246 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



Greece ; for C. urbica is (according to Dresser's ' Birds of 

 Europe,' vol. iii.) the Rock-Martin par excellence of Greece, 

 building its mud nests in the caves in which Greece and 

 Western Asia Minor abound. Again, there is a highly inter- 

 esting passage in book viii. chapter 60, of Athenseus' 'Deipno- 

 sophistai,' where the Rhodian method of collecting or begging, 

 called " chelidonizing," is described, it being stated that chelidon 

 has a white belly and black back, a description which does not 

 accord well with the actual colouring of Chelidon urbica. On the 

 whole, it would appear that the House-Martin of Greece and 

 Asia Minor is one of Aristotle's apodes, and, adopting this view, 

 the difficulties of the nesting description in Hist. Anim. ix. 21, 1, 

 disappear to some extent. 



In the same passage (Hist. Anim. ix. 21, 1), Aristotle says 

 that the apodes are called cypselloi by some, and Pliny, as is so 

 often the case, copies him. Some writers, however, neglecting 

 Aristotle's distinct statement, say that cypsellos was the Sand- 

 Martin, and Sundevall states that it is unlikely that cypsellos 

 was the same as apous, but that two distinct kinds of birds were 

 known in Greece under these names, but that Aristotle con- 

 founded them in his description. It seems to be more satis- 

 factory to take Aristotle's statement as it stands, just as Gesner 

 and Belon did, and to regard cypselloi as a name applied by some 

 ancient Greeks to the apodes. 



The water-birds which will be discussed in this paper are 

 referred to by Aristotle under the names cycnos, chen, micros 

 chen, chenalopex, aix, netta, boscas, penelops, phalaris, colymbis, 

 laros, and aithyia, abandoning the use of the Greek characters as 

 before. The following are the chief passages containing refer- 

 ences to these birds : — 



" There are animals which obtain their food and pass their 

 time in water, yet do not take in water but breathe air, and breed 

 out of the water. . . . Some of these are winged, as, for instance, 

 aithyia and colymbis." (Hist. Anim. i. 1, 6.) 



" Also animals may be retiring and cautious, like the chen." 

 (Ibid. i. 1, 15.) 



" Not all birds have csecal appendages of the intestine, but 

 most birds have them, as, for instance, netta, chen, and cycnos.'' 

 (Ibid. ii. 12, 17.) 



