Now what seems most likely to me, is the account that _Pliny_ out of _Megasthenes_, and _Strabo_ from _Onesicritus_ give us; and, provided I be not obliged to believe or justifie _all_ that they say, I could rest satisfied in great part of their Relation: For _Pliny_[B] tells us, _Veris tempore universo agmine ad mare descendere, & Ova, Pullosque earum Alitum consumere_: That in the Spring-time the whole drove of the _Pygmies_ go down to the Sea side, to devour the _Cranes_ Eggs and their young Ones. So likewise _Onesicritus_,[B] [Greek: Pros de tous trispithamous polemon einai tais Geranois (hon kai Homaeron daeloun) kai tois Perdixin, ous chaenomegetheis einai; toutous d' eklegein auton ta oa, kai phtheirein; ekei gar ootokein tas Geranous; dioper maedamou maed' oa euriskesthai Geranon, maet' oun neottia;] i.e. _That there is a fight between the_ Pygmies _and the_ Cranes (_as_ Homer _relates_) _and the_ Partridges _which are as big as_ Geese; _for these_ Pygmies _gather up their Eggs, and destroy them; the_ Cranes _laying their Eggs there; and neither their Eggs, nor their Nests, being to be found any where else_. 'Tis plain therefore from them, that the Quarrel is not out of any _Antipathy_ the _Pygmies_ have to the _Cranes_, but out of love to their own Bellies. But the _Cranes_ finding their Nests to be robb'd, and their young Ones prey'd on by these Invaders, no wonder that they should so sharply engage them; and the least they could do, was to fight to the utmost so mortal an Enemy. Hence, no doubt, many a bloody Battle happens, with various success to the Combatants; sometimes with great slaughter of the _long-necked Squadron_; sometimes with great effusion of _Pygmæan_ blood. And this may well enough, in a _Poet's_ phancy, be magnified, and represented as a dreadful War; and no doubt of it, were one a _Spectator_ of it, 'twould be diverting enough. [Footnote A: _Plinij. Hist. Nat._ lib. 7. cap. 2. p.m. 13.] [Footnote B: _Strab. Geograph_. lib. 15. pag. 489.] -----_Si videas hoc Gentibus in nostris, risu quatiere: sed illic, Quanquam eadem assiduè spectantur Prælia, ridet Nemo, ubi tota cohors pede non est altior uno_.[A] [Footnote A: _Juvenal. Satyr_. 13 vers. 170.]