HEARING. - 239 
act of breaking through the shell, and just as it got 
out a spider began to run along the box, when the 
chicken darted forward, seized and swallowed it as 
adroitly as if it had been instructed by its mother. 
CHAPTER XIX. 
HEARING, SMELL, AND TASTE OF BIRDS. 
Tue effect of an accidental occurrence in giving 
undue importance to things not otherwise extraor- 
dinary, is strikingly exemplified in the instance of 
the geese which are reported to have saved the 
capitolof Rome. ‘The Gauls,” says Livy, “having 
discovered that the rock Carmentalis was accessible, 
one night when it was pretty clear, sent a man to 
examine the way, without his arms, which were 
afterward handed to him. Others followed, lifting 
and assisting each other, according to the difficulties 
they encountered in the ascent, till they reached the 
summit. ‘They proceeded with so much silence, 
that neither the sentinels nor even the dogs, animals 
usually so vigilant as to be roused by the slightest 
noise, took any alarm. They did not, however, es- 
cape the notice of the geese, which, being sacred 
to Juno, had been fed by the Romans, notwith- 
standing the famine caused by the siege. This sa- 
ved the capitol; for, by their cackling and beating 
their wings, they roused Marcus Manlius, a brave 
soldier and formerly consul, who, snatching up his 
arms and giving the alarm, flew to the ramparts, set 
upon the Gauls, and, by precipitating one of them 
over the rocks, terrified them so much that they threw 
down their arms.”* Pliny accordingly infers from 
8 Hist., v., 47. 
