Merops Merula 1 1 5 



Now the Green Picus makes itself a nest with its own bill 

 in trees : for when a Picus hammering on a tree discovers 

 by the sound that it is hollow at the core, the breeding 

 season being close at hand, it bores that with its bill in 

 which it afterwards intends to nest. There is not anywhere 

 a tree so tall which this bird cannot reach by means 

 of flight, for any weight of body that it has. Its plumage 

 is moreover green above and, if my memory serves me, 

 yellow underneath, or pale at least. Since then the Merops, 

 hindered by its weight of body is incapable of rising to 

 a height, and thus of making nests in trees, and has blue 

 upper parts, the grunspecht of the Germans, which the 

 Britons from the holes it makes call huhol [that is, Hew- 

 hole], cannot be the Merops known to Aristotle and Pliny. 



OF THE MERULA. 



KOTTU<O?, merula, in English a blak osel, a blak byrd, 

 in German eyn merl or eyn amsel. 



ARISTOTLE. 



Of Merulae there are two sorts, one black and 

 common, and the other white, of equal size indeed 

 and having a like voice, but which is well-known 

 round Cyllene in Arcadia, and not bred elsewhere. 

 There is of this kind another also, which is like the 

 black, but dull in colour and a little less in size. It 

 usually haunts rocks and roofs, but has not the bill 

 ruddy like the Merula. The Merula in colour and 

 in voice moreover changes with the season, for it 

 turns from black to rufous, and utters a different cry. 

 For it chatters in winter, but sings lustily in summer 1 . 



PLINY. 



From black the Merula turns rufous, in summer 

 it sings, but in winter it babbles, and about the solstice 



1 The readings in Aristotle differ considerably. ' Sings lustily ' may 

 go with ' in winter.' 



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