;hap. 43.] THE NIGHTINGALE. 509 



nly weary the reader. Theophrastus, for example, relates 

 hat even pigeons, as well as peacocks and ravens, have been 

 Qtroduced from other parts into Asia,^* as also croaking jfrogs'^ 

 Qto Cyrenaica. 



HAP. 42. — THE VAEIOrS KINDS OF BIEDS WHICH AFFORD OMENS 



BY THEIE NOTE BIKDS WHICH CHANGE THEIE COLOUE AND 



THEIB VOICE. 



There is another remarkable fact too, relative to the birds 

 rhich give omens by their note ; they generally change their 

 olour and voice at a certain season of the year, and suddenly 

 ■ecome quite altered in appearance ; a thing that, among the 

 irger birds, happens with the crane only, which grows black 

 Q its old age. Erom black, the blackbird changes to a red- 

 ish colour, sings in summer, chatters in winter, and about 

 he summer solstice loses its voice ; when a year old, the beak 

 Iso assumes the appearance of ivory ; this, however, is the case 

 nly with the male. In the summer, the thrush is mottled 

 bout the neck, but in the winter it becomes of one uniform 

 olour all over. 



CHAP. 43. THE NIGHTINGALE. 



The song of the nightingale is to be heard, without inter- 

 oission, for fifteen days and nights, continuously,'^ when the 

 oliage is thickening, as it bursts from the bud ; a bird which 

 leserves our admiration in no slight degree. First of all, 

 vhat a powerful voice in so small a body ! its note, how long, 

 nd how well sustained ! And then, too, it is the only bird 

 he notes of which are modulated in accordance with the strict 

 ules of musical science.-' At one moment, as it sustains its 



2* Asia Minor, most probably. The assertion, though supported by 

 i'heopbrastus, is open to doubt. '^° See B. riii. c. 83. 



26 It was the nightingale that was said to be "Vox et praeterea nihil;" 

 'A voice, and nothing else." 



^'^ As there may be different opinions on the meaning of the various 

 )arts of this passage, it is as well to transcribe it for the benefit of the 

 eader, the more especially as, contrary to his usual practice, Pliny is 

 lere in a particularly discursive mood. " Nunc continue spiritu trahitur in 

 ongum, nunc variatur inflexo, nunc distinguitur conciso, copulatur intorto, 

 )romittitur revocato, infuscatur ex inopinato, interdum et secum ipse 

 nurraurat, plenus, gravis, acutus, creber, extentus ; ubi visum est, vibmns, 

 lummus, medius, imus." 



