494 
PLINY'S NATURAL HISTOEY. 
[Book X. 
CHAP. 19. (17.) THE OWLET. 
The owlet shows considerable shrewdness in its engage- 
ments with other birds ; for when surrounded by too great a 
number, it throws itself on its back, and so, resisting with its 
feet, and rolling up its body into a mass, defends itself with 
the beak and talons ; until the hawk, attracted by a certain 
natural affinity, comes to its assistance, and takes its share in 
the combat. Mgidius says, that the incubation of the owlet 
lasts sixty days, during the winter, and that it has nine differ- 
ent notes. 
CHAP. 20. (18.) THE WOOD-PECKEE OF MAES. 
There are some small birds also, which have hooked talons ; 
the wood-pecker, for example, surnamed of Mars," of con- 
siderable importance in the auspices. To this kind belong 
the birds which make holes in trees, and climb stealthily up 
them, like cats ; mounting with the head upwards, they tap 
against the bark, and learn by the sound whether or not their 
food lies beneath ; they are the only birds that hatch their 
young in the hollows of trees. It is a common belief, that if a 
shepherd drives a wedge into their holes, they apply a certain 
kind of herb,^^ immediately upon which it falls out. Trebius 
informs us that if a nail or wedge is driven with ever so much 
force into a tree in which these birds have made their nest, it 
will instantly fly out, the tree making a loud cracking noise 
the moment that the bird has lighted upon the nail or wedge. 
These birds have held the first rank in auguries, in Latium, 
since the time of the king^^ who has given them their name. 
One of the presages that was given by them, I cannot pass 
over in silence. A woodpecker came and lighted upon the 
head of JElius Tubero, the City praetor, when sitting on his 
tribunal dispensing justice in the Forum, and showed such 
tameness as to allow itself to be taken with the hand ; upon 
which the augurs declared that if it was let go, the state 
was menaced with danger, but if killed, disaster would befall 
67 See B. XXV. c. 5. 
6« Picus, the son of Saturn, king of Latium. He was skilled in augury, 
and was said to have been changed into a woodpecker. See Ovid, Met. 
B. xiv. 1. 314. ; Yirgil, ^n. B. vii. c. 187. S«e also Ovid, Fasti, B. iii. 
1. 37. 
