Chap. 60.] C0KSEQTJEKCE9 OF A EAVEN SPEAKOa. 525 
rally known as the field of Eediculus."^^ Thus did the rare 
talent of a bird appear a sufficient ground to the Eoman people 
for honouring it with funeral obsequies, as well as for inflicting 
punishment on a Eoman citizen ; and that, too, in a city in 
which no such crowds had ever escorted the funeral of a-ny one 
out of the whole number of its distinguished men, and where 
no one had been found to avenge the death of Scipio ^mili- 
anus,"^* the man who had destroyed Carthage and I^umantia. 
This event happened in the consulship of M. Servilius and 
Caius Cestius, on the fifth day"^^ before the calends of April. 
At the present day also, the moment that I am writing this, 
there is in the city of Eome a crow which belongs to a Eoman 
of equestrian rank, and was brought from Bsetica. In the first 
place, it is remarkable "^^ for its colour, which is of the deepest 
black, and at the same time it is able to pronounce several 
connected words, while it is repeatedly learning fresh ones. 
Eecently, too, there has been a story told about Craterus, sur- 
named Monoceros,'''^ in Erizena,''^^ a country of Asia, who was 
in the habit of hunting with the assistance of ravens, and used 
to carry them into the woods, perched on the tuft of his hel- 
met and on his shoulders. The birds used to keep on the watch 
for game, and raise it ; and by training he had brought this art 
to such a pitch of perfection, that even the wild ravens would 
attend him in a similar manner when he went out. Some 
authors have thought the following circumstance deserving of 
remembrance : — A crow that was thirsty was seen heaping 
stones into the urn on a monument, in which there was some 
rain-water which it could not reach : and so, being afraid to 
go down to the water, by thus accumulating the stones, it 
'^^ Festus says that the " fane of Eediculiis was without the Porta Ca- 
pena ; it was so called because Hannibal, when on the march from Capua, 
turned back (redierit) at that spot, being alarmed at certain portentous 
visions/' 
P. Cornelius Scipio iEmilianus Africanus Minor, the younger son of 
L. ^milius Paulus, the conqueror of Macedonia. It is doubtful whether 
he died a natural death, or was privately assassinated by the partisans of 
the Gracchi. His wife, Cornelia, and his mother, Sempronia, were sus- 
pected by some persons. 
28th March. 
''^ One would hardly think that there was anything wonderful in a crow 
being ver^/ black. 
The " one-horned." 
Most probably in Asia Minor, and not Eriza in India. 
