BOOK X. xLiii. 84-xLv. 87 



for armour-bearers in old days. I know of one bird, 

 a white one it is true, which is nearly unprecedented, 

 that was sold for 600,000 sesterces to be given as a 

 present to the emperor Claudius's consort Agrippina. ' 

 Frequent cases have been seen before now of nightin- 

 gales that have begun to sing wlien ordered, and have 

 sung in answev to an organ, as there have been found 

 persons who could reproduce the birds' song with an 

 indistinguishable resemblance by putting water into 

 slanting reeds and breathing into the holes or by 

 applying some slight check with the tongue. But 

 these exceptional and artistic trills after a fortnight 

 gradually cease, though not in such a way that 

 the birds could be said to be tired out or to have 

 had enough of singing ; and later on when the heat 

 has increased their note becomes entirely diiferent, 

 with no modulations or variations. Their colour 

 also changes, and finally in winter the bird itself is 

 not seen. Their tongues do not end in a point like 

 those of all other birds. They lay in early spring, 

 six eggs at most. 



XLIV. It is otherwise with the fig-pecker, as it Thehtca- 

 changes its shape and colour at the same time ; otheTspencs 

 it has this name in the autumn, but afterwards is '^^( '•/'anjf 

 called the blackcap. Similarly also the bird \i.nown piumaie,or 

 as erithacus in winter is called redstart in summer. l°ilfcit. 

 The hoopoe also changes its appearance, as the poet 

 Aeschylus * records ; it is moreover a foul-feeding 

 bird, noticeable for its flexible crest, which it draws 

 together and raises up along the whole length of 

 its head. 



XLV. The wheatear indeed actually has fixed days 

 of retirement : it goes into hiding at the rising of the 

 dogstar and comes out after its setting, doing both 



347 



