The Zephyr[1732] which prevails in the spring, at mid-summer and in autumn is felt chiefly in the evening and never in the morning. According to Aristotle it is the gentlest wind that blows.[1733] Theophrastus, however, remarks, that it is cold in some countries, though less so than Boreas;[1734] but in the opinion of Hippocrates, it is most of all winds charged with rain.[1735] The Argestos is no less dry and serene than the Aparctias, though it sometimes brings thunder-clouds and hail.[1736] This wind is remarkably cold at Chalcis in Eubœa. When about the winter solstice it happens to blow, it dries up and withers the trees more than long continued heats and droughts.[1737] At Rhodes and at Cnidos it is usually accompanied by heavy clouds.[1738] ----- Footnote 1732: Ζέφυρος, τὴν ᾠδὴν τοῖς κύκνοις ἐνδιδοὺς. Philost. Icon. i. 9. p. 779. Footnote 1733: Meteorol. ii. 5. 6. Problem. xxvi. 33. 35. 37. 54. 57. Footnote 1734: De Ventis, § 31. Footnote 1735: De Aër. et Loc. § 26. Footnote 1736: Aristot. Meteorol. ii. 6. Footnote 1737: Theoph. Hist. Plant. iv. 17. De Caus. Plant. v. 16. Footnote 1738: De Ventis, § 51. ----- The Etesian winds which commence immediately after the summer solstice, and continue through the dog-days, are in reality northern winds, but occasionally point obliquely both towards the west and towards the east. They prevail chiefly at night;[1739] and are sometimes exceedingly powerful on the coast of Egypt.[1740] Another class of Etesian winds prevailed earlier in the year, beginning about twenty days after the winter solstice. These are weaker, more variable, and of briefer duration than the real Etesian winds, and I will add, from my own experience, cover the sky with dark clouds, and blow extremely cold even along the shores of Marmarica and Cyrenè. In ancient Greece they obtained the name of Ornithiæ—“the Bird Winds”—because they announced the return of the birds.[1741] Or, according to another version of the matter, because they were so cold as to strike dead various kinds of birds during their flight, and strew the earth with their bodies.[1742] ----- Footnote 1739: Aristot. Meteorol. ii. 5. 6. Footnote 1740: Cæsar. De Bell. Civil. Footnote 1741: Coray, Disc. Prelim. ad Hippoc. de Aër. et Loc. §. 76. Footnote 1742: Schol. Aristoph. Acharn. 877. -----