CHAPTER VII. 



THE BIRDS OF VIRGIL. 



IT might naturally be supposed, that an Oxford 

 tutor, who finds his vocation in the classics and 

 his amusement in the birds, would be in the way 

 of noticing what ancient authors have to say 

 about their feathered friends and enemies. One 

 Christmas vacation, when there was compara- 

 tively little to observe out-of-doors, I made a tour 

 through the poems of Virgil, keeping a sharp 

 look-out for all mention of birds, and compiled a 

 complete collection of his ornithological passages. 

 I chose a Latin poet because in Latin it happens 

 to be easier to identify a genus or species than it 

 is in Greek ; and I chose Virgil partly because 

 the ability to read and understand him is to me 

 one of the things which make life most worth 

 living, and partly because I know that there is no 



