BOOK X. xLv. 87-xLvii. 91 



on the actual days, which is surprising. Also the 

 golden oriole, which is yellow all over, is not seen 

 in winter but comes out about midsummer. Black- 

 birds are born white at Cyllene in Arcadia, but 

 nowhere else. The ibis is black only in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Pelusium, being Avhite in all other 

 places. 



XLVI. Songbirds apart from some exceptions do Breeding 

 not ordinarily breed before the spring equinox or "^ '""'^' ' 

 after the autumn one ; and their eggs laid before 

 midsummer are doubtful, but those after midsummer 

 are fertile. 



XLVII. Kingfishei-s are especially remarkable Theking- 

 for this : the seas and those who sail them know the ^^,^0,^ and 

 days when they breed. The bird itself is a Uttle ^<»*'"- 

 larger than a sparrow, sea-bhie in colour and reddish 

 only on the underside, blended with white feathers 

 in the neck, with a long slender beak." There is 

 another kind of kingfisher different in size and note ; 

 this smaller kind sings in beds of rushes. A king- 

 fisher is very rarely seen, and only at the setting ^ 

 of the Pleiads and about midsummer and midwinter, 

 when it occasionally flies round a ship and at once 

 goes away to its retreat. They breed at midwinter, 

 on what are called ' the kingfisher days,' during which 

 the sea is calm and navigable, especially in the 

 neighbourhood of Sicily. They make their nests 

 a week before the shortest day, and lay a week after 

 it. Their nests are admired for their shape, that 

 of a ball slightly projecting with a very narrow 

 mouth, resembling very large sponges ;<^ they cannot 

 be cut with a knife, but break at a strong blow, like 



■^ The 80-called nests on which this story is based are clearly 

 a kind of sponge. 



349 



