vii Aristotle on Birds 185 



As I have said, Aristotle makes no real classifica- 

 tion of birds : he does however divide them, for 

 convenience sake, on more than one principle. In 

 his Historia Animalium (viii. 3) he roughly divides 

 them into 1, Flesh- eating birds, with crooked 

 claws, which answer to our Eaptores ; 2, Insect-eating 

 birds, and 3, Seed-eating birds, aKav6o$d<yoi, : which 

 together answer to our perching and climbing birds, 

 or more strictly to our Oscines, i.e. singing birds, 

 with the Swallows, Swifts, and Woodpeckers super- 

 added ; 4, Vegetable - eating birds, including our 

 Pigeons and their kin ; 5, Wading or Swimming 

 birds, which live chiefly on fish. 1 



I do not propose to discuss the first of these 

 divisions, for it contains hawks and eagles with 

 which we in England are unfamiliar. Let us go on 

 to the very large second and third divisions, and pick 

 out a few birds which may be interesting to us for 

 particular reasons. What has Aristotle to say of the 

 thrushes, that great tribe of which some members at 

 least are to be found at the present day both in 

 Greece and England ? 



There are three kinds of thrushes, says Aristotle : 2 

 the largest is called it;o/36po<; and is as big as a 

 Magpie ; the second (T/ot^a?) has a strong voice and is 



1 See Dr. Ogle's translation of the De Partibus Animalium, 

 p. 244, for another system of grouping recognised by Aristotle. 



2 H. A. ix. 20. 



