Chap. 3.5 ] MIGRATORY BIRDS. 505 



quails' as food ; for which reason it is that they have been ban- 

 ished from our tables ; in addition to which, a great repugnance 

 is manifested to eating their flesh, on account of the epilepsy, 9 

 to which alone of all animals, with the exception of man, the 

 quail is subject. 



CHAP. 34. (24.) SWALLOWS. 



The swallow, the only bird that is carnivorous among those 

 which have not hooked talons, takes its departure also during 

 the winter months ; but it only goes to neighbouring countries, 

 seeking sunny retreats there on the mountain sides ; some- 

 times they have been found in such spots bare and quite un- 

 fledged. This bird, it is said, will not enter a house in Thebes, 

 because that city has been captured so frequently ; nor will it 

 approach the country of the Bizyae, on account of the crimes 

 committed there by Tereus. 10 Caecina 11 of Yolaterrae, a member 

 of the equestrian order, and the owner of several chariots, used 

 to have swallows caught, and then carried them with him to 

 Eome. Upon gaining a victory, he would send the news 

 by them to his friends ; for after staining them the colour 12 of 

 the party that had gained the day, he would let them go, 

 immediately upon which they would make their way to the 

 nests they had previously occupied. Fabius Pictor also relates, 

 in his Annals, that when a Roman garrison was being besieged 

 by the Ligurians, a swallow which had been taken from its 

 young ones was brought to him, in order that he might give 

 them notice, by the number of knots on a string tied to its 

 leg, on what day succour would arrive, and a sortie might be 

 made with advantage. 



CHAP. 35. BIRDS WHICH TAKE THEIR DEPARTURE FROM US, AND 



WHITHER THEY GO ; THE THRUSH, THE BLACKBIRD, AND THE 

 STARLING BIRDS WHICH LOSE THEIR FEATHERS DURING THEIR 



9 " Despuisuetum." See B. xxviii. c. 7. As Hardouin says, in modern 

 times they are considered delicate eating ; but Schenkius, Obsers. Med. 

 B. i., states, that if the bird has eaten hellebore, epilepsy is the consequence 

 to the person who partakes of its flesh. 



10 See B. iv. c. 18. 



11 A friend of Augustus, sent by him with proposals to Antony, B.C. 41. 



12 The colour of the "factio," or "party " of charioteers. See p. 217. 



