Chap. 35 ] MIGEATOBT BIBDS. 505 



quails as food ; for which reason it is that they have been ban- 

 ished from our tables ; in addition to which, a great repugnance 

 is manifested to eating their flesh, on account of the epSepsy,' 

 to which alone of all animals, with the exception of man, the 

 quaU. is subject. 



CHAP. 34. (24.) — SWAILOWS. 



The swallow, the only bird that is carnivorous among those 

 which have not hooked talons, takes its departure also during 

 the winter months ; but it only goes to neighbouring countries, 

 seeking sunny retreats there on the mountain sides ; some- 

 times they have been found in such spots bare and quite un- 

 fledged. This bird, it is said, will not enter a house in Thebes, 

 because that city has been captured so frequently ; nor will it 

 approach the country of the Bizyae, on account of the crimes 

 committed there by Tereus.'" Caecina" of Volaterrse, a member 

 of the equestrian order, and the owner of several chariots, used 

 to have swallows caught, and then carried them with him to 

 Bome. Upon gaining a victory, he would send the news 

 by them to his friends ; for after staining them the colour'* of 

 the party that had gained the day, he would let them go, 

 immediately upon which they would make their way to the 

 nests they had previously occupied. Fabius Pictor also relates, 

 in his Annals, that when a Eoman garrison was being besieged 

 by the Ligurians, a swallow which had been taken from its 

 young ones was brought to him, in order that he might give 

 them notice, by the number of knots on a string tied to its 

 leg, on what day succour would arrive, and a sortie might be 

 made with advantage. 



CHAP. 35. BIEDS WHICH TAKE IHEIK BEPAETUEE PEOM US, AND 



WHIIHEE THUr 00 ; THE THEUSH, THE BLACKBIRD, AND THE 

 STAELUfG BIEDS WHICH LOSE THEIE PEATHEES DUEIKO THEIE 



' "Despuisuetnm." See B. xxTiii. c. 7. As Hardouin says, in modem 

 times they are considered delicate eating ; but Sohenkius, Obsers. Med. 

 B. i., states, that if the bird has eaten heUebore, epilepsy is the consequence 

 to the person who partakes of its flesh, 



i» See B. iv. c. 18. 



" A friend of Augustus, sent by him with proposals to Antony, B.C. 41. 



" The colour of the " iactio," or "party " of charioteers. See p. 217. 



