

    – Aen. x. 262 foll.

61

Never at unawares did showers annoy:
Or, as it rises, the high-soaring cranes
Flee to the hills before it, or, with face
Upturned to heaven, the heifer snuffs the gale
Through gaping nostrils, or about the meres
Shrill-twittering flits the swallow.

    – Georgic i. 373.

62

In blushing spring
Comes the white bird long-bodied snakes abhor.

    – Georg. ii. 320.

63

Mirabilia 23.

64

See Petronius, Satyr. 55. Cp. also Juv. Sat. 1, line 116, and Mayor’s note. In the London Zoological Gardens, in March 1889, a pair of Storks were illustrating Petronius’ lines admirably – except in that they were captives.

65

Gibbon, vol. iv. p. 240, ed. Milman.

66