530 PLINY'S NATUBAL HISTORY. [Book X. 



size, and of an agreeable flavour. The Balearic islands also 

 send us a porphyrio, 1 that is superior to the one previously 

 mentioned. There the buteo, a kind of hawk, is held in high 

 esteem for the table, as also the vipio, 2 the name given to a 

 small kind of crane. 



CHAP. 70. FABULOUS BIRDS. 



I look upon the birds as fabulous which are called " pegasi," 

 and are said to have a horse's head ; as also the griffons, with 

 long ears and a hooked beak. The former are said to be na- 

 tives of Scythia, 3 the latter of ^Ethiopia. The same is my 

 opinion, also, as to the tragopan ; 4 many writers, however, 

 assert that it is larger than the eagle, has curved horns on the 

 temples, and a plumage of iron colour, with the exception of 

 the head, which is purple. Nor yet do the sirens 5 obtain any 

 greater credit with me, although Dinon, the father of Clearchus, 

 a celebrated writer, asserts that they exist in India, and that 

 they charm men by their song, and, having first lulled them to 

 sleep, tear them to pieces. The person, however, who may 

 think fit to believe in these tales, may probably not refuse to 

 believe also that dragons licked the ears of Melampodes, and 

 bestowed upon him the power of understanding the language 

 of birds ; as also what Democritus says, when he gives the 

 names of certain birds, by the mixture of whose blood a ser- 

 pent is produced, the person who eats of which will be able 

 to understand the language of birds ; as well as the statements 

 which the same writer makes relative to one bird in particular, 

 known as the "galerita," 6 indeed, the science of augury is 

 already too much involved in embarrassing questions, without 

 these fanciful reveries. 



There is a kind of bird spoken of by Homer as the " scops :" 7 

 but I cannot very easily comprehend the grotesque movements 

 which many persons have attributed to it, when the fowler is 



1 Flamingo. 2 See B. xi. c. 44. 



3 Scythia and ^Ethiopia ought to be transposed here, as the griffons 

 were said to be monsters that guarded the gold in the mountains of Scythia, 

 the Uralian chain, probably. 



4 Literally, the " goat Pan." Cuvier thinks that the bird here alluded 

 to actually existed, and identifies it with the napaul, or horned pheasant of 

 Buffon, the penelope satyra of Gmell, a bird of the north of India, and 

 which answers the description here given by Pliny. 



5 See Ovid, Met. B. v. 1. 553. 6 A kind of crested lark. 

 1 The Strix scops, probably, of Linn. See the Odyssey, B. v. 1. 66. 



