BOOK X. Lx. 123-LX1. 126 



citizen, in the city in which many leading men had 

 had no obsequies at all, while the death " of Scipio 

 Aemihanus after he had destroyed Carthage * and 

 Numantia '^ had not been avenged by a single person. 

 The date of this was 28 Mai-ch, a.d. 36, in the consul- 

 ship of Marcus Servilius and Gaius Cestius. At the 

 present day also there was in the city of Rome at the a taUmg 

 time when I was publishing this book a crow belong- '^'''^- 

 ing to a Knight of Rome, that came from Southern 

 Spain, and was remarkable in the first place for 

 its very black colour and then for uttering sentences 

 of several words and frequently learning still more 

 words in addition. Also there was recently a report Ravens 

 of one Crates surnamed Monoceros in the district of /Zwkrn^^ 

 Eriza in Asia hunting with the aid of ravens, to such 

 an extent that he used to carry them down into the 

 forests pei'ched on the crest^ of his helmet and on his 

 shoulders ; the birds used to track out and drive the 

 game, the practice being carried to such a point 

 that even wild ravens followed him in this way when 

 he left the forest. Certain persons have thought it 

 worth recordino- that a raven was seen during' a 

 drought dropping stones into a monumental urn in 

 which some rain water still remained but so that the 

 bird was unable to reach it ; in this way as it was 

 afraid to go down into the urn, the bird by pihng up 

 stones in the manner described raised the water high 

 enough to supply itself with a drink. 



LXI. Nor will I pass by the birds"^ of Diomede. Tfie 

 Juba calls them Plungers-birds, also reporting that^""^*'' 

 they have teeth, and that their eyes are of a fiery red 

 colour but the rest of them bright white. He states 

 that they always have two leaders, one of whom leads 

 the colurnn and the other brings up the rear ; that 



voL. III. K 373 



