6o iii. I — iii. 2. 



this form renders it serviceable to them in obtaining the mastery 

 over their prey, and is better suited for deeds of violence than any 

 other. Moreover, as their weapons of offence consist of this beak 

 and of their claws, these latter also are more crooked in them than 

 in the generality of birds. Similarly in each other kind of bird 

 the beak is suited to the mode of life. Thus, in woodpeckers^* 

 it is hard and strong, as also in crows and birds of crowlike habit, 

 while in the smaller birds it is delicate, so as to be of use in 

 collecting seeds and picking up minute animals. In such birds, 

 again, as eat herbage, and such as live on the edges of marshes — 

 those, for example, that swim and have webbed feet — the bill is 

 broad, or adapted in some other way to the mode of life. For 

 a broad bill enables a bird to dig into the ground with ease, just 

 as, among quadrupeds, does the broad snout of the pig, an animal 

 which, like the birds in question, lives on roots. Moreover, in 

 these root-eating birds and in some others of like habits of life, 

 the tips of the bill end in hard points, which gives them additional 

 facility in dealing with herbaceous food. 



The several parts which are set on the head have now, pretty 

 nearly all, been considered. In man, however, the part which lies 

 between the head and the neck is called the face, this name (in 

 Greek prosopoii) being, it would seem, derived from the function 

 of the part. For as man is the only animal that stands upright, 

 he is also the only one that looks directly in front (in Greek proso) ; 

 and the only one whose voice is emitted in that direction.^^ 



(Ch. 2.) We have now to treat of horns ; for these also, when 

 present, are appendages of the head. They exist in none but 

 viviparous animals ; though in some ovipara certain parts are 

 metaphorically spoken of as horns, in virtue of a certain 

 resemblance.^ To none of such parts however does the proper 

 office of a horn belong ; for they are never used, as are the horns 

 of vivipara, for purposes which require strength, whether it be 

 in self-protection or in offensive strife. So also no polydactylous 

 animal"^ is furnished with horns. For horns are weapons of 

 strife, and these polydactylous animals possess other means of 

 security. For to some of them nature has given claws, to others 

 teeth suited for combat, and to the rest some or other adequate 

 defensive appliance. There are horns, however, in most of the 

 cloven-hoofed animals, and in some^ of those that have a solid 

 hoof, serving them as an offensive weapon, and in some cases 

 663 a. 



