BOOK X. Lviii. 117-LIX. 120 



is as hard as its beak ; and when it is being taught to 

 speak it is beaten on the head with an iron rod — 

 otherwise it does not feel blows. When it alights 

 from flight it lands on its beak, and it leans on this 

 and so reduces its weight for the weakness of its feet. 



LIX. A certain kind of magpie is less celebrated, Tamyig 

 because it does not come from a distance, but it talks a^d^^Mer 

 more articulately. These birds get fond of uttering birds. 

 particular words, and not only learn them but love 

 them, and secretly ponder them with careful reflexion, 

 not conceaHng their engrossment. It is an established 

 fact that if the difficulty of a word beats them this 

 causes their death, and that their memory fails them 

 unless they hear the same woi-d repeatedly, and 

 when they are at a loss for a word they cheer up 

 wonderfully if in the meantime they hear it spoken. 

 Their shape is unusual, though not beautiful : this 

 bird has enough distinction in its power of imitating 

 the human voice. But they say that none of them 

 can go on learning except ones of the species that 

 feeds on acorns, and among these those with five 

 claws on the feet learn more easily, and not even 

 they themselves except in the two fii'st years of their 

 life. AU the birds in each kind that imitate human 

 speech have exceptionally broad tongues, although 

 this occurs in almost all species ; Claudius Caesar's 

 consort Agrippina had a thrush that mimicked what 

 people said, which was unprecedented. At the time 

 when I was recording these cases, the young princes" 

 had a starling and also nightingales that were actually 

 trained to talk Greek and Latin, and moreover 

 practised diligently and spoke new phrases every 

 day, in still longer sentences. Birds are taught to 

 talk in private and where no other utterance can 



369 



