Bird Gods in Ancient Europe 



when he spoke of the poikilis or " speckled " 

 bird that eats the eggs of the lark he probably 

 referred to the magpie. 



The importance of the woodpecker in the 

 eyes of Roman soothsayers can hardly be over- 

 estimated. I have a seal, scarab-like in form, 

 wrought in the old Italiot way of rounds con- 

 nected by grooves, which I obtained at Flor- 

 ence. It belongs to the sort called Etruscan. 

 The seal shows a man seated with a bird be- 

 fore him, which he appears to be teaching a 

 trick. As usual in these rude seals, it is not 

 easy to fix the species of the bird ; but it seems 

 a woodpecker to which the provincial seal- 

 cutter has given a somewhat longer tail than 

 nature allows Mr. Picus. That the man is an 

 auspex or soothsayer is reasonably certain from 

 the fact that he wears the conical cap seen on 

 the little statuette with Etruscan inscription 

 in the Vatican Museum, a statuette generally 

 allowed to be that of an Etruscan augur or 

 diviner. 



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