526 
plint's natueal history. 
[Book X. 
caused as much water to come within its reach as was necessary 
to satisfy its thirst. 
CHAP. 61. (44.) THE BIRDS OP DIOMEDES. 
Nor yet must I pass by the birds of Diomedes in silence. 
Juba calls these birds cataractae," and says that they have 
teeth and eyes of a fiery colour, while the rest of the body is 
white : that they always have two chiefs, the one to lead the 
main body, the other to take charge of the rear ; that they ex- 
cavate holes with their bills, and then cover them with hurdles, 
which they cover again with the earth that has been thus 
thrown up ; that it is in these places they hatch their young ; 
fliat each of these holes has two outlets ; that one of them looks 
towards the east, and that by it they go forth to feed, return- 
ing by the one which looks towards the west ; and that when 
about to ease themselves, they always take to the wing, and fly 
against the wind. In one spot only throughout the whole 
earth are these birds to be seen, in the island, namely, which 
we have mentioned as famous for the tomb and shrine of 
Diomedes, lying over against the coast of Apulia : they bear 
a strong resemblance to the coot. When strangers who are 
barbarians arrive on that island, they pursue them with loud 
and clamorous cries, and only show courtesy to Greeks by 
birth ; seeming thereby, with a wonderful discernment, to pay 
respect to them as the fellow-countrymen of Diomedes. 
Every day they fill their throats, and cover their feathers, with 
water, and so wash and purify the temple there. From this 
circumstance arises the fable that the companions of Diomedes 
were metamorphosed into these birds. 
CHAP. 62. (45.) ANIMALS THAT CAN LEARN NOTHING. 
"We ought not to omit, while we are speaking of instincts, 
that among birds the swallow is quite incapable of being 
79 Cuvier is inclined to think that the Anas tadorna approaches most 
nearly the description given here. From Ovid's description of their hard 
and pointed bills and claws, it would appear that a petrel (Procellaria), or 
else a white heron (Ardea garzetta), is intended ; but these birds, he remarks, 
do not make holes in the earth. Linnaeus has given the name of Dio- 
medea exulans to the albatross, a bird of the Antarctic seas, which cannot 
have been known to the ancients. 
^0 B. iii. c. 29. See Ovid's Met. B. xiii. 
82 Albertus Magnus says that swallows ean be tamed. 
