B. VIII."] THE IlISTOlir OF ANIMALS. 209 



no food that has not a sweet taste. They also take very 

 sweet water, wherever they fall upon any that is pure. The 

 different kinds of animals then use these kinds of food. 



CHAPTER XI Y. 



1. ALL the actions of animals are employed either in sexual 

 intercourse, or in rearing their young, or in procuring food 

 for themselves, or in providing against excessive heat and 

 cold, and the changes of the seasons. For they all have 

 naturally a sensitiveness respecting heat and cold, and, like 

 mankind, who either change their abodes in cold weather, 

 or those who have large estates, pass their summer in cold 

 countries and their winter in warm ones ; so animals, also, if 

 they can, migrate from place to place. Some of them find 

 protection in their accustomed localities, others are migra- 

 tory ; and at the autumnal equinox, escape at the approach 

 of winter, from the Pontus and other cold places ; and in 

 spring retreat again before the approach of summer from hot 

 to cold countries, for they are afraid of excessive heat. Some 

 migrate from places close at hand, and others from the 

 very ends of the earth. 



2. The cranes do this, for they travel from Scythia to the 

 marshes in the higher parts of Egypt, from which the Nile 

 originates. This is the place where the Pygmies dwell ; and 

 this is no fable, for there is really, as it is said, a race of 

 dwarfs, both men and horses, which lead the life of troglo- 

 dites. The pelicans also are migratory, and leave the river 

 Strymon for the Ister, where they rear their young. They 

 depart in great crowds, and those that are before wait for 

 those behind, for in flying over the mountains those behind 

 cannot see the leaders. 



3. The fish also, in the same manner, migrate either from 

 or to the Pontus, and in winter they leave the deep water 

 for the s-ake of the warmth of the shore, and in summer 

 they escape from the heat by migrating from the shore into 

 deep water. Delicate birds, also, in winter and frosty wea- 

 ther, descend from the mountains to the plains, for the sake 

 of the warmth ; and in summer they return again to the 

 mountains for fear of the heat. 



4. Those that are the most delicate are the first to make 

 he change at each extreme of heat and cold, such as the 



f 



