BOOK X. Lii. 109-LIV. iii 



wound that does no harm), although otherwise 

 the pigeon is a bird much given to straying. For 

 they have a triek of exchanging blandishments 

 and enticing other pigeons and coming back with a 

 larger company won by intrigue. LIII. Moreover canier- 

 also they have acted as go-betweens in important ^pfg^l 

 affairs, when at the siege " of Modena Decimus fanders. 

 Brutus sent to the consuls' camp despatches tied to 

 their feet ; what use to Antony were his rampart 

 and watchful besieging force, and even the barriers 

 of nets that he stretched in the river, when the 

 message went by air? Also pigeon-fancying is 

 carried to insane lengths by some people : they 

 build towers on their roofs for these birds, and tell 

 stories of the high breeding and pedigrees of par- 

 ticular birds, for which there is now an old pre- 

 cedent : before Pompeys civil war* Lucius Axius, 

 Knight of Rome, advertised pigeons for sale at 400 

 denarii per brace — so Marcus Varro relates. More- 

 over the largest birds, which are beheved to be 

 produced in Campania, have conferred fame on 

 their native place. 



LIV. The flight of these birds prompts one to turn FHght and 

 to the consideration of the other birds as well. All saiff 

 the rest of the animals have one dennite and uniform spedes of 

 mode of progression pecuUar to their particular kind, '' *' 

 but birds alone travel in a variety of ways both on 

 land and in the air. Some walk, as crows ; others 

 hop, as spaxTows and blackbirds ; run, as partridges 

 and black grouse ; throw out their feet in front of 

 them, as storks and cranes. Some spread their 

 wings and at rare intervals let them droop and shake 

 them ; others do so more frequently, but also only 

 the tips of the wings ; others flap the whole of their 



3<^3 



