204 CURIOUS CREATURES. 



feet : but Aldrovandus " out-Herods Herod " when he 

 gives us " A monstrous Cock with Serpent's tail." 



If we can believe Pliny, there are places where certain 

 birds are never found : " With reference to the depar- 

 ture of birds, the owlet, too, is said to lie concealed for 

 a few days. No birds of this last kind are to be found 

 in the island of Crete, and if any are imported thither, 

 they immediately die. Indeed, this is a remarkable 

 distinction made by Nature ; for she denies to certain 

 places, as it were, certain kinds of fruits and shrubs, and 

 of animals as well ; . . . 



" Rhodes possesses no Eagles. In Italy, beyond the 

 Padus, there is, near the Alps, a lake known by the name 

 of Larius, beautifully situate amid a country covered 

 with shrubs ; and yet this lake is never visited by storks, 

 nor, indeed, are they ever known to come within eight 

 miles of it ; whilst on the other hand, in the neighbour- 

 ing territory of the Montres, there are immense flocks 

 of magpies and jackdaws, the only bird that is guilty of 

 stealing gold and silver, a very singular propensity. 



"It is said that in the territory of Tarentum, the wood- 

 pecker of Mars is never found. It is only lately, too, 

 and that but very rarely, that various kinds of pies have 

 begun to be seen in the districts that lie between the 

 Apennines, and the City ; birds which are known by 

 the name of Varice, and are remarkable for the length 

 of the tail. It is a peculiarity of this bird, that it 

 becomes bald every year at the time of sowing rape. 

 The partridge does not fly beyond the frontiers of 

 Bceotia, into Attica ; nor does any bird, in the island 

 in the Euxine in which Achilles was buried, enter the 

 temple there consecrated to him. 



" In the territory of Fidenae, in the vicinity of the City, 



