Chap. 18.] BIEDS BOEK WITH THE TAIL FIEST. 
493 
on account of which, we find in the Annals, the City has 
had to be repeatedly purified ; as, for instance, in the consul- 
ship of L. Cassius and C. Marius,^ in which year also it was 
purified, in consequence of a horned owl being seen. What 
kind of bird this incendiary bird was, we do not find stated, 
nor is it known by tradition. Some persons explain the term 
this way ; they say that the name 'incendiary'' was applied 
to every bird that was seen carrying a burning coal from 
the pyre, or altar ; while others, again, call such a bird a 
spinturnix;^^ though I never yet found any person who 
said that he knew what kind of bird this spinturnix was. 
(14.) I find also that the people of our time are ignorant 
what bird it was that was called by the ancients a clivia/' 
Some persons say that it was a clamatory, others, again, that it 
was a prohibitory, bird. We also find a bird mentioned 
by Mgidius as the " subis,'' which breaks the eggs of the 
eagle. 
(15.) In addition to the above, there are many other kinds 
that are described in the Etruscan ritual, but which no one now 
living has ever seen. It is surprising that these birds are no 
longer in existence, since we find that even those kinds abound, 
among which the gluttony of man commits such ravages. 
CHAP. 18. (16.) — BIRDS WHICH AEE BOEK WITH THE TAIL FIEST. 
Among foreigners, a person called Hylas is" thought to have 
written the best treatise on the subject of augury. He 
informs us that the owlet, the horned owl, the woodpecker, 
which makes holes in trees, the trygon, and the crow, are pro- 
duced from the egg with the tail first ; for the egg, being 
turned upside down through the weight of the head of the 
chick, presents the wrong end to be warmed by the mother 
as she sits upon it. 
daw probably, the Corvus graculus of Linnaeus. It has been said, that in 
its admiration of shining objects, it will take up a burning coal ; a trick 
which has before now caused conflagrations. Servius speaks of it as fre- 
quenting funeral piles. 
6* A.TJ.C. 647. 
65 « Spinturnix" and " clivia" were names given by the augurs probably 
to some kinds of birds. 
^ Cuvier ridicules the excessive ignorance of the augurs. It is with the 
beak that the young bird breaks the shell. 
