522 
PLIKX'S IS'ATFBAL HISTOEY. 
[Book X. 
Platea"^^ is the name of another, which pounces upon other 
birds when they have dived in the sea, and, seizing the head 
with its bill, makes them let go their prey. This bird also 
swallows and fills itself with shell-fish, shells and all ; after 
the natural heat of its crop has softened them, it brings them 
up again, and then picking out the shells from the rest, selects 
the parts that are fit for food. 
CHAP. 57. (41.) — THE INSTINCTS OF BIEDS — THE CAEDITELIS, 
THE TATJKTJS, THE ANTHUS. 
The farm-yard fowls have also a certain notion of religion ; 
upon laying an egg they shudder all over, and then shake their 
feathers ; after which they turn round and purify^^ themselves, 
or else hallow themselves and their eggs with some stalk or 
other. (42.) The carduelis,^^ which is the very smallest bird 
of any, will do what it is bid, not only with the voice but with 
the feet as well, and with the beak, which serves it instead of 
hands. There is one bird, found in the territory of Arelate, that 
imitates the lowing of oxen, from which circumstance it has 
received the name of taurus."^^ In other respects it is of 
small size. Another bird, called the anthus,*'^^ imitates the 
neighing of the horse ; upon being driven from the pasture by 
the approach of the horses, it will mimic their voices — and this 
is the method it takes of revenging itself. 
CHAP. 58. — BIEDS WHICH SPEAK THE PAEROT. 
But above all, there are some birds that can imitate the hu- 
man voice ; the parrot, for instance, which can even converse. 
India sends us this bird, which it caUs by the name of sit- 
taces the body is green all over, only it is marked with 
Cuvier says that this is the spoon-bill, the Platalea leucorodea of Lin- 
DiEUs. Some suppose it to be the bittern. 
^'^ By nestling in the dust. Throwing dust over the body was one of 
the ancient modes of purification. 
63 " Lustrant," perform a lustration." This was done by the Bomans 
with a branch of laurel or olive, and sometimes bean-stalks were used. 
6* The linnet, probably. 
65 The bull." This cannot possibly be the bittern, as some have sug- 
gested, for that is a large bird. 
6s Supposed to be the Motacilla flava of Linnaeus, the spring wagtail. 
Hence the Latin name *' psittacus." Prom this, Cuvier thinks that 
the first known among these birds to the Greeks and Romans, was the 
green perroquet with a ringed neck, the Psittacus Alexandri of Linnaeus. 
