Chap. 43.] 
THE NIGHTINGALE. 
509 
only weary the reader. Theophrastus, for example, relates 
that even pigeons, as well as peacocks and ravens, have been 
introduced from other parts into Asia,^* as also croaking frogs 
into Cyrenaica. 
CHAP. 42. — THE VAEIOIJS KINDS OF BIKDS WHICH AITOED OMENS 
BY THEIE NOTE BIRDS WHICH CHANGE THEIE COLOUR AND 
THEIR VOICE. 
There is another remarkable fact too, relative to the birds 
which give omens by their note ; they generally change their 
colour and voice at a certain season of the year, and suddenly 
become quite altered in appearance ; a thing that, among the 
larger birds, happens with the crane only, which grows black 
in its old age. Erom black, the blackbird changes to a red- 
dish colour, sings in summer, chatters in winter, and about 
the summer solstice loses its voice ; when a year old, the beak 
also assumes the appearance of ivory ; this, however, is the case 
only with the male. In the summer, the thrush is mottled 
about the neck, but in the winter it becomes of one uniform 
colour all over. 
CHAP. 43. THE NIGHTINGALE. 
The song of the nightingale is to be heard, without inter- 
mission, for fifteen days and nights, continuously,^^ when the 
foliage is thickening, as it bursts from the bud ; a bird which 
deserves our admiration in no slight degree. First of all, 
what a powerful voice in so small a body ! its note, how long, 
and how well sustained ! And then, too, it is the only bird 
the notes of which are modulated in accordance with the strict 
rules of musical science.^^ At one moment, as it sustains its 
2* Asia Minor, most probably. The assertion, though supported by 
Theophrastus, is open to doubt. 25 ggg ^{[j^ 33^ 
26 It was the nightingale that was said to be " Vox et praeterea nihil 
*' A voice, and nothing else." 
27 As there may be different opinions on the meaning of the various 
parts of this passage, it is as well to transcribe it for the benefit of the 
reader, the more especially as, contrary to his usual practice, Pliny is 
here in a particularly discursive mood. " Nunc continuo spiritu trahitur in 
longum, nunc variatur inflexo, nunc distinguitur conciso, copulatur intorto, 
promittitur revocato, infuscatur ex inopinato, interdum et secum ipse 
murmurat, plenus, gravis, acutus, creber, extentus ; ubi visum est, vibrans, 
summus, medius, imus." 
