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CHAPTER XIX. 



THE PHCENIX. THE BERNACLE GOOSE. 



THE popular love of the marvellous has propagated 

 stones respecting- the existence of birds, whose lon- 

 gevity far exceeds all that has ever been related of 

 the crow or the eagle. Of these, the most remark- 

 able is the Phoenix, of which therefore, as a specimen 

 of fabulous ornithology, we will take the present 

 opportunity of giving some account. The subject 

 ought to prove not a little interesting, at least to the 

 numerous individuals who trade, under the name of 

 this bird, in insurance offices, iron companies, engine 

 factories, stage-coaches, steam-packets, race-horses, 

 coffee-houses, and innumerable other heterogeneous 

 things, which are imagined, we suppose, to derive 

 a mysterious influence from the name of Phoenix. 

 It may be well to begin with the first account which 

 has been transmitted to us of this bird that of 

 Herodotus, the father of history. 



" There is," says he, " a sacred bird, the name of 

 which is the phoenix : I have not myself seen it, ex- 

 cepting in a picture, for it seldom visits even the 

 Egyptians themselves, only every five hundred years, 

 according to the statement of the people of Heliopo- 

 lis ; and they say that it never comes except when 

 its sire dies. If it is like its picture, it is of the 

 following size and shape : its plumage is partly 

 gold-coloured, partly crimson ; and it is completely 

 similar to the eagle in outline and in bulk. They 

 relate that this bird acts in the following manner, but 

 I cannot give credit to their assertions : that depart- 



