vii Aristotle on Birds 193 



which has been appropriated by ornithologists for 

 the Pipits, birds closely related to the Wagtails. 1 

 This Anthus lives in the grass, and by streams and 

 marshes, and so far would do very well for a Pipit ; 

 but it is described as being of a fine colour, while all 

 Pipits are brown or gray. I think then that we 

 may follow Sundevall in guessing that it was one of 

 the Yellow Wagtails of which I have said some- 

 thing in another chapter. It is curious, however, 

 that Aristotle should describe this bird as being an 

 enemy to the horse, for the familiar and amicable 

 way in which the Yellow Wagtail will walk about 

 the feet of horses and cattle is known to all of us. 

 But he has many strange mythical statements about 

 the antipathy of one animal for another which we 

 cannot possibly explain ; they are bits of old folk- 

 lore of which the meaning is entirely lost. 



Passing over some other small birds, such as the 

 Acanthis or Acanthyllis, of which I have written 

 elsewhere, 2 let us see what he has to say of the 

 Cuckoo. I have already mentioned that he discards 

 the fable that the Cuckoo changes into a hawk in 

 the autumn. The hawk which it resembles, he says, 

 disappears about the time when the Cuckoo arrives, 

 and reappears when the Cuckoo departs. If this 

 hawk be the Sparrow-hawk, as we might guess 



1 Ib. ix. 1. 22. Sundevall, p. 116. 



2 A Year with the Birds, ed. 3, p. 245. 







