68 A GLOSSARY OF GREEK BIRDS 



'iKTfNOI, or "ktivos (Aristoph., cf. Suid.): also hait (Uepytuoi, Hesych.). 

 In plur. iKTives (Ael. i. 35, ii. 47) or IktIvcs (Paus.). For other 

 grammatical forms, see L. & Sc., &c. Derivation unknown; 

 sometimes said to be connected with Sk. cyena. 



A Kite : including the Common Kite, Milvus regalis, Briss., M. 

 ictinus, Sav.. and the Black Kite, M. ater, Gm. The Black 

 Kite is still called IktIvos in the Cyclades, where it is the com- 

 moner species of the two (Erh.). The Common Kite is also 

 called ral(j>Tr)s in Attica (Heldreich). 



In minor references frequent, usually as a robber, e.g. Theogn. 1261, 

 1302 ; Soph. Fr. 890 'Utivos o>? eKXayge napao-vpas Kpeas J Plat. Phaed. 82; 

 Men. 4, 329 (493) ; Plat. Com. 2, 695 (69) : Aristoph. fr. 2, 11 92 (71), 

 Ar. fr. 525, Etym. M. p. 470. 34 Iktivcl navrocpOaXpov apnaya : Simon. 

 Iambi. 11, Automed. viii, in Gk. Anth. ii. 192 ovtos fya yap apnayos 

 IktIvov x €l P a KparaLore prjv. 



Description. — Arist. De Part. 670, 34 pixpos 6 o-ttXtjv' ttjv xoXj)i> ?;(« 

 7Tpbs reo rjnaTi Kai npos rfj KoiXia : H. A. vi. 6, 563 5uo cod' eviore de Kai 

 rpla' ina>a&i rup\ t'iKoaiv fjpepas : ib. viii. 3, 59 2 peyedos oaov rpiopxrjs I 

 ib. 594 dXiyuKis 7rivfi, &TTTCH de 7riv(ov. Very destructive to poultry ; ovdh 

 av tis dvaidearepov e'Uoi, Dion. De Avib. i. 7; cf. Theogn. 1302 IktIvov 

 axerXiov r)6os. 



A migratory bird : it arrives before the swallow, at the spring 

 shearing-time, Ar. Av. 714; in Egypt it does not migrate, Herod, ii. 

 22 ; it sometimes hibernates, Arist. H. A. viii. 16, 600 ol pep nXrjo-Lov 

 ovres toiovtwv Toncov, ev 01s del biapevovai, Kai IktIvoi Kai ^eXiSovey, <37ro- 

 XapoiKnv evravOa, ot 8e noppcorepa) ovres ovk eKTOTri^ovcriv dWa Kpv7rrovo-iv 

 iavrovs' fjdr] yap a>pp.evai ttoXAcu ^fXiSdve? ela\v ev dyyeiois e^rikwpevai 

 TtdpTvav, Kai IktIvol eK toiovtcov eKireropevoi ^topi'coj/, orav (paivayvrai to nparov. 

 The common Kite is merely a bird of passage in Greece, a very few 

 remaining to winter there (Kriiper) ; the Black Kite is a rare visitor to 

 the mainland of Greece. Both species are common, and breed, in 

 Macedonia (Kriiper, Elwes, &c). 



The statement 'IktIvos (paiverai appears in various Calendars, e.g. 

 Geminus, I sag. in Arat. Phaen. c. xvi, who dates its advent, according 

 to Eudoxus thirteen days, to Euctemon eight, and to Callippus one day, 

 before the vernal equinox. According to Grotius, Arat. Phaen. notae 

 ad imagg. p. 55, Milvus, in Latin, refers to the constellation Cygnus ; cf. 

 Ov. F. iii. 793 Stella Lycaoniam vergit declivis ad Arcton Milvus. 

 Haec ilia nocte [xvi. Kai. April.] videnda venit ; see also Plin. xviii. 6 ; 

 but according to Ideler, Sternnamen, p. 77, the dates given do not 

 tally with this hypothesis, the heliacal rising of Cygnus being three 

 months earlier ; and he prefers to assume that the statements in the 

 older Calendars referred to the bird of passage, and were mistakenly 



