person authorised to take the auspices, that Jupiter thundered or lightened, the comitia could not be held.--2. _Ex avibus._ It was only a few birds which could give auguries among the Romans. They were divided into two classes: _Oscines_, those which gave auguries by singing, or their voice, and _Alites_, those which gave auguries by their flight. To the former class belonged the raven (_corvus_) and the crow (_cornix_), the first of these giving a favourable omen (_auspicium ratum_) when it appeared on the right, the latter, on the contrary, when it was seen on the left: likewise the owl (_noctua_) and the hen (_gallina_). To the _aves alites_ belonged first of all the eagle (_aquila_), which is called pre-eminently the bird of Jupiter (_Jovis ales_), and next the vulture (_vultur_). Some birds were included both among the _oscines_ and the _alites_: such were the _Picus Martius_, and _Feronius_, and the _Parra_. These were the principal birds consulted in the auspices. When the birds favoured an undertaking, they were said _addicere_, _admittere_ or _secundare_, and were then called _addictivae_, _admissivae_, _secundae_, or _praepetes_: when unfavourable they were said _abdicere_, _arcere_, _refragari_, &c., and were then called _adversae_ or _alterae_. The birds which gave unfavourable omens were termed _funebres_, _inhibitae_, _lugubres_, _malae_, &c., and such auspices were called _clivia_ and _clamatoria_.--3. _Ex tripudiis._ These auspices were taken from the feeding of chickens, and were especially employed on military expeditions. The chickens were kept in a cage, under care of a person called _pullarius_; and when the auspices were to be taken, the pullarius opened the cage and threw to the chickens pulse or a kind of soft cake. If they refused to come out or to eat, or uttered a cry (_occinerent_), or beat their wings, or flew away, the signs were considered unfavourable. On the contrary, if they ate greedily, so that something fell from their mouth and struck the earth, it was called _tripudium solistimum_ (_tripudium_ quasi _terripavium_, _solistimum_, from _solum_, according to the ancient writers), and was held a favourable sign.--4. _Ex quadrupedibus._ Auguries could also be taken from four-footed animals; but these formed no part of the original science of the augurs, and were never employed by them in taking auspices on behalf of the state, or in the exercise of their art properly so called. They must be looked upon simply as a mode of private divination. When a fox, a wolf, a horse, a dog, or any other kind of quadruped ran across a person’s path or appeared in an unusual place, it formed an augury.--5. _Ex diris_, sc. _signis_. Under this head was included every kind of augury which does not fall under any of the four classes mentioned above, such as sneezing, stumbling, and other accidental things. There was an important augury of this kind connected with the army, which was called _ex