BOOK X.] History of Nature. 239 



Strabo, of the Equestrian order, at Brundusium. And by 

 his Example we began to confine Animals within Prisons ;^ 

 to which Creatures Nature had assigned the wide Air. 



CHAPTER LI. 

 Of jEsop's Platter. 



BUT in this Relation the most distinguished is the 

 Platter of Clodius JEsopus, the Actor of Tragedies ; which 

 was valued at six hundred Sestertia. 1 In this he served up 

 all kind of Birds remarkable for Song or capable of human 

 Speech ; and they cost him six hundred Sesterces a-piece. 

 And it was no Pleasure that guided him in this, beyond the 

 Fact that he would eat the Imitators of Man : without any 

 Consideration that, in Truth, all his own rich Revenues had 

 been procured by his Tongue : a Father verily worthy of a 

 Son who, as we said before, devoured those Pearls. 2 And, 

 to speak the Truth, it is hard to judge which of the two 

 committed the greatest Baseness ; unless that it is less to 

 sup on the greatest Riches of Nature than on Men's 

 Tongues. 



CHAPTER LII. 



The Generation of Birds ; and besides Birds, what four- 

 footed Beasts lay Eggs. 



THE Generation of Birds seemeth to be simple ; and yet 

 therein are to be found some wonderful Things. For four- 

 footed Animals also produce Eggs ; as Chamaeleons, Lizards, 

 and such as we named among Serpents. Of Fowls, those 

 that have hooked Claws are less fertile, and among these, 

 only the Cenchris layeth above four. Nature hath assigned 

 this to the Class of Fowls, that the Powerful should be less 

 fruitful than those which fly from the others. Struthio 

 Cameli (Ostriches), Gallinae (Hens), Perdices (Partridges), 



1 600,000 sestertii, 150,000 denarii. 

 See B. ix. ch. xxxv. Wern. CM. 



