Crex — Aves Diomedecs — Ficedula ji 



than crex crex, and moreover it repeats this sound incessantly; 

 I think that it is Aristotle's Crex. This bird the English call 

 a Daker Hen, and the Germans eyn schryk 1 . I have not seen or 

 heard it anywhere in England, save in Northumberland alone. 



Of the Aves Diomede^e from Pliny. 



And I will not omit the birds of Diomede 2 , which 

 Juba calls Cataractae, telling us that they have 

 teeth and fire-coloured eyes, but otherwise are white. 

 They always have two captains, one to lead the 

 band, the other to bring up the rear. These birds 

 dig furrows with the beak, then cover them with 

 wattlework, and hide this with the earth thrown out 

 at first ; in these places they breed. Each furrow 

 has two openings, one facing east, by which they 

 may go out towards their feeding grounds, the other 

 facing west, by which they may return. They always 

 nutter out to disburden the belly, and against the 

 wind. In one place only of the whole world are they 

 to be seen, namely that island which we have set 

 down as famous for the tomb and shrine of Diomede, 

 over against the shore of Apulia. They are like 

 Fulicae. Strangers who come there they attack with 

 clamour, only on the Greeks they fawn, with wonderful 

 discernment, paying as it were this tribute to the race 

 of Diomede, and every day they purify his shrine 

 with brimming throats and water-laden wings. 



Of the Ficedula. 

 Sv/caXk, in Latin called ficedula 3 , is not the sneppa of 

 the Germans, which delights in wet localities, and feeds only 



1 Schlegel {Vog. Nedcrl. II. 60) says that the Dutch schriek is the 

 Water Rail {Rallus aquations), but Turner evidently means the Corn 

 Crake {Crex pratensis). Naumann {Naturg. Vog. Deutschl. IX. p. 496) 

 gives Schrecke as a local name for the Corn Crake. 



2 Apparently Shearwaters of some species are meant. For the story 

 see any work on Mythology. 



3 For the supposed change of Ficedula into Atricapilla, see p. 39. 



