Chap. 69.] 
THE NEW E5EDS. 
529 
bird ; but although it has a voice at other times, it is mute in 
captivity. It was formerly reckoned among the rare birds, 
but at the present day it is found in Gallia, Spain, and in the 
Alps even ; which is also the case with the phalacrocorax,^* a 
bird peculiar to the Balearic Isles, as the p^o^rhocorax,^^ a black 
bird with a yellow bill, is to the Alps, and the lagopus,^^ which 
is esteemed for its excellent flavour. This last bird derives 
its name from its feet, which are covered, as it were, with the 
fur of a hare,. the rest of the body being white, and the size of 
a pigeon. It is not an easy matter to taste it out of its native 
country, as it never becomes domesticated, and when dead it 
quickly spoils. 
There is another bird also, which has the same name, and 
only differs from the quail in size ; it is of a saffron colour, 
and is most delicate eating. Egnatius Calvinus, who was pre- 
fect there, pretends that he has seen in the Alps the ibis also, 
a bird that is peculiar to Egypt. 
CHAP. 69. (49.) THE NEW BIEDS. THE VIPIO. 
During the civil wars that took place at Eebriacum, beyond 
the river Padus, the new bird« "^^ were introduced into Italy 
— for by that name they are still known. They resemble the 
thrush in appearance, are a little smaller than the pigeon in 
pointed tail, of tke south of Europe, the Tetrao alchata of LinnaBUs, most 
probably the latter, as the male has black and blue spots on the back ; a 
fact which may explain the joke in the "Birds " of Aristophanes, where a 
run-away slave who has been marked with stripes, is called an attagen. By 
some it is called the " red-headed hazel-hen." 
^ In allusion, perhaps, to the words of Horace, Epod. ii. 54, 
Non attagen lonicus 
Jucundior, quam lecta de pinguissimis 
Oliva ramis arborum. 
9* Literally, the " bald crow.'* Pliny, B. xi. c. 47, says that it is an 
aquatic bird : and naturalists generally identify it with the cormorant, the 
Pelecanus carbo of Linneeus. 
95 Literally, the red crow, the chocard of the Alps,- the Corvus pyrrho- 
corax of Linnaeus. 
96 The "hare's foot." Identical with the snow partridge, the Tetrao 
lagopus of Linnaeus ; it is white in winter. 
97 The same bird, Cuvier says, as seen in summer, being then of a 
saffron colour, with blackish spots. 
98 Cuvier remarks, that the green courlis, the Scolopax falcinellus of 
Linnaeus, which is not improbably the real ibis of the ancients, is by no 
means uncommon in Italy. 
99 u Novae aves." The grey partridge, Hardouin thinks. 
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