PETEONITJS ON THE STOKK. 131 



their books. At the present time it seems to pass over Italy 

 and Greece on its passage northwards, never staying to breed 

 in the former country and rarely in the latter ; yet this can 

 hardly be owing to temperature, as it breeds freely in the 

 parallel latitudes of Spain and Asia Minor. 



As regards ancient Italy, however, the question seems to 

 be set at rest by a very curious passage from the Satyricon of 

 Petronius, which has been Idndly pointed out to me by Mr. 

 Robinson Ellis. It is remarkable not only for its Latin, 

 but for its concise and admirable > description of the charac- 

 teristic ways of the Stork : — 



Ciconia etiam grata, peregrina, hospita, 

 Pietatieultrix, graciIipeB, crotalistria, 

 Avis exsul hiemis, titulus tepidi temporia, 

 Nequitiae mdnm in cacabo fecit meo. 



'A Stork too, that welcome guest from foreign lands, that 

 devotee of filial duty, with its long thin legs and rattling bill, 

 the bird that is banished by the winter and announces the 

 coming of the warm season, has made his accursed nest in my 

 boiler.' I am reminded also of a story, which has the authority 

 both of Joi'nandes and Procopius, that at the siege of Aquileia 

 in A. D. 452, Attila was encouraged to persist by the sight of 

 a Stork and her young leaving the beleaguered city. ' Such 

 a domestic bird would never have abandoned her ancient 

 seats unless those towers had been devoted to impending 

 ruin and solitude.' ' Here then we seem to have another 

 example of a bird abandoning its ancient practice of breeding, 



* Gibbon, vol. iv. p. 240, ed. Milman. 



