508 PLIITT'S ITATTriLiX HI8T0ET. [Book X. 



I well ; it is singular that when introduced into these localities 

 they will be no longer productive, but die immediately they 

 are thus transplanted. What can it be that is thus fatal to 

 the increase of one particular species, or whence this envy 

 manifested against them by Nature ? "What, too, are the limits 

 that have been marked out for the birds on the face of the 

 earth? 



Rhodes" possesses no eagles. In Italy beyond the Padus, 

 there is, near the Alps, a lake known by the name of Larius, 

 beautifully situate amid a country covered with shrubs ; and 

 yet this l^e is never visited by storks, nor, indeed, are they 

 ever known to come within eight mUes of it ; while, on the 

 other hand, in the neighbouring territory of the Insubres"" 

 there are immense flocks of magpies and jackdaws, the only" 

 bird that is guilty of stealing gold and silver, a very singular 

 propensity. « 



It is said that in the territory of Tarentum, the woodpecker 

 of Mars is never found. It is only lately too, and that but 

 very rarely, that various kinds of pies have begun to be seen 

 in the districts that lie between the Apennines and the City ; 

 birds which are known by the name of " variae,"'^ and are re- 

 markable for the length of the tail. It is a peculiarity of 

 this bird, that it becomes bald every year at the time of sowing 

 rape. The partridge does not fly beyond the frontiers of 

 Boeotia, into Attica ; nor does any bird, in the island^ in the 

 Euxine in which Achilles was buried, enter the temple there 

 consecrated to him. In the territory of Kdense, in the vicinity 

 of the City, the storks have no young nor do they build nests: but 

 vast numbers of ringdoves arrive from beyond sea every year 

 in the district of Volaterrse. At Rome, neither flies nor dogs 

 ever enter the temple of Hercules in the Cattle Market. There 

 are numerous other instances of a similar nature in reference 

 to all kinds of animals, which from time to time I feel my- 

 self prompted by prudent considerations to omit, lest I should 



•' Suetonius says, that ■when Tiherius was staying at Ehodes, an eagle 

 perched on the roof of his house ; such a bird having never been seen 

 before on the island. ™ gee B. iii. c. 21. 



21 It is still noted for its thieving propensities ; vpitness the English story 

 of the Maid and the Magpie, and the Italian opera of " La Gazza Ladra." 

 Cicero says, " They would no more trust gold with you,, than with a jack- 

 daw." See also Ovid's Met. B. vii. It is the Corvus pica of Linnteus. 



*2 " Mottled pies." ^s gge B. iv. c. 12. 



