BOOK X. xLix. 94-L. 97 



by human labour. Also in Egypt near the town of 

 Coptos there is an island sacred to Isis which they 

 fortify with a structure to prevent its being destroyed 

 by the same river, strengthening its point with chaff 

 and straw when the spring days begin, going on for 

 three days all through the nights with such industry 

 that it is agreed that many birds actually die at the 

 work ; and this spell of duty always comes round again 

 for them with the returning year. There is a third 

 kind of swallows <" that make holes in banks and so 

 construct their nests in the ground. (Their chicks 

 when burnt to ashes are a medicine for a deadly 

 throat malady and many other diseases of the human 

 body.) These birds do not build proper nests, and 

 if a rise of the river threatens to reach their holes, 

 they migrale many days in advance. 



L. There is a species of titmouse * that makes '^ther spedes 

 its nest of diy moss finished otf in such a perfect for i/ieir 

 ball that its entrance cannot be found. The bird "^^^- 

 called the thistle-finch <^ weaves its nest out of flax 

 in the same shape. One of the woodpeckers hangs 

 by a twig at the very end of the boughs, hke a ladle 

 on a peg, so that no four-footed animal can get to it. 

 It is indeed asserted that the witwall purposely 

 takes its sleep while hanging suspended by the feet, 

 because it hopes thus to be safer. Again, it is a 

 common practice of them all carefully to choose a 

 flooring of branches to support their nest, and 

 to vault it over against the rain or roof it with a 

 penthouse of thick foHage. In Arabia'' a bird called 

 cinnamolgus makes a nest of cinnamon twigs ; 

 the natives bring these birds down with arrows 

 weighted with lead, to use them for trade. In 

 Scythia a bird of the size of a bustard lays two eggs 



353 



