No bird appears to have puzzled commentators more than the _attagas_, some supposing it to be the _francolin_, or grouse, which is Schneider’s opinion; others, as Passow, the _hazel-hen_; others, again, as Ainsworth, consider it to have been a delicious bird, resembling our wood-cock, or snipe. Mr. Mitchell’s edit. of the Acharnæ of Aristophanes, 783.—This learned writer professes not to understand what Schneider means by _francolin_. The word in Italian is _francolino_, as appears from Bellon. v. 6: Les Italiens ont nommé cet oiseau Francolin, que parcequ’il est franc dans ce pays, c’est-à-dire, qu’il est defendu au peuple d’en tuer: il n’y a que les princes qui aient cette prérogative.—Valmont de Bomare, ii. 739.—Hardouin thinks, that the Attagas is the _gallina rustica_, or _gelinotte de bois_, which Laveaux explains to be a sort of partridge.—Cf. Dict. Franç. in voce, and Plin. Hist. Nat. xi. 68. ed. Franz. Cf. Schol. Aristoph. Vesp. 257. This bird was plentiful about Marathon, Pac. 249. Footnote 632: Athen. ix. 40. Aristoph. Hist. Anim. i. 17. viii. 6. ----- Another bird common in Greece, but now no longer known, was the porphyris, by some confounded with the foregoing. Of the partridge, common throughout Europe, we need merely remark, that both the gray and the red (the _bartavelle_ of the French) were common in Greece. If we pass from the poultry to puddings and soups,[633] we shall find that the Athenians were not ill-provided with these dainties. They even converted gruel into a delicacy,[634] and it is said, that the best was made at Megara. They had bean soup, flour soup, ptisans made with pearl-barley or groats.[635] We hear, also, of a delicately-powdered dish or soup which was sprinkled over with fine flour and olives. The polphos, evidently _soupe à la julienne_, is said, by some, to have been composed of scraped roots, vegetables, and flour. Others take it to mean a sort of made-dish, resembling macaroni or vermicelli. Another kind of soup was the _kidron_, which, according to Pollux,[636] they made of green wheat, roasted and reduced to powder. ----- Footnote 633: Schol. Aristoph. Eq. 103. Footnote 634: Schol. Aristoph. Eq. 803.—It was thought, also, to deserve a place among the offerings to Asclepios, especially by pious old women, who, having lost their teeth, could eat nothing else. In lieu of the classical name of ἀθάρα, this gruel obtained, in the dialect of the common people, the more homely designation of κουρκούτη. Schol. Plut. 673. Footnote 635: Athen. iii. 101. iv. 30. Footnote 636: Onomast. vi. 62.—Made usually from panic seed in Caria.—Schol. Aristoph. Pac. 580, et Eq. 803. Cf. Goguet, Origine des Loix, i. 212. -----