Chap. 41.] WHERE CEETAIN BIRDS ARE NEVER FOUin). 507 
himself, that they do the same every fifth year in Ethiopia, 
around the palace of Memnon. 
CHAP. 38. THE MELEAGEIBES. 
In a similar manner also, the hirds called meleagrides^^ fight 
in Boeotia. They are a species of African poultry, having a 
hump on the back, which is covered with a mottled plumage. 
These are the latest among the foreign birds that have been 
received at our tables, on account of their disagreeable smell. 
The tomb, however, of Meleager has rendered them famous. 
CHAP. 39. (27.) THE SELEUCIDES. 
Those birds are called seleucides, which are sent by Jupiter 
at the prayers offered up to him by the inhabitants of Mount 
Casius, when the locusts are ravaging their crops of corn. 
Whence they^"^ come, or whither they go, has never yet been 
ascertained, as, in fact, they are never to be seen but when the 
people stand in need of their aid. 
CHAP. 40. (28.) THE IBIS. 
The Egyptians also invoke their ibis against the incursions 
of serpents ; and the people of Elis, their god Myiagros, 
when the vast multitudes of flies are bringing pestilence 
among them ; the flies die immediately the propitiatory sacri- 
fice has been made to this god. 
CHAP. 41. (29.) PLACES IN WHICH CERTAIN BIRDS ARE NEVER 
FOUND, 
With reference to the departure of birds, the owlet, too, is 
said to lie concealed for a few days. "No birds of this last kind 
are to be foynd in the island of Crete, and if any are imported 
thither, they immediately die. Indeed, this is a remarkable 
distinction made by I^ature ; for she denies to certain places, 
as it were, certain kinds of fruits and shrubs, and of animals as 
15 doubt, as Cuvier says, this was the Numida meleagris of Linnaeus, 
Guinea hen, or pintada. Cuvier remarks that they are very pugnacious 
birds. 
16 See B. V. c. 22. 
Cuvier suggests, that these birds may have been of the starling 
genus, perhaps the Turdus roseus of Linnaeus. 
18 The ^'hunter of flies." 
