BOOK X.] History of Nature. 227 



Birds that wander abroad) by slitting up the Joints of their 

 Wings with Gold ; for without this Precaution their Wounds 

 will be dangerous. And in Truth, these Birds have the Art 

 to flatter and entice one another ; and thus they return to 

 their Homes the better accompanied on Account of their 

 Roguery. Doves also have served for Messengers in great 

 Affairs : as at the Siege of Mutina, Decimus Brutus sent out 

 of the Town Letters tied to their Feet, to the Camp of the 

 Consuls. What good, then, did the Rampart and Watch in 

 the Siege, and the Nets stretched across the River, to 

 Antony, when the Messenger was able to pass through the 

 Air? Many Men are gone mad in their Love to these Birds: 

 they build Towers above the tops of their Houses for them ; 

 and they reckon up their Origin and Nobility, as in one old 

 Example. L. Axius, a Roman Knight, before the Civil War 

 with Pompey, sold every pair (of Pigeons) for four hundred 

 Denarii, 1 as M. Varro* reports. Besides this, they have 

 rendered their Country noble ; for Campania is supposed 

 to produce by far the greatest. Their manner of flying leads 

 me to the Consideration of the Flight of other Fowls. 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

 Of the Pace and Flight of Birds. 



ALL other living Creatures have one certain and uniform 

 manner of going, each according to its kind. Birds only 

 vary their Course, whether they go upon the Ground or fly 

 in the Air. Some walk as Crows (Cornices) ; others hop, .as 

 Sparrows and Thrushes (Passeres, merulse) ; some run, as 



1 12 lib. 10 sh. 



2 The care of Pigeons for profit entered more into the rural economy 

 of the ancients than with us of the present day. They were fattened for 

 the market under the parent ; their food being made easy of access, while 

 a few quill-feathers were drawn from the wing, and the thighs broken. 

 It was found that fastening the legs made them more uneasy, and thus 

 proved a greater hindrance to their fattening than the fracture. The 

 Romans had their favourite varieties, for which they paid enormous 

 prices : varying from one or two to twelve or fourteen pounds a couple. 

 Wern. Club. 



