522 flint's natural history. [Book X. 



" Platea"^^ is the name of another, which pounces upon other 

 birds when they have dived in the sea, and, seizing the head 

 with its bill, makes them let go their prey. This bird also 

 swallows and fills itself with shell-fish, shells and all ; after 

 the natural heat of its crop has softened them, it brings them 

 up again, and then picking out the shells from the rest, selects 

 the parts that are fit for food. 



CHAP. 57. (41.) — THE INSTINCTS OF BIRDS — THE CARDTJELIS, 

 THE TAURUS, THE ANTHUS. 



The farm-yard fowls have also a certain notion of religion ; 

 upon laying an egg they shudder all over, and then shake their 

 feathers ; after which they turn round and purify^' themselves, 

 or else hallow®^ themselves and their eggs with some stalk or 

 other. (42.) The carduelis,*^^ which is the very smallest bird 

 of any, will do what it is bid, not only with the voice but with 

 the feet as well, and with the beak, which serves it instead of 

 hands. There is one bird, found in the territory of Arelate, that 

 imitates the lowing of oxen, from which circumstance it has 

 received the name of "taurus."^ In other respects it is of 

 small size. Another bird, called the '' anthus,"*^^ imitates the 

 neighing of the horse ; upon being driven from the pasture by 

 the approach of the horses, it will mimic their voices — and this 

 is the method it takes of revenging itself. 



CHAP. 58. BIRDS WHICH SPEAK THE PARROT. 



But above all, there are some birds that can imitate the hu- 

 man voice ; the parrot, for instance, which can even converse. 

 India sends us this bird, which it caUs by the name of " sit- 

 taces ;" ^^ the body is green all over, only it is marked Avith 



61 Cuvier says that this is the spoon-bill, the Platalea leucorodea of Lin- 

 Dieus. Some suppose it to be the bittern. 



62 By nestling in the dust. Throwing dust over the body was one of 

 the ancient modes of purification. 



63 " Lustrant," " perform a lustration." This was done by the Romans 

 with a branch of laurel or olive, and sometimes bean-stalks were used. 



6* The linnet, probably. 



cs The "bull." This cannot possibly be the bittern, as some have sug- 

 gested, for that is a large bird. 



66 Supposed to be the Motacilla flava of Linnseus, the spring wagtail. 



67 Hence the Latin name " psittacus." Prom this, Cuvier thinks that 

 the first known among these birds to the Greeks and Romans, was the 

 green perroquet with a ringed neck, the Psittacus Alexandri of Linnaeus. 



