B TX.J THE HISTORY OF ANIMALS. 245 



bird as the ptynx.) This bird does not show itself in the 

 day-time because its sight is dim ; but it hunts its prey 

 during the night like the eagle. It fights so fiercely with 

 the eagle that both are often taken alive by the shepherds. 

 It lays two eggs, and builds in rocks and caverns. Cranes 

 fight so fiercely with each other that these also are taken 

 alive by the shepherds while they are fighting. The crane 

 lays two eggs. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



1. THE jay changes its voice frequently, for it utters a 

 different one, as we may say, almost every day ; it lays about 

 nine eggs ; it makes its nest upon trees, of hair and wool ; 

 when the acorns fall, it conceals and stores them up. Many 

 persons have reported that the stork is fed by its young, 

 and some people say the merops also, and that they are fed 

 by the young, not only in their old age, but as soon as the 

 young birds are able to do so, and that the parents remain 

 within the nest; in appearance, this bird is green beneath 

 the wiugs, and blue above, as the kingfisher, and its wings are 

 red at the extremity. It lays six or seven eggs in the autumn, 

 in muddy caverns, and digs as much as four cubits into the 

 ground. 



2. The bird called chloris from being yellow beneath, 

 is of the size of the lark, and lays four or five eggs ; it 

 makes its nest of symphytum, which it pulls up by the root, 

 and lines it with straw, hair, and wool. The blackbird and 

 jay do the same, and line their nests with the same ma 

 terials ; the nest of the acanthyllis is also artfully con 

 structed, for it is folded together like a ball of flax, and has 

 a small entrance. And the natives of those places bay that 

 there is a cinnamon bird, and that they bring the cinnamon 

 from the same places as the bird, and that it makes its nest 

 of it. It builds its nest in lofty trees and among their 

 branches, but the natives of the country tip their arrows 

 with lead, with which they destroy the nests, and then pick 

 out the cinnamon from the other material. 



CHAPTER XV. 



1. THE halcyon is not much larger than a sparrow ; ita 

 colour is blue and green, and somewhat purple ; its whoJc 



