vn Aristotle on Birds 191 



colours that have red in them, including yellow. 

 There is a word that is generally understood to 

 mean blue, Kvdveoi ; but it is hard to tell how many 

 kinds of blue it represents.^ Aristotle is often con- 

 tent with telling us that a bird is of a bad colour, or 

 a good colour, without troubling himself further, as 

 if he knew well enough that his countrymen were 

 not gifted with an acute colour-sense. 



We may recognise, however, from his mention of 

 its red or yellow crest, the smallest of European 

 birds, the Gold-crested Wren, which he called by 

 the name of Tvpavvo<;, and describes as being hardly 

 larger than a locust. Its golden crown had already 

 given it the name of "Tyrant," and to this day it 

 retains it in the form of Eegulus or Kinglet. I have 

 never been able to make out why this regal title 

 should also have been conferred upon the Common 

 Wren, which has no crown ; yet not only is this 

 little brown bird known over almost all Europe as 

 King (Hedge-king in Germany, Soi in France), but 

 the name is as old as the Greeks, for Aristotle says 

 that besides its proper name "Trochilus," it was 

 called " Basileus,'' and that the Eagle is consequently 

 supposed to be jealous of it.^ 



1 Dr. Merry (Rector of Lincoln) tells me that it can include 

 bright blue and all the shades of dark blue that pass into black, 

 and quotes Eustathius (1570, 28), who interprets it as a colour 

 like that of the cloudless sky. 



^ IT. A. ix. 11. 5. For the Goldcrest, viii. 3. 5. 



