242 AEISTOTLE'S ENAIMA, 



The kestrel lays four, JEive, or sometimes six eggs, usually 

 mottled or blotched with reddish-brown. 



The Haliaietos or sea eagle, according to Aristotle, has a 

 large, thick neck, curved wings, and broad tail,* and it lives 

 near the coast and strikes down water birds.! He relates a 

 popular belief that the old birds kill any of their young ones 

 which are unable to gaze on the sun before they are fledged. | 



Aristotle gives very little information about the kite, 

 which he calls Iktinos. He says that its young ones are 

 usually two, sometimes three, or, in the ^tolian kites, four 

 in number, and that the period of incubation is twenty days.§ 

 His estimate of the number of young ones is rather too low, 

 for the kite usually has three or four. The period of in- 

 cubation of the kite I do not know. 



The Steganopodes, or web-footed birds, which can be 

 identified, are Kyhios (the swan), Che7i (the goose), Netta 

 (the wild duck), and Laros, which includes sea-gulls and 

 terns, while those which cannot be so well identified comprise 

 Kolymhis, Boskas, and Aithyia. \\ 



The Kolymhis is of special interest in connection with 

 Aristotle's views on the structure of the feet of his Stegano- 

 podes. He includes Kolymhis among the heavier birds, 

 living in the vicinity of rivers and lakes, H and he probably 

 had it in mind in P. ^. iv. c. 12, 693a. and 6946, where he 

 says that birds which have their toes separated, but flattened, 

 belong to the same group as web-footed birds, and that some 

 swimming birds are fully web-footed, while others have their 

 toes separated from one another, but there is an expansion 

 along the whole length of each toe, something like an oar- 

 blade. 



■ Avisioile's Kolymhis seems to be a grebe, viz., the great 

 crested grebe {Podicipes cristatus) , which frequents the fresh 

 waters of Greece, Turkey, and Asia Minor, is one of the 

 web-footed birds, according to Aristotle's definition, and may 

 be included among the heavier water birds, for its total 

 length is nearly two feet, although its body is not larger 

 than that of a wild duck of moderate size. Dionysius makes 

 statements about Kolymhos (probably another name for 

 Kolymhis) , which are quite consistent with the aquatic habits 



* H. A. ix. c. 22, s. 3. f Ibid. ix. c. 23, s. 3. 



\ Ibid. § Ibid. vi. c. G, s. 2. 



II See also an article by mo entitled " On the Identification of some 

 of the Birds mentioned by Aristotle," in The Zoologist, 1903, pp. 241-53, 

 H H. A. viii. c. 5, s. 8. 



