Chap. 3-5 ] MIOEATOEY BIEDS. 505 
quails as food ; for which reason it is that they have been ban- 
ished from our tables ; in addition to which, a great repugnance 
is manifested to eating their flesh, on account of the epilepsy,^ 
to which, alone of all animals, with the exception of man, the 
quail is subject. 
CHAP. 34. (24.) — -SWALLOWS. 
The swallow, the only bird that is carnivorous among those 
which have not hooked talons, takes its departure also during 
the winter months ; but it only goes to neighbouring countries, 
seeking sunny retreats there on the mountain sides ; some- 
times they have been found in such spots bare and quite un- 
fledged. This bird, it is said, will not enter a house in Thebes, 
because that city has been captured so frequently ; nor will it 
approach the country of the Eizyae, on account of the crimes 
committed there by Tereus.^^ Csecina" of Yolaterrse, a member 
of the equestrian order, and the owner of several chariots, used 
to have swallows caught, and then carried them with him to 
Home. Upon gaining a victory, he would send the news 
by them to his friends ; for after staining them the colour of 
the party that had gained the day, he would let them go, 
immediately upon which they would make their way to the 
nests they had previously occupied. Eabius Pictor also relates, 
in his Annals, that when a Roman garrison was being besieged 
by the Ligurians, a swallow which had been taken from its 
young ones was brought to him, in order that he might give 
them notice, by the number of knots on a string tied to its 
leg, on what day succour would arrive, and a sortie might be 
made with advantage. 
CHAP. 35. — BIEDS WHICH TAKE THEIE DEPAETURE FROM ITS, AND 
WHITHER THEY GO ; THE THRUSH, THE BLACKBIRD, AND THE 
STARLING — BIEDS WHICH LOSE THEIE FEATHEES DUEING THEIR 
9 Despui sue turn.'* See«B. xxviii. c. 7. As Hardouin says, in modem 
times they are considered delicate eating ; but Schenkius, Obsers. Med. 
B. i., states, that if the bird has eaten hellebore, epUepsy is tl^ consequence 
to the person who partakes of its flesh. 
10 See B. iv. c. 18. 
11 A friend of Augustus, sent by him with proposals to Antony, B.C. 41. 
12 The colour of the "factio," or "party " of charioteers. See p. 217. ^' 
