by Aristotle
10 · Many indications of intelligence are given by cranes. They will fly to a [20] great distance and high 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, [25] 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, [30] 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 [615a1] clefts, and on cliffs, as, for instance, the so-called 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 carnivore, it will never [5] 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 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 [10] this account Herodorus, the father of Bryson the sophist, says that it belongs to some distant and elevated land—giving as his reason this, and also the fact that many of them suddenly appear without anyone knowing where from. 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.
[15] 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. The wren lives in brakes and crevices; it is difficult to capture, keeps out of sight, is gentle of disposition, finds its food with ease, and is something of a mechanic. It goes by the nickname of ‘old man’ or ‘king’; and the story goes that for this reason the eagle is at war with him.
[20] 12 · Some birds live on the sea-shore, as the wagtail; the bird is of a mischievous nature, hard to capture, but when caught capable of complete domestication; it is a cripple, as being weak in its hinder quarters.
Web-footed birds without exception live near the sea or rivers or pools, as they [25] naturally resort to places adapted to their structure. Several birds, however, with cloven toes live near pools or marshes, as, for instance, the anthus lives by the side of rivers; the plumage of this bird is pretty, and it finds its food with ease. The catarrhactes lives near the sea; when it makes a dive, it will keep under water for as long as it would take a man to walk a furlong; it is smaller than the common hawk. [30] Swans are web-footed, and live near pools and marshes; they find their food with ease, are good-tempered, are fond of their young, and live to a green old age. If the eagle attacks them they will repel the attack and get the better of their assailant, [615b1] but they are never the first to attack. They are musical, and sing chiefly at the approach of death; at this time they fly out to sea, and men, when sailing past the coast of Libya, have fallen in with many of them out at sea singing in mournful strains, and have actually seen some of them dying. [5]
The cymindis is seldom seen, as it lives on mountains; it is black in colour, and about the size of the hawk called the ‘dove-killer’; it is long and slender in form. The Ionians call the bird by this name; Homer in the Iliad mentions it in the [10] line:6—
Chalcis its name with those of heav’nly birth,
But called Cymindis by the sons of earth.
The hybris, said by some to be the same as the eagle-owl, is never seen by daylight, as it is dim-sighted, but during the night it hunts like the eared owl; it will fight the eared owl with such desperation that the two combatants are often captured alive by shepherds; it lays two eggs, and it too builds on rocks and in [15] caverns. Cranes also fight so desperately among themselves as to be caught when fighting, for they will not leave off; the crane too lays two eggs.
13 · The jay has a great variety of notes: indeed, one might almost say it had [20] a different note for every day in the year. It lays about nine eggs; builds its nest on trees, out of hair and tags of wool; when acorns are getting scarce, it lays up a store of them in hiding.
It is a common story of the stork that the old birds are fed by their young. Some tell a similar story of the bee-eater, and declare that the parents are fed by their [25] young not only when growing old, but at an early period, as soon as the young are capable of feeding them; and the parent-birds stay inside the nest. The under part of the bird’s wing is pale yellow; the upper part is dark blue, like that of the kingfisher; the tips of the wings are red. About autumn-time it lays six or seven eggs, in [30] overhanging banks where the soil is soft; there it burrows into the ground to a depth of six feet.
The greenfinch, so called from the colour of its belly, is as large as a lark; it lays four or five eggs, builds its nest out of the plant called comfrey, pulling it up by the [616a1] roots, and makes an under-mattress to lie on of hair and wool. The blackbird and the jay build their nests after the same fashion and construct the inside of them from those stuffs. The nest of the penduline tit shows great mechanical skill; it has [5] the appearance of a ball of flax, and the hole for entry is very small.
People who live where the bird comes from say that there exists a cinnamon bird which brings the cinnamon from some unknown localities, and builds its nest [10] out of it; it builds on high trees on the slender top branches. They say that the inhabitants attach leaden weights to the tips of their arrows and therewith bring down the nests, and from the debris collect the cinnamon sticks.
[15] 14 · The kingfisher is not much larger than the sparrow. Its colour is dark blue, green, and light purple; the whole body and wings, and the parts about the neck, show these colours in a mixed way, without any colour being sharply defined; [20] the beak is light green, long and slender: such, then, is the look of the bird. Its nest is like sea-balls, i.e. the things that go by the name of sea-foam, only the colour is not the same. The colour of the nest is light red, and the shape is that of the long-necked gourd. The nests are larger than the largest sponge, though they vary in size; they [25] are roofed over, and great part of them is solid and great part hollow. If you use a sharp knife it is not easy to cut the nest through; but if you cut it, and at the same time bruise it with your hand, it will soon crumble to pieces, like sea-foam. The opening is small, just enough for a tiny entrance, so that even if the nest capsizes the [30] sea does not enter in; the hollow channels are like those in sponges. It is not known for certain of what material the nest is constructed; it is possibly made of the backbones of the gar-fish; for the bird lives on fish. It also ascends fresh-water streams. It lays generally about five eggs, and lays eggs all its life long, beginning to do so at the age of four months.
[616b1] 15 · The hoopoe usually constructs its nest out of human excrement. It changes its appearance in summer and in winter, as in fact do the great majority of wild birds. (The titmouse is said to lay a very large quantity of eggs: next to the [5] Libyan ostrich the blackheaded tit is said by some to lay the largest number of eggs; seventeen eggs have been seen; it lays, however, more than twenty; it is said always to lay an odd number. Like others we have mentioned, it builds in trees; it feeds on grubs.) A peculiarity of this bird and of the nightingale is that the outer extremity of the tongue is not sharp-pointed.
[10] The aegithus finds its food with ease, has many young, and walks with a limp. The golden oriole is apt at learning
, is clever at making a living, but is awkward in flight and has an ugly plumage.
16 · The reed-warbler makes its living as easily as any other bird, sits in summer in a shady spot facing the wind, in winter in a sunny and sheltered place [15] among reeds in a marsh; it is small in size, with a pleasant note. The so-called chatterer has a pleasant note, beautiful plumage, makes a living cleverly, and is graceful in form; it appears to be alien to our country; at all events it is seldom seen at a distance from its own immediate home.
17 · The crake is quarrelsome, clever at making a living, but in other ways [20] an unlucky bird. The bird called sitta is quarrelsome, but clever and tidy, makes its living with ease, and for its wide learning is called the wizard;7 it has a numerous brood, of which it is fond, and lives by pecking the bark of trees. The aegolius-owl flies by night, is seldom seen by day; it too lives on cliffs or in caverns; it feeds on two [25] kinds of food; it has a strong hold on life and is full of resource. The tree-creeper is a little bird, of fearless disposition; it lives among trees, feeds on grubs, makes a living with ease, and has a clear note. The acanthis finds its food with difficulty; its [30] plumage is poor, but its note is musical.
18 · Of the herons, the ashen-coloured one, as has been said, unites with the female not without pain; it is full of resource, carries its food with it, is eager in the quest of it, and works by day; its plumage is poor, and its excrement is always wet. Of the other two species—for there are three in all—the white heron has handsome [617a1] plumage, unites without harm to itself with the female, builds a nest and lays its eggs neatly in trees; it frequents marshes and lakes and plains and meadow land. The speckled heron, which is nicknamed ‘the skulker’, is said in stories to be of [5] servile origin, and, as its nickname implies, it is the laziest bird of the three species. Such are the habits of herons. The bird that is called the poynx has this peculiarity, that it is more prone than any other bird to peck at the eyes; it is at war with the harpe, as the two birds live on the same food. [10]
19 · There are two kinds of owsels; the one is black, and is found everywhere, the other is quite white, about the same size as the other, and with the same cry. This latter is found on Cyllene in Arcadia, and is found nowhere else. The blue-thrush is like the black owzel, only a little smaller; it lives on cliffs or on tile [15] roofings; it has not a red beak as the black owzel has.
20 · Of thrushes there are three species. One is the missel-thrush; it feeds only on mistletoe and resin; it is about the size of the jay. A second kind is the [20] song-thrush; it has a sharp pipe, and is about the size of the owzel. There is another species called the illas; it is the smallest species of the three, and is less variegated in plumage than the others.
21 · There is a bird that lives on rocks, called the blue-bird. It is comparatively common in Nisyros, and lives in rocky places. It is somewhat smaller than the owzel and a little bigger than the chaffinch. It has large claws, and climbs [25] on the face of the rocks. It is steel-blue all over; its beak is long and slender; its legs are short, like those of the woodpecker.
22 · The oriole is yellow all over; it is not visible during winter, but puts in an appearance about the time of the summer solstice, and departs again at the rising of [30] Arcturus; it is the size of the turtle-dove. The so-called soft-head always settles on one and the same branch, where it falls a prey to the bird-catcher. Its head is big, [617b1] and composed of gristle; it is a little smaller than the thrush; its mouth is strong, small, and round; it is ashen-coloured all over; is fleet of foot, but slow of wing. The bird-catcher usually catches it by help of the owl. [5]
23 · There is also the pardalus. As a rule, it is seen in flocks and not singly; it is ashen-coloured all over, and about the size of the birds last described; it is fleet of foot and strong of wing, and its pipe is loud and high-pitched. The collyrion feeds on [10] the same food as the owzel; is of the same size as the above-mentioned birds; and is trapped usually in the winter. All these birds are found at all times.8 Further, there are the birds that live as a rule in towns, the raven and the crow. These also are visible at all seasons, never shift their place of abode, and never go into winter [15] quarters.
24 · Of daws there are three species. One is the chough; it is as large as the crow, but has a red beak. There is another, called the ‘wolf’; and further there is the little daw, called the ‘railer’. There is another kind of daw found in Lydia and Phrygia, which is web-footed.
[20] 25 · Of larks there are two kinds. One lives on the ground and has a crest on its head; the other is gregarious, and not sporadic like the first; it is, however, of the same coloured plumage, but is smaller, and has no crest; it is an article of human food.
26 · The woodcock is caught with nets in gardens. It is about the size of a [25] domestic hen; it has a long beak, and in plumage is like the francolin-partridge. It runs quickly, and is pretty easily domesticated. The starling is speckled; it is of the same size as the owsel.
27 · Of the Egyptian ibis there are two kinds, the white and the black. The white ones are found all over Egypt, excepting in Pelusium; the black ones are found [30] in Pelusium, and nowhere else in Egypt.
28 · Of the little horned owls there are two kinds, and one is visible at all seasons, and for that reason has the nickname of ‘all-the-year-round owl’; it is not [618a1] sufficiently palatable to come to table; another species makes its appearance sometimes in the autumn, is seen for a single day or at the most for two days, and is regarded as a table delicacy; it scarcely differs from the first species save only in [5] being fatter; it has no note, but the other species has. With regard to their origin, nothing is known from ocular observation; the only fact known for certain is that they are first seen when a west wind is blowing.
29 · The cuckoo, as has been said elsewhere, makes no nest, but deposits its eggs in an alien nest, generally in the nest of the ring-dove, or on the ground in the [10] nest of the hypolais or lark, or on a tree in the nest of the green linnet. It lays only one egg and does not hatch it itself, but the mother-bird in whose nest it has deposited it hatches and rears it; and, as they say, this mother bird, when the young cuckoo has grown big, thrusts her own brood out of the nest and lets them perish; others say that this mother-bird kills her own brood and gives them to the alien to [15] devour, despising her own young owing to the beauty of the cuckoo. Eye-witnesses agree in telling most of these stories, but are not in agreement as to the destruction of the young. Some say that the cuckoo itself comes and devours the brood of the [20] rearing mother; others say that the young cuckoo from its superior size snaps up the food brought before the smaller brood have a chance, and that in consequence the smaller brood die of hunger; others say that, by its superior strength, it actually kills the other ones whilst it is being reared up with them. The cuckoo shows great [25] sagacity in the disposal of its progeny; the fact is, the mother-cuckoo is quite conscious of her own cowardice and of the fact that she could never help her young one in an emergency, and so, for the security of the young one, she makes of him a supposititious child in an alien nest. The truth is, this bird is pre-eminent in the way of cowardice; it allows itself to be pecked at by little birds, and flies away from their [30] attacks.
30 · It has already been stated that the footless bird, which some term the cypselus, resembles the swallow; indeed, it is not easy to distinguish between the two birds, excepting in the fact that the cypselus has feathers on the shank. These birds rear their young in long cells made of mud, and furnished with a hole just big [618b1] enough for entry; they build under cover of some roofing—under a rock or in a cavern—for protection against animals and men.
The so-called goat-sucker lives on mountains; it is a little larger than the owsel, and less than the cuckoo; it lays two eggs, or three at the most, and is of a sluggish [5] disposition. It flies up to the she-goat and sucks its milk, from which habit it derives its name; it is said that, after it has sucked the teat of the animal, the teat dries up and the animal g
oes blind. It is dim-sighted in the day-time, but sees well enough by night.
31 · In districts where the food would be insufficient for more birds than [10] two, ravens are only found in isolated pairs; when their young are old enough to fly, the parent couple first eject them from the nest, and by and by chase them from the neighbourhood. The raven lays four or five eggs. About the time when the mercenaries under Medius were slaughtered at Pharsalus, the districts about Athens and the Peloponnese were left destitute of ravens, from which it would [15] appear that these birds have some means of intercommunicating with one another.
32 · Of eagles there are several species. One of them, called ‘the white-tailed eagle’, is found on plains, in groves, and in the neighbourhood of cities; some call it [20] the ‘fawn-killer’. It is bold enough to fly to mountains and the interior of forests. The other eagles seldom visit groves or plains. There is another species called the ‘plangus’; it ranks second in point of size and strength; it lives in mountain combes and glens, and by marshy lakes, and goes by the name of ‘duck-killer’ and [25] ‘swart-eagle’. It is mentioned by Homer in his account of the visit made by Priam to the tent of Achilles.9 There is another species with black plumage, the smallest but boldest of all the kinds. It dwells on mountains or in forests, and is called ‘the black-eagle’ or ‘the hare-killer’; it is the only eagle that rears its young thoroughly and takes them out with it. It is swift of flight, is neat and tidy in its habits, without [30] jealousy, fearless, quarrelsome; it is also silent, for it neither whimpers nor screams. There is another species, the percnopterus, very large, with white head, very short wings, long tail-feathers, in appearance like a vulture. It goes by the name of ‘mountain-stork’ or ‘half-eagle’. It lives in groves; has all the bad qualities of the [619a1] other species, and none of the good ones; for it lets itself be chased and caught by the raven and the other birds. It is clumsy in its movements, has difficulty in procuring its food, preys on dead animals, is always hungry, and at all times whining and screaming. There is another species, called the ‘sea-eagle’. This bird has a large [5] thick neck, curved wings, and broad tail-feathers; it lives near the sea, grasps its prey with its talons, and often, from inability to carry it, tumbles down into the water. There is another species called the ‘true-bred’; people say that these are the only true-bred birds to be found, that all other birds—eagles, hawks, and the [10] smallest birds—are all spoilt by the interbreeding of different species. The true-bred eagle is the largest of all eagles; it is larger than the phene; is half as large again as the ordinary eagle, and has yellow plumage; it is seldom seen, as is the case [15] with the so-called cymindis. The time for an eagle to be on the wing in search of prey is from midday to evening; in the morning until the market-hour it remains on the nest. In old age the upper beak of the eagle grows gradually longer and more crooked, and the bird dies eventually of starvation; there is a story that the eagle is [20] thus punished because it once was a man and refused entertainment to a stranger. The eagle puts aside its superfluous food for its young; for owing to the difficulty in procuring food day by day, it at times may come back to the nest with nothing. If it catch a man prowling about in the neighbourhood of its nest, it will strike him with [25] its wings and scratch him with its talons. The nest is built not on low ground but on an elevated spot, generally on an inaccessible ledge of a cliff; it does, however, build upon a tree. The young are fed until they can fly; hereupon the parent-birds topple them out of the nest, and chase them completely out of the locality. The fact is that [30] a pair of eagles demands an extensive space for its maintenance, and consequently cannot allow other birds to quarter themselves in close neighbourhood. They do not hunt in the vicinity of their nest, but go to a great distance to find their prey. When the eagle has captured a beast, it tries its weight without attempting to carry it off at once; if on trial it finds the burden too heavy, it will leave it. When it has spied a [619b1] hare, it does not swoop on it at once, but lets it go on into the open ground; neither does it descend to the ground at one swoop, but goes gradually down from higher flights to lower and lower: these devices it adopts by way of security against the stratagem of the hunter. It alights on high places by reason of the difficulty it [5] experiences in soaring up from the level ground; it flies high in the air to have the more extensive view; hence it is said to be the only bird that resembles the gods. Birds of prey, as a rule, seldom alight upon rock, as the crookedness of their talons prevents a stable footing on hard stone. The eagle hunts hares, fawns, foxes, and in [10] general all such animals as he can master with ease. It is a long-lived bird, and this fact might be inferred from the length of time during which the same nest is maintained in its place.