Graculi 93 



wherefore this second kind alone shall be Monedula ; more- 

 over Ovid happily describes its thievish habits in the 

 following lines : — 



Was changed into a bird, which even now loves gold, 

 Monedula the black of foot, in plumage black arrayed. 



The English call the Monedula a Caddo, Chogh, or Ka ; 

 Germans eyn dol ; and Saxons eyn alke. The Monedula 

 is much smaller than the Pyrrhocorax, and nests in woods 

 and hollow trees and towers of churches. The third kind 

 is thus described by Aristotle in the eighth book of his 

 History of Animals : — 



Of web-footed birds the heavier haunt lakes and 

 rivers, as the Anas, Phalaris, and Urinatrix. Add to 

 these the Bosca, which is like the Anas but smaller, 

 and that which is called Corvus, whose size is that 

 of a Ciconia, but it has shorter legs ; it is web-footed 

 and a swimmer : black in colour, it perches on trees, 

 and nests in them. So far Aristotle. 



Unless I err, this Corvus is the Phalacrocorax of Pliny 

 and the Swiss Waltrapus 1 , of which Pliny writes after this 

 fashion : — 



Further, the Attagen is caught in Gaul and Spain, 

 and even on the Alps, where Phalacrocoraces also are, 

 proper to the Balearic isles, as the Pyrrhocorax is 

 to the Alps. 



And in another place of the same bird : — 



Some animals are naturally bald, as Struthiocameli 

 and Corvi Aquatici, whence is their name among the 

 Greeks. 



1 Mr Rothschild identifies this bird with Comatibis comata = C. 

 eremita (L.), no doubt rightly. See Bull. Brit. Om. Club, XII. p. 56. 

 Novitates Zoologiae, 1897, p. 371, and Pliny, Lib. X. cap. xlviii. 



