B. IX.1 THE HISTORY OF ANIMALS. 247 



are beautiful, its mode of life good, and its form elegant ; 

 it appears to be a foreign bird, for it is rarely found in 

 places where there are no houses. 



4. The disposition of the crex is pugnacious, but it is in- 

 genious in providing for its own subsistence, though other- 

 wise an unfortunate bird. The sitta is pugnacious, but its 

 disposition is gentle and tractable, and its mode of life good. 

 It is said to be medicinal, for it is skilful in many things. 

 It produces many young, which it treats with kindness, and 

 obtains its food by striking trees. 



5. The little owl feeds during the night, and is rarely visible 

 by day. It lives in rocks and caverns, for its food is of two 

 kinds ; and in disposition it is diligent and ingenious. There 

 is a small bird called certhius, which is bold in disposition, 

 and lives on trees and eats the thrips (timber worm). In 

 disposition it is diligent in search of food, and its voice is 

 brilliant. The disposition and hue of the acanthis is bad, 

 but it has a shrill voice. 



CHAPTEE XVII. 



1. AMONG the herons, as it was before observed, the black 

 heron copulates with difficulty, but it is an ingenious bird. 

 It carries its food about, and is skilful in procuring it. It 

 works during the day. Its colour, however, is bad, and its 

 stomach always fluid. Of the other two (for there are three 

 kinds of them), the white heron is beautifully coloured and 

 copulates without pain, and builds its nest and attends its 

 young carefully in trees. It inhabits marshes and lakes, 

 plains and meadows. The bittern, which is called ocnus 

 (the idle), is said in fables to have been originally a slave. 

 Its name indicates its very idle disposition. 



2. The herons live in this manner. The bird called poyx 

 is peculiar, for it is its disposition to eat the eyes of other 

 creatures, and is therefore the enemy of the harpa, which 

 lives upon the same food. 



CHAPTEE XVIII. 



1. THEEE are two kinds of cottyphus. The one is black, 

 and is found everywhere ; the other is white. In size they 

 are alike, and their voice is very similar. The white one is 

 found in Cylleue, in Arcadia, and nowhere else. The laeus 



