Olor Onocrotalus 123 



Aquila successfully, should he begin a fight ; and yet, 

 unless provoked, never induce the fight. These birds 

 are wont to sing even when just about to die. They 

 also fly afar over the main, and men ere now, who 

 have been sailing on the African sea have met with 

 many singing mournfully and seen some of them die. 



Should any one have never seen a Swan, nor learnt 

 sufficiently what sort of bird it be from this account of 

 Aristotle, let him know that it is a white bird, much bigger 

 than a Goose, though like in form and feeding; with black 

 feet, and a bill hardly spindle-shaped 1 , reddish in colour; 

 on the highest part of which, where it adjoins the head, 

 stands forth a very black and rounded knob, sloping towards 

 the bill. 



OF THE ONOCROTALUS. 



There are many to-day conspicuous among all for learning 

 to no small degree who maintain that the loud-sounding 

 lacustrine bird, called Buttor by the English, and Pittour 

 or Rosdomm by the Germans, is the Onocrotalus. To whose 

 opinion I would willingly subscribe, (the more so as the 

 etymology of the bird's name agrees well with its voice,) 

 did not the authority of Pliny writing of the Onocrotalus 

 after this manner dissuade me therefrom. 



The Onocrotali, he says, have a similitude to the 

 Olores, and they do not seem to differ in any way, 

 save that there is a kind of second belly in the very 

 jaws. Herein the insatiable animal crams everything 

 at once, so marvellous is its capacity, and presently, 

 the plundering complete, it gradually returns all to the 

 mouth, and thence transfers it to the real belly in the 

 manner of a ruminant. Northern Gaul, where nearest 

 to the ocean, sends us these. So far Pliny. 



1 This passage is not easily rendered, as it is difficult to see what 

 Turner intended by ' turbinato.' Turbo is a conical shell, spindle and so 

 forth; but it is hard to say how a Swan's beak could be considered either 

 conical or spindle-shaped. 



