494 PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY. [Book X. 



CHAP. 19. (17.) THE OWLET. 



The owlet shows considerable shrewdness in its engage- 

 ments with other birds ; for when surrounded by too great a 

 number, it throws itself on its back, and so, resisting with its 

 feet, and rolling up its body into a mass, defends itself with 

 the beak and talons ; until the hawk, attracted by a certain 

 natural affinity, comes to its assistance, and takes its share in 

 the combat. Nigidius says, that the incubation of the owlet 

 lasts sixty days, during the winter, and that it has nine differ- 

 ent notes. 



CHAP. 20. (18.) THE WOOD-PECKER OF MARS. 



There are some small birds also, which have hooked talons ; 

 the wood-pecker, for example, surnamed " of Mars," of con- 

 siderable importance in the auspices. To this kind belong 

 the birds which make holes in trees, and climb stealthily up 

 them, like cats ; mounting with the head upwards, they tap 

 against the bark, and learn by the sound whether or not their 

 food lies beneath ; they are the only birds that hatch their 

 young in the hollows of trees. It is a common belief, that if a 

 shepherd drives a wedge into their holes, they apply a certain 

 kind of herb, 67 immediately upon which it falls out. Trebius 

 informs us that if a nail or wedge is driven with ever so much 

 force into a tree in which these birds have made their nest, it 

 will instantly fly out, the tree making a loud cracking noise 

 the moment that the bird has lighted upon the nail or wedge. 



These birds have held the first rank in auguries, in Latium, 

 since the time of the king 68 who has given them their name. 

 One of the presages that was given by them, I cannot pass 

 over in silence. A woodpecker came and lighted upon the 

 head of JElius Tubero, the City praetor, when sitting on his 

 tribunal dispensing justice in the Forum, and showed such 

 tameness as to allow itself to be taken with the hand ; upon 

 which the augurs declared that if it was let go, the state 

 was menaced with danger, but if killed, disaster would befall 



67 See B. xxv. c. 5. 



68 Pic us, the son of Saturn, king of Latium. He was skilled in augury, 

 and was said to have been changed into a woodpecker. See Ovid, Met. 

 B. xiv. 1. 314. ; Virgil, JSn. B. vii. c. 187. See also Ovid, Fasti, B. iii. 

 1.37. 



