246 The Birds of VirgiL 



a small entrance-hole. These birds correspond 

 with both of Aristotle's birds in being xaxo'|3*oi 

 i. e. leading a poor lurking life ; xaxo%pooi, as being 

 all very sober-coloured and difficult to distinguish 

 from one another, even by a modern expert ; in 

 having a clear, sustained, or sibilant song, 1 and 

 lastly in building some of them, that is round 

 nests with small holes for ingress and egress. 



Now in Italy and Greece the number of species 

 of these little birds is much larger than in Eng- 

 land, and it is hardly possible that they could have 

 escaped the notice of either poet or naturalist. It 

 is with these that I think we are to identify the 

 acantkis and acanthyllis of Aristotle, the acanthis 

 of Theocritus, and the acalanthis of Virgil, with 

 which we started this too lengthy discussion. 

 Towards the evening of a hot summer day, when 

 the flocks have to be watered, as he enjoins the 

 shepherd, these little warblers would begin their 

 song afresh, and sing, as does our own Sedge- 



1 A sibilant trill is probably what is meant in a passage of 

 the Greek Anthology (i. 175), Xtyvpoy /3o^/3evertv d/cav&'Sce; 

 suggesting the Grasshopper Warbler (see p. 154), or the Sedge- 

 warbler. 



