133 THE BIUDS OF VIKGIL. 



having a clear, sustained, or sibilant song,^ and lastly in 

 building — some of them, that is — round nests with small holes 

 for ingress and egress. 



Now in Italy and Greece the number of species of these 

 little birds is much larger than in England, and it is hardly 

 possible that they could have escaped the notice of either 

 poet or naturalist. It is with these that I think we are to 

 identify the acanthis and acanthyllis of Aristotle, the acanthis 

 of Theocritus, and the acalanChis of Virgil, with which we 

 started this too lengthy discussion. Towards the evening of 

 a hot summer day, when the flocks have to be watered, as 

 he enjoins the shepherd, these little warblers would begin their 

 song afresh, and sing, as does our own Sedge-warbler, far on 

 into the night. Neither Goldfinch, nor Linnet would be likely 

 to sing at that time in a thicket of thorn-bushes : those fairy 

 creatures would be playing in the cool air, or seeking the 

 water for a refreshing bath or draught. 



There are several other passages in Virgil which invite both 



translation and discussion ; but I must be content with giving 



one or two, and must dispense with lengthy remarks on them. 



Every Latin scholar knows the description, in the first Georgic, 



of the birds flying shorewards before the storm : — 



Continuo, ventis aurgentibus, aut freta ponti 

 Incipiunt agitata tumescere et aridus altis 

 MontibuB audiri fragor, aut resonantia longe 

 liitora mieceri et nemorum increbrescere murmur. 



■■^ A eibilant trill is probably what is meant in a passage of the Greek 

 Anthology (i. 175)3 ^lyvpbv fioix^evffiv oK&vBLSes ; suggesting the Grass- 

 hopper Warbler (see p. 97), or the Sedge Warbler. 



