EAGLE OWL IN ROME 43 



itself in cities or at all by daylight, it prognosticates 

 dire misfortunes. Should it perch upon a private 

 house it is not necessarily of evil omen for the 

 State. It flies, not, as do other birds, where- 

 soever they list, but drifts along in uncertain 

 sidelong fashion. On one occasion, it entered the 

 shrine of the Capitol itself, and, accordingly, on 

 the Nones of March of that year, the whole city 

 had to undergo a solemn purification." He then 

 proceeds to quote a certain Hylas, a high author- 

 ity on auspices, who avers that the owl, unlike 

 most other birds, " issues from the egg back fore- 

 most, inasmuch as one side of the egg is weighed 

 down by the great size of its head, and so the 

 lighter end, containing the back, is presented to 

 the fostering warmth of the mother." " Crafty is 

 the mode," he continues, and here he is on the 

 solid ground of observation and of fact "in which 

 the owl fights other birds. When surrounded by 

 a great number of them, it flings itself on its back 

 and striking out with beak and claws, contracts its 

 body into its smallest and so protects itself on all 

 sides. The hawk will help him, from a natural kin- 

 ship of Nature, and share the combat with him." 

 And he goes on to quote yet another authority, 

 Nigidius, who avers that owls sleep for sixty days 



