236 The Birds of Virgil. 



the sub-alpine neighbourhood where Virgil passed 

 his early life. 1 As I have remarked about the 

 pigeons and the stork, the climate may have been 

 such as would induce some birds to stop south of 

 the great Alpine barrier, which now find there no 

 climate cool enough for breeding ; and the Rook 

 was perhaps a more regular resident and breeder 

 then than he is now. 



We may conclude then that Virgil's connts is 

 our old friend the Rook, even if some Latin 

 authors use the word equally for Rook, Crow, 

 and Raven. Pliny for example tells us (N. H. x. 

 124) that the corvus can be taught to speak (fancy 

 a bird talking Latin, that stiff and solemn speech!), 

 that he eats flesh for the most part, and that he 

 sometimes makes his nest in elevated buildings ; 

 feats which we are not used to associate with 

 Rooks. In fact it is plain that Pliny, who w r as 

 more of a learned book-reader than a careful 

 observer of the minutiae of nature, was not quite 

 clear in his notions about the big black birds. 

 But if we can be pretty sure about corvus, what 

 is Virgil's comix, stalking on the shore in solitary 

 1 See Newton's Yarrell, ii. 290. 



