68 A GLOSSARY OF GREEK BIRDS 



'IKTfNOI, or "KTIVOS (Aristoph., cf. Suid.): also IKTIS (Ufpyaioi, Hesych.). 

 In plur. iKTives (Ael. i. 35, ii. 47) or licrivcs (Paus.). For other 

 grammatical forms, see L. & Sc., &c. Derivation unknown; 

 sometimes said to be connected with Sk. yyena. 



A Kite : including the Common Kite, Milvus regalis, Briss., M. 

 ictinus, Sav.. and the Black Kite, M. ater, Gm. The Black 

 Kite is still called IKTIVOS in the Cyclades, where it is the com- 

 moner species of the two (Erh.). The Common Kite is also 

 called To-tyTTjs in Attica (Heldreich). 



In minor references frequent, usually as a robber, e.g. Theogn. 1261, 

 1302 ; Soph. Fr. 890 LKTLVOS us e/tXa-y^e Trapa<rvpas Kpeas ; Plat. Phaed. 82 ; 

 Men. 4, 329 (493) ; Plat. Com. 2, 695 (69) : Aristoph. fr. 2, 1192 (71), 

 Ar. fr. 525, Etym. M. p. 470. 34 IKTIVO. TravrofpdaXfjLov apiraya : Simon. 

 Iambi. II, Automed. viii, in Gk. Anth. ii. 192 OVTOS e^ei -yap apnayos 

 IKTIVOV x ' l P a KpaTaiorepjjy. 



Description. Arist. De Part. 670, 34 fjiiKpos 6 <rn\r)V rr)v ^oX^i/ e^et 

 trpbs r<j5 fjiran KCU irpos rfj Koi\ia : H. A. vi. 6, 563 5uo <uu' fv'iorc 8e KOI 

 rpia' eVooaffi Trepi CIKOVIV f) p.e pas I ib. viii. 3, 592 peyfOos o<rov Tpi6p%r)s '. 

 ib. 594 oXiyaKis TTLVfi, 27rrni Se irivav. Very destructive to poultry ; ovdev 

 av TIS avaibearcpov eiTroi, Dion. De Avib. i. 7 ; cf. Theogn. 1302 IKTLVOV 

 <rxfT\iov rjdos. 



A migratory bird : it arrives before the swallow, at the spring 

 shearing-time, Ar. Av. 714; in Egypt it does not migrate, Herod, ii. 

 22 ; it sometimes hibernates, Arist. H. A. viii. 16, 600 oi fiev irXrjo-iov 

 ovTts TOIOVTMV Tonw, v ols ael diapevovo-i, KO.I IKTWOI KOI ^eXiSoi'ey, airo- 

 X<t>pov(riv evravQa, oi 8e Troppcorepco 6Vre? OVK KToniov(Tiv aXXa Kpinrrovo-iv 

 eavTOvs' fjdr) yap (oupevai TroXXai %\tdovs flalv ev dyytLOis e\/^iXo)fii/ai 

 7ra/i7rai/, Kai iKTii/oie/c rotovrav eWero/xei/oi x<0piW, orav (paivavrai TO rrpa>Tov. 

 The common Kite is merely a bird of passage in Greece, a very few 

 remaining to winter there (Kriiper) ; the Black Kite is a rare visitor to 

 the mainland of Greece. Both species are common, and breed, in 

 Macedonia (Kriiper, Elwes, &c.). 



The statement 'ixrivo? (pmVrai appears in various Calendars, e. g. 

 Geminus, I sag. in Arat. Phaen. c. xvi, who dates its advent, according 

 to Eudoxus thirteen days, to Euctemon eight, and to Callippus one day, 

 before the vernal equinox. According to Grotius, Arat. Phaen. notae 

 ad imagg. p. 55, Milvus, in Latin, refers to the constellation Cygnus ; cf. 

 Ov. F. iii. 793 Stella Lycaoniam vergit declivis ad Arcton Milvus. 

 Haec ilia nocte [xvi. Kal. April.] videnda venit ; see also Plin. xviii. 6 ; 

 but according to Ideler, Sternnamen, p. 77, the dates given do not 

 tally with this hypothesis, the heliacal rising of Cygnus being three 

 months earlier ; and he prefers to assume that the statements in the 

 older Calendars referred to the bird of passage, and were mistakenly 



