528 
PLINY'S l^ATUEAL HISTOET. 
[Book X. 
whatever, were it not for the fact that under the throat there 
is a sort of second crop, as it were. It is in this that the ever- 
insatiate animal stows everything away, so much so, that the 
capacity of this pouch is quite astonishing. After having 
finished its search for prey, it discharges bit by bit what it has 
thus stowed away, and reconveys it by a sort of ruminating 
process into its real stomach. The part of Gallia that lies 
nearest to the Northern Ocean produces this bird. 
CHAP. 67. rOEEIGM^ BIEDS : THE PHALERIDES, THE PHEASANT, 
AND THE NUMIDIC^. 
In the Hercynian Forest, in Germany, we hear of a singular^'' 
kind of bird, the feathers of which shine at night like fire ; 
the other birds there have nothing remarkable beyond the ce- 
lebrity which generally attaches to objects situate at a distance. 
(48.) The phalerides,^^ the most esteemed of all the aquatic 
birds, are found at Seleucia, the city of the Parthians of that 
name, and in Asia as well ; and again, in Colchis, there is the 
pheasant, a bird with two tufts of feathers like ears, which 
it drops and raises every now and then. The numidicse^^ come 
from l^umidia, a part of Africa : all these varieties are now to 
be found in Italy. 
CHAP. 68. THE PHCENICOPTERXJS, THE ATTAGEN, THE PHALACKO- 
COEAX, THE PrEEHOCOEAX, AND THE LAGOPTJS. 
Apicius, that very deepest whirlpool of all our epicures, has 
informed us that the tongue of the phoenicopterus is of the 
most exquisite flavour. The attagen,^^ also, of Ionia is a famous 
^"^ Dalechamps thinks that this story bears reference to the chatterer (the 
Ampelis garrulus of Linnneus), the ends of certain feathers of the wings 
being extended, and of a vermilion colour : hut Cuvier looks upon Pliny's 
account as almost nothing more than a poetical exaggeration. 
A species of duck, Cuvier thinks.' From Aristophanes we learn that 
they were common in the markets of Athens. Cuvier suggests that it may 
have been the Anas galericulata of Linnaeus, the Chinese teal, which the 
Parthians may have received from the countries lying to the east of them. 
89 Phasiana," so called from the river Phasis. 
90 A variety of the guinea fowl ; probably the Numida Meleagris of 
Linnaeus. 
91 Literally, the red-wing." The modern flamingo. 
92 Bufi'on thinks that this is the grouse of the English, the Tetrao Scoti- 
cus of the naturalists ; but Cuvier is of opinion that it is either the com- 
mon wood-cock, the Tetrao bonasiaof Linnaeus, or else the wood-cock with 
