BOOK X. XX. 40-xxii. 43 



kind of gvass make them slip out again. Trebius 

 states that if you drive a nail or wedge with as much 

 force as you Hke into a tree in which a woodpecker 

 has a nest, when the bird perches on it it at once 

 springs out again with a creak of the tree. Wood- 

 peckers themselves have been of the first importance 

 among auguries in Latium from the time of the king * 

 who gave his name to this bird. One presage of 

 theirs I cannot pass over. When Aelius Tubero, 

 City Praetor, was giving judgements from the bench 

 in the forum, a woodpecker perched on his head so 

 fearlessly that he was able to catch it in his hand. 

 In reply to enquiry the seers declared that disaster 

 was portended to the empire if the bird were released, 

 but to the pi*aetor if it were killed. Tubero however 

 at once tore the bird in pieces ; and not long after- 

 wards he fulfilled the portent. 



XXI. Many birds in this class feed also on acorns Uabitsoj 

 and fruit, but those that eat only flesli do not drink, "pecies. 

 excepting the kite, and for a kite to drink counts in 

 itself as a direful augmy. The birds having talons 

 never Hve in flocks, and each hunts for itself. But 



they almost all except the night-birds among them 

 fly high, and the bigger ones higher. All have large 

 wings and a small body. They walk with difticulty. 

 They rarely perch on rocks, as the curve of their 

 talons prohibits this. 



XXII. Now let us speak about the second class *•, ciawedhirds 

 which is divided into two kinds, song-birds and "^^'^'^-'^ 

 phmiage-birds.'' The former kind are distinguished viumage. 

 by their song and the latter by their size ; so the 



latter shall come first in order also, and among them 



out that its cantus is preceeded by plausus laterum, and by 

 reference to its tripudia, §§ 46, 49. 



3iS^ 



