The thrush,[623] reckoned among the greatest delicacies of the ancients, generally at grand entertainments formed part of the propoma, or first course, and was eaten with little cakes, called ametiskoi. If we may credit Epicharmos, a decided preference was given to such as fed on the olive. Aristotle divides the thrush into three species, the first and largest of which he denominates Ixophagos, or the “mistletoe-eater;” it was of the size of a magpie. The second, equal in bigness to the black bird, he calls Trichas,[624] and the third, and smallest kind, which was named Ilas or Tulas, according to Alexander, the Myndian, went in flocks, and built its nest like the swallow.[625] Next in excellence to the thrush was a bird known by a variety of names, elaios, pirias, sycalis,[626] the beccafico of the moderns, which was thought to be in season when the figs were ripe. They likewise ate the turtle and the ringdove,[627] which are excellent in Egypt; the chaffinch, to whose qualities I cannot bear testimony; and the blackbird. Nor did they spare the starling, the jackdaw, or the strouthanion, a small bird for which modern languages cannot afford a name. Brains were thought by the ancient philosophers an odious and cannibal-like food, because they are the fountain of all sensation; but this did not prevent the gourmands from converting pigs’ brains into a dainty dish,[628] and their taste has maintained its ground in Italy. Partridges, wood-pigeons, geese, quails, jays, are also enumerated among the materials of an Hellenic banquet. ----- Footnote 623: The solitary sparrow inhabits the cliffs of Delphi, and the song-thrush is heard in the pine woods of Parnassus. Above these, when the heights of the mountain are covered with snow, is seen the Emberiza Nivalis, inhabitant alike of the frozen Spitzbergen, and of the Grecian Alp.—Sibthorpe in Walp. Mem. i. 76, seq. Homer is said to have written a poem called Ἐπικιχλίδες, because when he sung it to the boys they rewarded him with thrushes. In consequence of the estimation in which these birds were held κιχλίζω “to feed on thrushes,” came to signify “to live luxuriously.”—Payne Knight, Prolegg. ad Hom. p. 8. Footnote 624: The red-winged thrush, well known to sportsmen in hard weather. Footnote 625: Athen. ii. 68. Footnote 626: Arist. Hist. Anim. viii. 3. p. 221. ix. 49. p. 305. Bekk. Footnote 627: The turtle and the wood-pigeon are found in the woods and thickets. Among the larks, I observed the crested lark to be the most frequent species, with a small sort, probably the alauda campestris of Linnæus. Blackbirds frequent the olive grounds of Pendeli.—Sibth. in Walp. Mem. i. 76. Footnote 628: Athen. ii. 69–72. -----