146 IN BIRD-LAND 



seen in cities or in daylight it is a direful portent. 

 Perchance it is not so much fraught with horror 

 when seen sitting on private houses. It never 

 flies where it lists, but is always borne along in 

 a slanting direction. Having once entered the 

 capitol, the city was purified on account of it in 

 the same year. There is an unlucky and incendiary 

 bird, owing to which I find in the ' Annals ' that 

 the city was repeatedly purified, as when Cassius 

 and Marius were consuls, in which year also it 

 was cleansed, as a horned owl had been seen. 

 What this bird is I cannot find out, nor does 

 tradition tell. Some say that any bird is an 

 incendiary, if it appears bearing a coal from the 

 altars. Others call it a spinturnix, but neither 

 can I find any one to tell me what kind of bird this 

 is. Another confession of general ignorance is 

 that it was called by the ancients ' a bird which 

 forbade things to be done.' Nigidius terms it a 

 thievish bird, because it breaks the eggs of eagles. 

 There are, besides, several kinds, treated of in the 

 Etrurian ritual, which have now, marvellously 

 enough, died out, although those birds which man's 

 appetite lays waste increase. One Hylas wrote 

 very skilfully concerning omens, and tells that the 

 owl, with several other predatory birds, comes out 

 tail first from the egg, inasmuch as the eggs are 



