508 plint's natural histoet. [Book X 



■vrcH; it is singular that when introduced into these localitie; 

 they will be no longer productive, but die immediately thei 

 are thus transplanted. What can it be that is thus fatal t( 

 the increase of one particular species, or whence this env^ 

 manifested against them by Nature ? "What, too, are the limit 

 that have been marked out for the birds on the face of th 

 earth ? 



Ehodes'^ possesses no eagles. In Italy beyond the Padus 

 there is, near the Alps, a lake known by the name of Lariuf 

 beautifully situate amid a country covered with shrubs ; an 

 yet this lake is never visited by storks, nor, indeed, are the 

 ever known to come within eight miles of it ; while, on th 

 other hand, in the neighbouring territory of the Insubres 

 there are immense flocks of magpies and jackdaws, the only 

 bird that is guilty of stealing gold and silver, a very singuk 

 propensity. 



It is said that in the territory of Tarentum, the woodpeck( 

 of Mars is never found. It is only lately too, and that bi 

 very rarely, that various kinds of pies have begun to be see 

 in the districts that lie between the Apennines and the City 

 birds which are known by the name of " variae,"^- and are n 

 markable for the length of the tail. It is a peculiarity < 

 this bird, that it becomes bald every year at the time of sowId 

 rape. The partridge does not fly beyond the frontiers 

 Boeotia, into Attica ; nor does any bird, in the island ^^ in i\ 

 Euxine in which Achilles was buried, enter the temple thei 

 consecrated to him. In the territory of Fidenae, in the vicinit 

 of the City, the storks have no young nor do they build nests: bi 

 vast numbers of ringdoves arrive from beyond sea every ye; 

 in the district of Volaterrae. At Kome, neither flies nor do^ 

 ever enter the temple of Hercules in the Cattle Market. Thei 

 are numerous other instances of a similar nature in referenc 

 to all kinds of animals, which from time to time I feel m^ 

 self prompted by prudent considerations to omit, lest I shouj 



^3 Suetonius says, that wlien Tiberius was staying at Rhodes, an eag 

 perched on the roof of his house ; such a hird having never been && 

 before on the island, 20 ggg 53^ {[[ (, 21. 



21 It is still noted for its thie^ang propensities ; witness the English sto 

 of the Maid and the Magpie, and the Italian opera of "La Gazza Ladra 

 Cicero says, " Thoy would no more trust gold with you, than with a jac 

 daw." See also Ovid's Met. B. vii. It is the Corviis pica of Linnaeus. 



22 "Mottled pies." 23 gee B. iv.c. 12. 



