226 The Birds of Virgil. 



of cranes against storks ; but when Virgil wrote, 

 the reverse was the case. This little fact, so 

 characteristic of the sway of fashion over the 

 gourmand of that luxurious age, was recorded by 

 Cornelius Nepos, and is quoted from him by 

 Pliny (Nat. Hist. x. 60). 



The Crane is now a bird of passage in Italy, 

 and the Stork also ; they appear in spring on 

 their way to northern breeding-places, and in 

 autumn reappear with their numbers reinforced 

 by the young broods of the year. These habits 

 seem to have been the same in Virgil's day. 

 In the passage just quoted (Georgic i. 120) it is 

 evidently in the spring that the bird was hurtful 

 to the crops, as the seed was to be sown in the 

 spring (line 43, etc.). 



On the other hand, in line 307, the Crane is to 

 be snared in the winter ; yet I can hardly believe 

 that any number could have stayed in Italy during 

 winter, if the climate was then colder than it is 

 now. Moreover, Pliny speaks of the Crane as 

 ' aestatis ad vena,' that is, a summer visitor, as 

 opposed to the Stork, who was a winter visitor. 

 But these Latin words ' aestas ' and ' hiems ' are 



