CHAPTEE VI. 



The Birds of Viegil. 



TT might naturally be supposed, that an Oxford tutor, who 

 finds his vocation in the classics and his amusement in the 

 birds, would be in the way of noticing what ancient authors 

 have to say about their feathered friends and enemies. One 

 Christmas vacation, when there was comparatively little to 

 observe out-of-doors, I made a tour through the poems of 

 Virgil, keeping a sharp look-out for all mention of birds, and 

 compiled a complete collection of his ornithological passages. 

 I chose a Latin poet because in Latin it happens to be easier 

 to identify a genus or species than it is in Greek ; and I chose 

 Virgil partly because the ability to read and understand him 

 is to me one of the things which make life most worth living, 

 and partly because I know that there is no other Latin poet 

 who felt in the same degree the beauty and the mystery of 

 animals. 



I believe there are still people who think of Virgil as a 

 court-poet, writing to order, and drawing conventional ideas 

 of nrture from Greek authors of an earlier age.. This is, of 

 course, absolutely untrue. Virgil's connexion with Augustus 



