BOOK X. XXII. 43-xxiv. 46 



before all the rest will come the peacock class, both 

 because of its beauty and because of its consciousness 

 of and pride in it. When praised it spreads out its 

 jewelled colours directly facing the sun, because in 

 that way they gleam more brilliantly ; and at the 

 same time by curving its tail Uke a shell it contrives 

 as it were reflexions of shadow for the rest of its 

 colours, which actually shine more brightly in the 

 dark, and it draws together into a cluster all the eyes 

 of its feathers, as it delights in having them looked at. 

 Moreover when it moults its tail feathers every year 

 with the fall of the leaves, it seeks in shame and 

 sorrow for a place of concealment until others are 

 born again with the spring flowers. It Uves for 25 

 years, but it begins to shed its colours at the age of 

 three. The authorities relate that this creature is 

 not only ostentatious but also spiteful, just as the 

 goose is said to be modest — since some writers have 

 added these characteristics also in that species, 

 though I do not accept them. 



XXIII. The first person at Rome to kill a peacock Thepeacock 



fOT thfi 



for the table was the orator Hortensius, at the tabu. 

 inaugural banquet of his priesthood. Fattening 

 peacocks was first instituted about the time of the 

 last pirate war " by Marcus Aufidius Lurco, and he 

 made 60,000 sesterces profit from this trade. 



XXIV. Nearly equally proud and self-conscious are Thefarm- 

 aiso om* Roman night-watchmen, a breed designed '"' '^"'^ ' 

 by nature for the purpose of awakening mortals 



for their labours and interrupting sleep. They are 

 skilled astronomers, and they mark every three- 

 hour period in the daytime with song, go to bed with 

 the sun, and at the fourth camp-watch * recall us 

 to our business and our labour and do not aUow 



321 



