BOOK X .] History of Nature. 213 



The Race of Starlings have the Property to fly m Troops, 1 

 and in their Flight to gather round into a kind of Ball, 

 where every one hath a tendency to be in the midst. 



Of all Birds, the Swallow alone flieth in a bending 

 Course, which is swift and easy ; and therefore it is not so 

 liable to be seized by other Birds. To conclude, it is the 

 only Bird that never feedeth but while flying. 



CHAPTER XXV. 



What Birds continue with us all the Year; which are half-year 

 Birds, and which only for three Months. 



THERE is great Difference in the Seasons of Birds. Some 

 remain the whole Year, as Columbae ; others half the Year, 

 as Hirundines ; and some but a quarter, as Turdi and Tur- 

 tures. Some go away as soon as they have brought out their 

 Young, as the Galgulus 2 and Upupa. 3 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

 Strange Stories of Birds. 



THERE are Writers who affirm, that every Year there are 

 Birds which fly out of Ethiopia to Ilium ; and there, about 

 the Sepulchre of JHfemnon, fight each other: for which Cause 

 they call them Meinnonides. 4 And Cremutius delivers it as 



1 Mr. Knapp, in his " Journal of a Naturalist," observes, " there is 

 something singularly curious and mysterious in the conduct of these birds 

 previous to their nightly retirement, by the variety and intricacy of the 

 evolutions they execute at that time. They will form themselves, per- 

 haps, into a triangle, then shoot into a long pear-shaped figure, expand 

 like a sheet, wheel in a ball, as Pliny observes, eachjndividual striving to 

 get into the centre, with a promptitude more like parade movements than 

 the actions of Birds." Wern. Club. 



2 Sometimes written Galbulus. Oriolus galbula, LINN.; Golden 

 Oriole. Wern. Club. 



3 Upupa epops, LINN. Hoopoe. Wern. Club. 



4 JElian (B. v. ch. i.) describes these birds as being black, and bear- 

 ing a general resemblance to the Hawk tribe ; but feeding on seeds, and 

 not on flesh. Their visits to the Tumulus were in the autumn ; and they 



