528 PLINY'S NATUBAL HISTORY. [Book X. 



whatever, were it not for the fact that under the throat there 

 is a sort of second crop, as it were. It is in this that the ever- 

 insatiate animal stows everything away, so much so, that the 

 capacity of this pouch is quite astonishing. After having 

 finished its search for prey, it discharges bit by bit what it has 

 thus stowed away, and reconveys it by a sort of ruminating 

 process into its real stomach. The part of Gallia that lies 

 nearest to the Northern Ocean produces this bird. 



CHAP. 67. FOREIGN BIEDS : THE PHALEKIDES, THE PHEASANT, 



AND THE NUMIDIC^. 



In the Hercynian Forest, in Germany, we hear of a singular 87 

 kind of bird, the feathers of which shine at night like fire ; 

 the other birds there have nothing remarkable beyond the ce- 

 lebrity which generally attaches to objects situate at a distance. 



(48.) The phalerides, 88 the most esteemed of all the aquatic 

 birds, are found at Seleucia, the city of the Parthians of that 

 name, and in Asia as well ; and again, in Colchis, there is the 

 pheasant, 89 a bird with two tufts of feathers like ears, which 

 it drops and raises every now and then. The numidicee 90 come 

 from J^umidia, a part of Africa : all these varieties are now to 

 be found in Italy. 



CHAP. 68. THE PHCEN1COPTERUS, THE ATTAGEN, THE PHALACEO- 



CORAX, THE PYKRHOCORAX, AND THE LAGOPUS. 



Apicius, that very deepest whirlpool of all our epicures, has 

 informed us that the tongue of the phcenicopterus 91 is of the 

 most exquisite flavour. The attagen, 92 also, of Ionia is a famous 



87 Dalechamps thinks that this story bears reference to the chatterer (the 

 Ampelis garrulus of Linnaeus), the ends of certain feathers of the wings 

 being extended, and of a vermilion colour : but Cuvier looks upon Pliny's 

 account as almost nothing more than a poetical exaggeration. 



iSS A species of duck, Cuvier thinks. From Aristophanes we learn that 

 they were common in the markets of Athens. Cuvier suggests that it may 

 have been the Anas galericulata of Linnaeus, the Chinese teal, which the 

 Parthians may have received from the countries lying to the east of them. 



* 9 " Phasiana," so called from the river Phasis. 



90 A variety of the guinea fowl ; prohahly the Numida Meleagris of 

 Linnaeus. 



91 Literally, the "red-wing." The modern flamingo. 



92 Buffon thinks that this is the grouse of the English, the Tetrao Scoti- 

 cus of the naturalists ; hut Cuvier is of opinion that it is either the com- 

 mon wood-cock, the Tetrao honasiaof Linnaeus, or else the wood-cock with 



