202 History of Nature. [BooK X . 



Latium these are the principal Birds in Auguries, from that 

 King 1 who gave them their Name. And one Presage of 

 theirs I cannot pass over : one of them alighted upon the 

 Head of L. Tubero, Praetor of the City, as he was distri- 

 buting Justice on the Judgment-seat in the Forum, and 

 there rested so gently, that it suffered him to take it with his 

 Hand. The Prophet answered, that if the Bird were let go 

 it would portend the Ruin of the Empire ; but if it were 

 killed, it denounced Death to the Praetor ; and he immediately 

 tore the Bird in pieces : nor was it long before the Prodigy 

 was fulfilled. There are also some of this Kind that feed 

 upon Mast, and many on Apples; but they do not live on 

 Flesh only, except the Milvus, which causes that Bird to be 

 mournful in Auguries. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

 Of Birds that have hooked Talons and Fingers. 



THOSE which have crooked Claws do not assemble in 

 Flocks, but prey each one for itself. And almost all these 

 fly aloft except the Night-birds ; and the greater Sort espe- 

 cially. They are all of them great winged, little bodied, and 

 walk with Difficulty. They seldom perch upon Rocks, being 

 hindered by the bending inward of their Talons, it re- 

 maineth that we speak of the second Order of Birds, which 

 is divided into two Sorts : Oscines and Alites. For the 

 singing of the one Kind, and the Bigness of the other, 

 maketh the Distinction. Therefore they are treated of first 

 in Order. 



CHAPTER XX. 



Of the Pavo; 2 and who was the first that hilled them for 



Food. 



THE Class of the Pavo excels all the others, as well in 

 Form as in his Understanding and Glory. For when he is 



1 Picus. 



8 Meleagrix pano, LINN. ; Pavo criatatm, Peacock. Martial expresses 

 his regret that so beautiful a bird shouid be delivered over to the cruelty 



