ROOK X.] History of Nature. 1 87 



can scarcely tell whether it be false or no, that there is never 

 more than one of them in the whole World, and that it is 

 very rarely seen, ft is said to be of the size of an Eagle : 

 as bright as Gold about the Neck; the rest of the Body 

 purple : the Tail azure blue, with Feathers distinguished by 

 being of a Rose-colour ; and the Head and Face adorned 

 with a Crest of Feathers on the top. Manilius, the noble 

 Senator, excellently well versed in most kinds of Learning, 

 by his own unassisted Efforts was the first and most diligent 



From the reign of Ptolemy to Tiberius, the intermediate space is not 

 quite two hundred and fifty years. From that circumstance it has been 

 inferred by many that the last Phoenix was neither of the genuine kind, 

 nor came from the woods of Arabia. The instinctive qualities of the 

 species were not observed to direct its motions. It is the genius, we are 

 told, of the true Phoenix, when its course of years is finished, and the 

 approach of death is felt, to build a nest in its native clime, and there 

 deposit the principles of life, from which a new progeny arises. The 

 first care of the young bird, as soon as fledged, and able to trust to its 

 wings, is to perform the obsequies of its father. But this duty is not 

 undertaken rashly. He collects a great quantity of myrrh, and to try his 

 strength, makes frequent excursions with a load on his back. When he 

 has made his experiment through a long tract of air, and gains sufficient 

 confidence in his own vigour, he takes up the body of his father, and flies 

 with it to the altar of the sun, where he leaves it to be consumed in flames 

 of fragrance. Such is the account of this extraordinary bird. It has, no 

 doubt, a mixture of fable ; but that the Phoenix, from time to time, 

 appears in Egypt, seems to be a fact satisfactorily ascertained." MURPHY'S 

 "Tacitus" Annals^ Book vi. sect. 28. The concluding paragraph of this 

 second chapter of Pliny is the best comment on this passage of Tacitus. 



The fable of the Phoenix, however, is not only found in heathen au- 

 thors, but is mentioned and believed by many of the Jewish Rabbinical 

 writers also, and even by some of the early Fathers of the Christian 

 Church. Nor are accounts of it wanting in modern authors, even down 

 to so late a period as the middle of the seventeenth century ; for Sir 

 Thomas Brown, in the 12th chap, of the 3d book of his "Vulgar 

 Errors," thinks it necessary to state, at some length, his reasons for disbe- 

 lieving the existence of the Phoenix. Cuvier is of opinion that the 

 original description of the Phoenix might have been taken from the 

 Phasianus pictus, a native of China; which, if it ever once flew into 

 Egypt, would be a sufficient foundation for the portent. See Art. 

 " Phoenix," in the " Penny Cyclopaedia;" also, " Habits of Birds," in the 

 " Library of Entertaining Knowledge." Wern. Club. 



