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. 



THE 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 

 capitol of 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 



* Hist., v., 47. 



