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. [166]Five hundred and thirty-two years. [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. [174]The “mother of the quails.” Frederic II., in his work, De Arte Venandi, calls the “rallus,” or “rail,” the “leader of the quails.” [175]Either hemlock or hellebore. [176]This bird in reality builds no nest, but lays its eggs in holes on the water side. The objects taken for its nest are a zoophyte called _halcyonium_ by Linnæus, and similar in shape to a nest. [177]Not moss, Cuvier says, but blades of grass and the silken fibres of the poplar and other aquatic trees. [178]“Without feet.” This was supposed to be the case with the martinet, the _Hirundo apus_ of Linnæus. [179]By nestling in the dust. Throwing dust over the body was one of the ancient modes of purification. [180]“Lustrant,” “perform a lustration.” This was done by the Romans with a branch of laurel or olive, and sometimes bean-stalks were used. [181]This is the jay, the Corvus glandarius of Linnæus; but they are not more apt at speaking than the other kinds. [182]These are merely freaks of Nature. [183]Britannicus, the son of Claudius, and Nero, his stepson. [184]The nephew and son of Tiberius. [185]Festus says that the “fane of Rediculus was without the Porta Capena; it was so called because Hannibal, when on the march from Capua, turned back (redierit) at that spot, being alarmed at certain portentous visions.”