B IX.l THE HISTORY OF AMMALS. 253 



wnen the eagle turns out its young, the phene takes them 

 up and leeda them ; for the eagle ejects them before the 

 proper time, when they still require feeding, and are unable 

 to fly. The eagle appears to eject its young from the nest 

 from envy ; for it is an envious and hungry bird, and not quick 

 in seizing its prey. It captures large creatures when it can. 

 AYhen its young have grown, it envies them, for they are 

 good for food, and tears them with its claws. The young 

 also fight in the nest for particular places, and for the food. 

 The parent then turns them out of the nest and strikes 

 them. AVhen they are turned out they begin to scream, 

 and the pheue comes and takes them up. The phene is 

 dim-sighted, and its eyes are imperfect. 



3. The sea-eagle is very quick-sighted, and compels its 

 young to gaze on the sun before they are feathered. If any 

 one of them refuse, it is beaten and turned round : and the 

 one of them which first weeps when gazing on the sun is 

 killed, the other is reared. It lives near the sea side, and ob 

 tains its food by pursuing marine birds, as it was before 

 remarked. It pursues and takes them one at a time, watching 

 them as they emerge from the sea. And if the bird, as it 

 r ses, sees the eagle watching it, it dives again from iear, in 

 order that it mav rise again in another place : but the eagle s 

 quick sight enables him to pursue the bird till it is either 

 suffocated, or taken on the wing ; but it never attacks them 

 in any numbers, for they drive it away by sprinkling it with 

 their wings. 



4. The petrels are taken with foam, for they devour it. 

 They are therefore taken by sprinkling them. All the rest 

 of its flesh is good ; the rump alone smells of seaweed, and 

 they are fat. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 



1. THE buzzard is the strongest of the hawks ; next to this 

 the merlin. The circus is less strong ; the asterias and 

 phassophonus, and pternis are different. The wide-winged 

 hawks are called hypotriorches, others are called perci and 

 spiziae ; others are the eleii and the phrynolochi ; these birda 

 live very easily, and fly near the ground. 



2. Some persons say that there are no less than ten kinds 

 of hawks ; they differ from each other, for some of them 



