Chap. 50.] 
THE ACANTHYLLIS. 
515 
CHAP. 50. THE ACANTHYLLIS AND OTHER BIEDS. 
Belonging to the genus of birds known as the vitiparrse/' 
there is one^^ whose nest is formed of dried moss/^ and is in 
shape so exactly like a ball, that it is impossible to discover 
the month of it. The bird, also, that is known as the aean- 
thyllis,*'' makes its nest of a similar shape, and interweaves it 
with pieces of flax. The nest of one of the woodpeckers, very 
much like a cup in shape, is suspended by a twig from the end 
of the branch of a tree, so that no quadruped may be able to 
reach, it. It is strongly asserted, that the witwalP^ sleeps 
suspended by its feet, because it fancies that by doing so it is 
in greater safety. A thing, indeed, that is well-known of them 
all, is the fact that, in a spirit of foresight, they select the pro- 
jecting branches of trees that are suf&ciently strong, for the 
purpose of supporting their nests, and then arch them over to 
protect them from the rain, or else shield them by means of the 
thickness of the foliage. 
In Arabia there is a bird known as the cinnamolgus.'*'*^ 
It builds its nest with sprigs of cinnamon ; and the natives 
knock them down with arrows loaded with lead, in order to 
sell them. In Scythia there is a bird, the size of the otis, 
which produces two young ones always, in a hare's skin sus- 
pended^^ from the top branches of a tree. Pies, when they 
have observed a person steadily gazing at their nest, will im- 
mediately remove their eggs to another place. This is said to 
be accomplished in a truly wonderful manner, by such birds as 
have not toes adapted for holding and removing their eggs. 
They lay a twig upon two eggs, and then solder them to it by 
means of a glutinous matter secreted from their body ; after 
which, they pass their neck between the eggs, and so forming 
an equipoise, convey them to another place. 
Cuvier thinks that this is either the reiniz, the Parus pendulinus of 
Linnaeus, or else the moustache, the Parus biarmicus of Linnaeus. 
Not moss, Cuvier says, but blades of grass, and the silken fibres of the 
poplar and other aquatic trees. 
Cuvier thinks that it is the same bird as the vitiparra of Pliny. 
Galgulus. 
^9 This story, in all its extravagance, is related first by Herodotus, and 
then by Aristotle, who has reduced it to its present dimensions, as given by 
Pliny. 
Cuvier suggests that, if at all based upon truth, this may have been 
the case in one instance, and then ascribed to the whole species. 
L L 2 
