CURIOUS CREATURES. 185 



the above effect, in the consulship of P. Licinius, and 

 Cneius Cornelius, (B.C. 96) it was the two hundred 

 and fifteenth year of the said revolution. Cornelius 

 Valerianus says that the Phoenix took its flight from 

 Arabia into Egypt in the Consulship of Q. Plautius and 

 Sextus Papinius, (A.D. 36). This bird was brought to 

 Rome in the Censorship of the Emperor Claudius, being 

 the year from the building of the City, 800, (A.D. 47) 

 and it was exposed to public view in the Comitium. 

 This fact is attested by the public Annals, but there is 

 no one that doubts that it was a fictitious Phcenix." 



Cuvier seems to think that the bird described above 

 was a Golden Pheasant, brought from the interior of 

 Asia at a time when these birds were unknown to 

 civilised Europe. 



Du Bartas, in his metrical account of the Creation, 

 mentions this winged prodigy : 



" The Heav'nly Phoenix first began to frame 

 The earthly Phcenix, and adorn'd the same 

 With such a Plume, that Phoebus, circuiting 

 From Fez to Cairo, sees no fairer thing : 

 Such form, such feathers, and such Fate he gave her 

 That fruitfull Nature breedeth nothing braver : 

 Two sparkling eyes ; upon her crown, a crest 

 Of starrie Sprigs (more splendent than the rest) 

 A goulden doun about her dainty neck, 

 Her brest deep purple, and a scarlet back, 

 Her wings and train of feathers (mixed fine) 

 Of orient azure and incarnadine. 

 He did appoint her Fate to be her Pheer, 

 And Death's cold kisses to restore her heer 

 Her life again, which never shall expire 

 Untill (as she) the World consume in fire. 

 For, having passed under divers Climes, 

 A thousand Winters, and a thousand Primes ; 

 Worn out with yeers, wishing her endless end, 



