CYNEGETICA, III. 482-501 



Yea and another double breed have I beheld with 

 mine eyes, a mighty marvel, Camel united with 

 Sparrow"; which, though it is numbered with the 

 hghtsome birds and is \\inged, not\nthstanding my 

 lays shall celebrate, since the varied range of our 

 hunting admits it. For the lime that is the enemy 

 of birds does not prevail over it, nor the reeds that 

 tread an airy path, but Horses and s^vift Hounds and 

 unseen snares. Its size is huge, so that it can carry 

 on its broad back a young boy. The legs are long, 

 like to those of the sluggish Camels, and are arrayed 

 as it were with close-set hard scales up to the double 

 thigh." Small is the head that it rears on high but 

 long the hairy dusky neck. They have abundant 

 feathers ; yet they do not sail aloft on the high paths 

 of air, but notwithstanding, as they run swiftly with 

 their feet, they have a speed equal to the birds 

 themselves. Nor do they mate hke birds'^ by 

 mounting but, hke the Bactrian tribe,<* rear to 



pouri roiiffi'EWrfffi ov ffvyypdipw- rb 5e /atj iwiaTearat avTTJs, toito 

 ippdffU' KdfiriXos €v Toiai. oiricrdioKTi (TKtKeffL ^x^' Tiaatpas /xrjpom 

 Kil youvara reffffepa ; cf. Ael. X. 3. The statement is contra- 

 dicted A. 499 a 19 /cat yovv 5' Ix" '" ^>^o.<tt{^ t<j5 <TK(\ei iv /cat 

 tAj KafiTtas ov jrXet'oi'S, wcnrep Xeyovffl rives, dWA (paiveraL 5ia rrjv 

 vTcbaraciv ttjs KoiXias, i.e. on account of the way in which the 

 belly is supported (for this use of vir6(rTa<ris cf. A. P. A. 

 659 a 24 evex' viroaraaeuis roO pdpovs. Similarly vTwrrrifia 

 De an. ince^s. 708 b -2) — the ref. being to the callosities on 

 the joints which support the belly in the same way that the 

 front part of the body is supported by the breast callosity 

 (A. 499 a 16 AWop 5' Ix^^"'"' f'/Sov roiofrov dlov dvu ev rots Karu, 

 iff) 01), OTO-v /cara/cXi^p eis yovara, iffTrjpiKTai. to dXXo (ru>/xa). 



* A. 539b 25 ■troiovvTai avi'SvaffubvTdTe TrXfiara tCiv reTpairoSuv 

 i-ri^aivovTos ixi rb drfKv tov Appevos Kai to tQv opvidujv 5.iro.v 

 yivot oiTo) re Kal fiovax^'s ; cf. Plin. x. 143. 



* The Bactrian Camel, Comelus h<ictrianiis, with two 

 humps: A. 498 b8; 499 a 14; Plin. viii. 67. 



155 



