Rubecula — Ruticilla— Rubetra 1 59 



just as young small birds flutter their wings soliciting meat 

 from their mothers. In summer, when there is enough and 

 more of food found in the woods, and they are not troubled 

 by any cold (a thing which forces them in winter to resort to 

 cities, towns, and villages), Rubeculse retire to the most 

 solitary places with their young. And so it is no marvel 

 that Rubecula^ do not occur in summer everywhere. And 

 what wonder is it that RuticilLne are not met with in winter, 

 since throughout the whole of winter they are hidden ? And 

 further, when the young Rubeculae, having almost assumed 

 the full red on their breasts at the end of autumn, come 

 nearer to towns and villages, the Ruticilla:, which were 

 hitherto seen during the whole summer, disappear and then 

 are no more noticed till the following spring. Wherefore, 

 things being thus, anyone may easily perceive what gave a 

 handle to Aristotle or to those who reported this error to him. 



Of the Rubetra. 



Ban'?, in Latin called Rubetra, is by Aristotle classed 

 among the little birds that feed on worms. Beyond this I 

 cannot guess at all what sort the bird may be. Yet Gybertus 

 Longolius 1 believed that the Rubetra was the Linaria or the 

 Miliaria, because it often perched on brambles. But since 

 the Bunting of the English sits so commonly on brambles, 

 what forbids that bird from also being called the Batis ? On 

 this account we have no certainty as to what name, British or 

 German, should be given to this bird. 



But inasmuch as of the birds mentioned above the one 

 eats seeds of grasses, and the other wheat and barley, and as 

 Aristotle's Batis lives on worms, some small bird must be 

 chosen which eats worms and nothing else. Now such a little 

 bird is that called by the English Stonchatter or Mortetter 

 and the klein brachvogelchen of the Germans. If this be 

 not the Batis, it is quite unknown to me. Besides that which 

 the English call the Linot and the Germans the flasfinc must 

 be the Miliaria of older works, if we believe Ruellius-. 



1 For this author see Introduction. 



2 Ruellius wrote De natura stirpium libri tres (1536) and edited one 

 or more medical or other works. 



