Chap. 9.] 
HAWKS. 
487 
these eggs it purifies the others and its nest, and then throws 
it away : he states also that they hover about for three days, 
over the spot where carcases are about to be found. 
CHAP. 8. (7.) — THE BIKDS CALLED SANGUALIS AND IMMUSULUS. 
There has been considerable argument among the Eoman 
augurs about the birds known as the " sangualis " and the 
immusulus." Some persons are of opinion that the immu- 
sulus is the young of the vulture, and the sangualis that of 
the ossifrage. Massurius says,*^ that the sangualis is the same 
as the ossifrage, and that the immusulus is the young of the 
eagle, before the tail begins to turn white. Some persons 
have asserted that these birds have not been seen at Eome 
since the time of the augur Mucins ; for my part, I think it 
much more likely, that, amid that general heedlessness as to 
all knowledge, which has of late prevailed, no notice has been 
taken of them. 
CHAP. 9. (8.) HAWKS. THE BTJTEO. 
We find no less than sixteen kinds of hawks mentioned ; 
among these are the segithus, which is lame of one leg, and 
is looked upon as the most favourable omen for the augurs on 
the occasion of a marriage, or in matters connected with pro- 
perty in the shape of cattle : the triorchis also, so called 
from the number of its testicles,*^ and to which Phemonoe has 
assigned the first rank in augury. This last is by the Eomans 
known as the buteo indeed there is a family** that has 
taken its surname from it, from the circumstance of this bird 
having given a favourable omen by settling upon the ship of 
one of them when he held a command. The Greeks call one 
38 Ovid, in his " Art of Love,'* speaks of the use of eggs in purifications 
made by lovesick damsels. See S. ii. 1. 330. 
39 This story arises from the extreme acuteness of their power of smelling 
a dead body. The Egyptians said that the vulture foreknows the field of 
battle seven days. 
*o Festus says, also, that it is the ossifrage, and was so called from the 
god Sancus. Aristotle says ten, 
^2 A mere fable. Cuvier says that the segithus of Aristotle was probably 
a kind of sparrow. 
*3 Said to be three in number ; a mere fable. The buzzard probably is 
meant. 
The family of the Buteones belonged to the gens Fabia. 
