“Mensibus erratis vos ostrea manducatis.” “In the r’d months you may your oysters eat.”
[159]Literally, “Having beautiful eyebrows.”
[160]Those of Rutupæ, the present Richborough in Kent, were highly esteemed by the Romans. See Juvenal, Sat. 4. l. 141.
[161]They probably gave the name of “oyster” to some other shell-fish of large size. In Cook’s Voyages we read of cockles in the Pacific, which two men were unable to carry.
[162]From τρὶς, “thrice,” and δύκνω, “to bite.”
[163]Ajasson, however, remarks that many persons are unable to digest oysters in an uncooked state.
[164]Father Lobo, in his account of Abyssinia, says that when the ostrich is running at great speed, it throws the stones behind with such violence, that they would almost seem to be thrown at those in pursuit.
An ostrich, Cuvier says, will swallow anything, but it is by no means able to digest everything. He says, that he has seen ostriches with the stomach ruptured by nails which they have swallowed, or dreadfully torn by pieces of glass.
[165]All these relations are neither more nor less than so many absurd fables or allegories, but the description given is exactly that of a bird which does exist—the golden pheasant.
[167]This erroneous notion is still entertained by the French peasantry.
[168]Cuvier remarks, that this is not a very good reason; but we have not yet been able to find a better.
[169]Cuvier denies this story, but says, that when the foster-mother is a very small bird, the young cuckoo will take the whole of her head in his beak when receiving food.
[170]Our Jackdaw probably, the Corvus graculus. It has been said, that in its admiration of shining objects, it will take up a burning coal; a trick which has before now caused conflagrations.
[171]Picus, the son of Saturn, king of Latium. He was skilled in augury, and was said to have been changed into a woodpecker.
[172]Valerius Maximus says, that seventeen members of this family fell at the battle of Cannæ.
[173]M. Mauduit, in a learned discussion many pages in length, satisfactorily shows that this is not entirely fabulous, but that the wild swan of the northern climates really is possessed of a tuneful note or cadence. Of course, the statement that it only sings just before its death, must be rejected as fabulous.