502 PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY. [Book X. 



CHAP. 31. STORKS. 



Up to the present time it has not been ascertained from 

 what place the storks come, or whither they go when they 

 leave us. There can be no doubt but that, like the cranes, 

 they come from a very great distance, the cranes being our 

 winter, the storks our summer, guests. When about to take 

 their departure, the storks assemble at a stated place, and are 

 particularly careful that all shall attend, so that not one of 

 their kind may be left behind, with the exception of such as 

 may be in captivity or tamed ; and then on a certain day they 

 set out, as though by some law they were directed to do so. No 

 one has ever yet seen a flight of cranes taking their departure, 

 although they have been often observed preparing to depart ; 

 and in the same way, too, we never see them arrive, but only 

 when they have arrived ; both their departure as well as their 

 arrival take place in the night. Although, too, we see them 

 flying about in all directions, it is still supposed that they 

 never arrive at any other time but in the night. Pythonos- 

 come l is the name given to some vast plains of Asia, where, 

 as they assemble together, they keep up a gabbling noise, and 

 tear to pieces the one that happens to arrive the last ; after 

 which they take their departure. It has been remarked that 

 after the ides of August, 2 they are never by any accident to be 

 seen there. 



There are some writers who assure us that the stork has no 

 tongue. So highly are they esteemed for their utility in de- 

 stroying serpents, that in Thessaly, it was a capital crime for 

 any one to kill a stork, and by the laws the same penalty was 

 inflicted for it as for homicide. 



CHAP. 32. SWANS. 



Geese, and swans also, travel in a similar manner, but then 

 they are seen to take their flight. The flocks, forming a point, 

 move along with great impetus, much, indeed, after the manner 

 of our Liburnian beaked galleys ; and it is by doing so that 

 they are enabled to cleave the air more easily than if they 

 presented to it a broad front. The flight gradually enlarges 



1 The "village of the Python," or "serpent." Gueroult suggests that 

 this may be Serponouwtzi, beyond the river Oby, in Siberia. 



2 Thirteenth of August. 



