Il8 THE BIEDS OF TIEGIL. 



agriculturist. And indeed in Pliny's time the epicure's taste 

 was all in lavour of cranes and against storks ; but when Virgil 

 wrote, the reverse was the case. This little fact, so character- 

 istic of the Sway of fashion over the gourmand: of that luxurious 

 age, was recorded by Cornelius. Nepos, and ia quoted from him, 

 by Pliny {Nat. Hist. x. 60). 



The Crane is now a bird of passage in Italy, and the Stork also ; 

 they appear in spriisg on their way to northern breeding-places, 

 and in autumn re-appear with their numbeis reinforced by the 

 young broods of the year. These habits seem to have been the 

 same in Virgil's day. In the passage just quoted (Georgic i. 120) 

 it is evidently in the spring that the bird was hurtful to the 

 crops, as the seed was to be sown in the spring (line 43, etc.) 



On the other hand, in line 307, the Crane is to be snared in 

 the idnter; yet I can hardly believe that aay nunafber could 

 have stayed in Italy during winter, if the climate was then 

 colder than it is now. Moreover Pliny speaks of the Crane as 

 ' aestatis advena,' that is, a summer visitor, as opposed to the Stork, 

 who was a winter visitor. But these Latin words ' aestas ' and 

 ' hiems ' are to be understood loosely for the whole warm season, 

 and the whole cold or stormy season ; and if cranes came on 

 their passage northwards, when warm weather began, they must 

 also have appeared, on their return journey, when cold weather 

 was beginning ; so that both crane and stork might equally be 

 styled ' aestatis advena,' or ' hiemis advena.' Pliny was surely 

 making one of his many blunders when he distinguished the two 

 birds by these two expressions. 



The migration of such great birds as these, unlike those of 



