242 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



Sometimes — as, for instance, in the ninth book of his ' History of 

 Animals' — he gives descriptive accounts of various birds, but the 

 best of these accounts is very incomplete. The data upon 

 which the identification of Aristotle's birds must rest are there- 

 fore often insufficient. Secondly, some of the names — such as 

 kapos — used by Aristotle, probably indicated birds belonging to 

 more than one species, or perhaps even genus, according to 

 modern ideas of classification. Aristotle does employ a word 

 (tftos) which can sometimes be fairly rendered by the modern 

 word " species," and also a word (ysvog) which may be repre- 

 sented occasionally by the word " genus," but is usually more 

 nearly equivalent to one of the modern terms — class, order, and 

 family. Synonymy of the Aristotelian and modern zoological 

 names is therefore exceptional, as might be reasonably ex- 

 pected. 



Let us first consider those birds referred to above as belong- 

 ing to the families Cypselida; and Hirundinidce. Aristotle deals 

 with them under the names apous, cypsellos, drepanis, and cheli- 

 doii (abandoning, for convenience' sake, the use of the Greek 

 characters). The following are the chief passages: — 



" Also, there are weak-footed birds which, on this account, 

 are called apodes. They have well-developed wings, and some 

 birds nearly like them have well-developed wings but weak feet, 

 as, for instance, chelidon and drepanis ; for all these are similar 

 in habits and wings, and nearly alike in appearance. The apous 

 is seen during the whole season, but the drepanis when it rains 

 in summer, for then it is both seen and caught, but is a rare bird 

 on the whole." (Hist. Anim., book i. 1, 9.) 



" And there are some which have neither their oesophagus 

 nor crop wide, but a long stomach [or, perhaps, stomach and 

 intestines], these being small birds, such as chelidon and the 

 sparrow." (Ibid. ii. 12, 16.) 



" But sometimes self-coloured birds, black or dark, such as 

 the crow, sparrow, and chelidones, become white through seasonal 

 changes, as, for instance, when the cold increases." (Ibid. iii. 

 10, 11.) 



" Wild birds, as I have said, usually pair and hatch out young 

 once a year, but chelidon and the blackbird hatch out young 

 twice." (Ibid. v. 11, 1.) 



