230 The Birds of Virgil. 



that both Aristotle and Pliny have very little to 

 say of its habits, and hardly anything as to its 

 breeding ; and if the Stork had been a bird 

 familiar to them, they could hardly have failed 

 to give it a prominent place in their books. At 

 the present time it seems to pass over Italy and 

 Greece on its passage northwards, never staying 

 to breed in the former country and rarely in the 

 latter ; yet this can hardly be owing to temper- 

 ature, as it breeds freely in the parallel latitudes 

 of Spain and Asia Minor. 



As regards ancient Italy, however, the question 

 seems to be set at rest by a very curious passage 

 from the Satyricon of Petronius, which has been 

 kindly pointed out to me by Mr. Robinson Ellis. 

 It is remarkable not only for its Latin, but for its 

 concise and admirable description of the charac- 

 teristic ways of the Stork : 



Ciconia etiam grata, peregrina, hospita, 

 Pietaticultrix, gracilipes, crotalistria, 

 Avis exsul hiemis, titulus tepidi temporis, 

 Nequitiae nidum in cacabo fecit meo. 1 



1 See Petronius, Satyr, 55. Cp. also^/?'. Sat. i, line 116, and 

 Mayor's note. In the London Zoological Gardens, in March 



