Chap -56.] FOOD OF BIBDS. 521 



escape from the pitfalls which we employ for the capture of 

 wild beasts. 



The vulture and the heavier wild birds can only fly after taking 

 a run, or else by commencing their flight from an elevated spot. 

 They use the tail by way of rudder. There are some birds that 

 are able to see all around them ; others, again, have to turn the 

 neck to do so. Some of them eat what they have seized, holding 

 it in their feet. Many, as they fly, utter some cry ; while on 

 the other hand, many, in their flight, are silent. Some fly with 

 the breast half upright, others with it held downwards, others 

 fly obliquely, or else side-ways, and others following the di- 

 rection of the bill. Some, again, are borne along with the head 

 upwards ; indeed the fact is, that if we were to see several kinds 

 at the same moment, we should not suppose that they have to 

 make their way in the same element. 



CHAP. 55. (39.) THE BIRDS CALLED APODES, OK CTPSELI. 



Those birds which are known as " apodes" 59 fly the most of 

 all, because they are deprived of the use of their feet. Ey 

 some persons they are called "cypseli." They are a species of 

 swallow which build their nests in the rocks, and are the same 

 birds that are to be seen everywhere at sea ; indeed, however 

 far a ship may go, however long its voyage, and however great 

 the distance from land, the apodes never cease to hover around 

 it. Other birds settle and come to a stand, whereas these know 

 no repose but in the nest ; they are always either on the wing 

 or else asleep. 



CHAP. 56. (40.) RESPECTING THE FOOD OF BIRDS THE CAPRI- 

 MULGUS, THE PLATEA. 



The instincts, also, of birds are no less varied, and more es- 

 pecially in relation to their food. " Caprimulgus >>6 is the 

 name of a bird, which is to all appearance a large blackbird ; 

 it thieves by night, as it cannot see during the day. It enters 

 the folds of the shepherds, and makes straight for the udder 

 of the she-goat, to suck the milk. Through the injury thus 

 inflicted the udder shrivels away, and the goat that has been 

 thus deprived of its milk, is afflicted with incipient blindness. 



59 a Without feet." This was supposed to be the case with the martinet, 

 the Hirundo apus of Linnaeus. 



GO Q r "goat-sucker." The Caprimulgus Europseus of Lmnseus. 



