148 PLINY— MARTIAL— WAS THE ROD JOINTED? 



from Friedlander, who contents himself with a mere reference 

 to Martial, Ep., XIV. 218, quoted below. 



Paley is of doubtful or little avail. He holds that hanmdo 

 means the fowler's reed. The implement was so contrived that 

 a smaller reed, tipped with birdlime (viscum),^ made from the 

 cherries of the mistletoe, was suddenly protruded (perhaps 

 blown) through a thicker reed against a bird on its perch, and 

 that to this lengthening crescente refers. Cf. Ep., XIV. 218. 



" Non tantum calamis, sed cantu fallitur ales, 

 Callida dum tacita crescit harundo manu." 



The fowler attracted the attention of the bird as he ap- 

 proached it, by imitating its note. 2 



Propertius refers to fowling {Vertumnus, V. 2, 33), and 

 in Petronius {Sat., 109, 7) we find " volucres, quas textis harun- 

 dinibus peritus artifex tetigit." 3 Textis here, which Mr, 

 Heseltine renders ' jointed,' would seem to show Paley 's 

 suggestion, that the first cane was hollow, while the second 

 was " protruded " through it, to be wrong. 



Rich explains this method of fowling as follows. The 

 sportsman first hung the cage with his call bird on the bough 



^ Cf. Virgil, Geor., I. 139. Also Oppian, Cyneg., I. 65 f., where, as tools 

 of the fowler, are specified, " long cords, and moist honey-coloured bird-hme, 

 and reeds which tread their track through the air." Cf. also Ovid, Met., 

 XV. 477, " nee volucrem viscata fallite virga." 



2 Cantu seems to refer more naturally to the song of the call bird (Oppian, 

 hal., ly. 120 ff.), rather than to that of' the fowler, but cf. Cato (the poet of 

 the third century a.d.), in Disticha, I. 27, " Fistula dulce canit volucrem dum 

 decipit auceps " ; and Tibidlns, II. 5, 31, " Fistula cui semper decrescit 

 harundinis ordo." In addition to catching birds by rods and birdUme, a 

 common practice according to Aristophanes was to confine doves, etc., with 

 limbs tied up or with eyes covered, in a net, and thus allure other doves, etc., 

 to the snare. Illex was the technical name for the decoy bird. For this 

 purpose use was made both of kindred and of hostile species, such as the owl 

 and falcon. The latter was also trained to catch the bird, which had been 

 decoyed within its reach. Cf. Martial, Ep., XIV. 218. Aristophanes, Aves, 

 1082 f. 



Tos TfpitTTtpds 6' SfjLoioos luA.Aa^Scoj' e'lp^ai tx" 

 KaTrai/ayKa^ft irkKevfip SfSe/ueVos eV SiKTvcfi. 

 Ibid., 526 ff., trans. B. H. Kennedy : 



" And the cunning fowlers for you set 

 Snare and springs, twig, trap, gin, cage, and net." 

 [-■lautus. Asin., I. 3, 67 f. : 



" iEdis nobis area est, auceps sum ego, 

 F.sca est meretrix, lectus illex est, amatores aves." 

 * Cf. Petronius, Sat., 40, 6, and Bion, Id., 4, 3. 



