528 pliny's satttbal histoet. [BookX 



whatever, were it not for the fact that under the throat there 

 is a Bort of second crop, as it were. It is ia this that the ever- 

 insatiate animal stows everything away, so much so, that the 

 capacity of this pouch is quite astonishing. After having 

 finished its search for prey, it discharges bit by bit what it has 

 thus stowed away, and reconveys it by a sort of ruminating 

 process into its real stomach. The part of GaUia that lies 

 nearest to the Northern Ocean produces this, bird. 



CHAP. 67. ^FOKEI&ir BIEDS : THE PHAIERUBS, THE PHEASANT, 



AND THE NTJMIDICiE. 



In the Hercynian Forest, in Germany, we hear of a singular" 

 kind of bird, the feathers of which shine at night Eke fire ; 

 the other birds there have nothing remarkable beyond the ce- 

 lebrity which generally attaches to objects situate at a distance. 



(48.) The phalerides,'* the most esteemed of all the aquatic 

 birds, are found at Seleucia, the city of the Parthians of that 

 name, and in Asia as well ; and again, in Colchis, there is the 

 pheasant,^' a bird with two tufts of feathers like ears, which 

 it drops and raises every now and then. The numidicse'" come 

 from STumidia, a part of Africa : aU these varieties are now to 

 be found in Italy. 



CHAP. 68. THE PH(EN100PTERirS, THE ATTASEN, THE PHALACEO- 



CORAX, THE PYBRHOCOEAX, AND THE lAGOPTTS. 



Apicius, that very deepest whirlpool of aU our epicures, has 

 informed us that the tongue of the phoenicopterus" is of the 

 most exquisite flavour. The attagen,** also, of Ionia is a famous 



*' Dalechamps thinks that this story bears reference to the chatterer (the 

 Ampelis garrulus of Linnoius), the ends of certain feathers of the wings 

 being extended, and of a vermilion colour : but Cuvier looks upon Pliny's 

 account as almost nothing more than a poetical exaggeration. 



** A species of duck, Cuvier thinks. From Aristophanes we learn that 

 they were common ia the markets of Athens. Cuvier suggests thSt it may 

 have been the Anas galericulata of Linnaeus, the Chinese teal, which the 

 Parthians may have received from the countries lying to the east of them. 



89 " Phasiana," so called from the river Phasis. 



s" A variety of the guinea fowl; probably the Numida Meleagris of 

 Linnaeus. 



91 Literally, the "red-wing." The modem flamingo. 



92 Buffon thinks that this is the grouse of the English, the Tetrao Scoti- 

 cua of the naturalists ; but Cuvier is of opinion that it is either the com- 

 mon wood-cock, the Tetrao bonasiaof Linnaeus, or else the wood-cock with 



