BOOK X. xcv. 205-xcvii. 209 



that devour the flowers of the thorn ; but the yellow 

 wagtail hates the titmouse so bitterly that people 

 beUeve that their blood will not mix, and conse- 

 quently they give it a bad name as used for many 

 poisons. The thos and the hon quarrel. Also the 

 smallest animals quarrel as much as the largest : a 

 tree infested with ants is hollowed out by caterpillars ; 

 a spider swings by a thread on to the head of a snake 

 stretched out beneath the shade of its tree, and nips 

 its brain with its jaws so violently that it at once 

 gives a hiss and whirls giddily round, but cannot 

 even break the thread by which the spider hangs, 

 much less get away, and there is no end to it before 

 its death. 



XCVI. On the other hand friendships occur Frieruisinps 

 between peacocks and pigeons, turtle-doves and fpHi^. 

 parrots, blackbirds and turtle-doves, the crow and betwem 

 the httle heron in a joint enmity against the fox man. 

 kind and the goshawk and kite against the buz- 

 zard. Why, are there not signs of affection even 

 in snakes, the most hostile kind of animals ? we have 

 mentioned " the story that Arcady tells about the 

 snake that saved his master's Hfe and recognized 

 him by his voice. Let us place to the credit of 

 Phylarchus a marvellous tale about an asp : he 

 relates that in Egypt, when it used to come regularly 

 to be fed at someone's table, it was dehvered of 

 young ones, and that its hosts's son was killed by 

 one of these ; and that when the mother came back 

 for its usual meal it reahzed the young one's guilt 

 and killed it, and never came back to the house again 

 afterwards. 



XCVII. The question of sleep does not involve ^^^^?f 

 any obscure conjecture. It is clear that among land spedes. 



425 



