Chap. 9.] HAWKS. 487 



these eggs ^ it purifies the others and its nest, and then throws 

 it away : he states also that they hover about for three '' days, 

 over the spot where carcases are about to be found. 



CHAP. 8. (7.) THE BIEDS CALLED SAlfeiTALIS AlfD IMMT7SULT7S. 



There has been considerable argument among the Eoman 

 augurs about the birds known as the " sanguafis " and the 

 " immusulus." Some persons are of opinion that the immu- 

 Bulus is the young of the vulture, and the sangualis that of 

 the ossifrage. Massurius says,^° that the sangualis is the same 

 as the ossifrage, and that the immusulus is the young of the 

 eagle, before the tail begins to turn white. Some persons 

 have asserted that these birds have not befen seen at Eome 

 since the time of the augur Mucins ; for my part, I think it 

 much more Ukely, that, amid that general heedlessness as to 

 all knowledge, which has of late prevailed, no notice has been 

 taken of them. 



CHAP. 9. (8.) HAWKS. THE BTTTEO. 



We find no less than sixteen *' kinds of hawks mentioned ; 

 among these are the segithus, which is lame " of one leg, and 

 is looked upon as the most favourable omen for the augurs on 

 the occasion of a marriage, or in matters connected with pro- 

 perty in the shape of cattle : the triorchis also, so called 

 from the number of its testicles," and to which Phemonoe has 

 assigned the first rank in augury. This last is by the Somans 

 known as the "buteo;" indeed there is a family" that has 

 taken its surname from it, from the circumstance of this bird 

 having given a favourable omen by settling upon the ship of 

 one of fiiem when he held a command. The Grreeks call one 



'* Ovid, in his " Art of Love," speaks of the nse of eggs in purifications 

 made hj lovesick damsels. See B. ii. 1. 330. 



39 This story arises from the extreme acuteness of their power of smelling 

 a dead body. The Egyptians said that the vulture foreknows the field of 

 tattle seven days. 



*" FestuB says, also, that it is the ossiirage, and was so called from the 

 god Sancus. *' Aristotle says ten. 



^ A mere &ble. Cuvier says that the segithus of Aristotle was probably 

 a kind of sparrow. 



" Said to be three in nmuber ; a mere &ble. The buzzard probably is 

 meant. 



** The family of the Buteones belonged to the gens Fabia. 



