502 
PLINy's IfATIJRAL HISTOBT. 
[Book X. 
CHAP. 31. STOKKS. 
Up to the present time it has not been ascertained from 
what place the storks come, or whither they go when they 
leave us. There can be no doubt but that, like the cranes, 
they come from a very great distance, the cranes being our 
winter, the storks our summer, guests. When about to take 
their departure, the storks assemble at a stated place, and are 
particularly careful that all shall attend, so that not one of 
their kind may be left behind, with the exception of such as 
may be in captivity or tamed ; and then on a certain day they 
set out, as though by some law they were directed to do so. 'No 
one has ever yet seen a flight of cranes taking their departure, 
although they have been often observed preparing to depart ; 
and in the same way, too, we never see them arrive, but only 
when they have arrived ; both their departure as well as their 
arrival take place in the night. Although, too, we see them 
flying about in all directions, it is still supposed that they 
never arrive at any other time but in the night. Pythonos- 
come ^ is the name given to some vast plains of Asia, where, 
as they assemble together, they keep up a gabbling noise, and 
tear to pieces the one that happens to arrive the last ; after 
which they take their departure. It has been remarked that 
after the ides of August,^ they are never by any accident to be 
seen there. 
There are some writers who assure us that the stork has no 
tongue. So highly are they esteemed for their utility in de- 
stroying serpents, that in Thessaly, it was a capital crime for 
any one to kill a stork, and by the laws the same penalty was 
inflicted for it as for homicide. 
CHAP. 32. SWANS. 
Geese, and swans also, travel in a similar manner, but then 
they are seen to take their flight. The flocks, forming a point, 
move along with great impetus, much, indeed, after the manner 
of our Liburnian beaked galleys ; and it is by doing so that 
they are enabled to cleave the air more easily than if they 
presented to it a broad front. The flight gradually enlarges 
1 The "village of the Python," or "serpent.'* Gueroult suggests that 
this may be Serponouwtzi, beyond the river Oby, in Siberia. 
2 Thirteenth of August. 
