BOOK X. xLi. 77-xLii. 80 



in the adjacent region of the Insubrians, do not 

 come within eight miles of Lake Como. It is 

 said that Mars's woodpecker is not found in the 

 district of Taranto. The kinds of pie called chequered 

 pies and distinguished for their long tail, though 

 hitherto rare, have lately begun to be seen between 

 the Apennines and Rome ; this bird has the pecuharity 

 of moulting its feathers yearly at the time when the 

 turnip is sown. Partridges do not fly across the 

 frontier of Boeotia into Attica ; nor does any bird 

 fly across the temple dedicated to Achilles on the 

 island " of the Bhick Sea where he is buried. In 

 the district of Fidenae near Rome storks do not 

 hatch cliicks or make nests. But a quantity of 

 pigeons every year fly from the sea to the district 

 of Volterra. Neither flies nor dogs enter the temple 

 of Hercules in the Cattle-market at Rome. There 

 are many similar facts besides, which I am continually 

 careful to omit in my account of the several kinds, 

 to avoid being wearisome — for example Theophrastus 

 states that even pigeons and peacocks and ravens 

 are not indigenous in Asia, nor croaking frogs in 

 Cyrenaicai 



XLII. There is another remarkable fact ahout Smg-birds : 

 song-birds ; they usually change their colour ^changfoj 

 and note with the season, and suddenly become pi^mage. 

 diff^erent — which among the larger class of birds 

 only cranes do, for these grow black in old age. 

 The blackbird changes from black to red ; and it 

 sings in the summer, and chirps in ^vinter, but at 

 midsummer is silent ; also the beak of yearhng 

 blackbirds, at all events the cocks, is turned to ivory 

 colour. Thrushes are of a speckled colour round the 

 neck in summer but self-coloured in winter. 



343 



