The flesh of the domestic fowls, says Simeon Seth, is of easy digestion, and contains good juices, especially the flesh of those which are beginning to lay eggs. Chickens, he adds, are of easy digestion, and form blood of moderate consistence, neither very thin nor too thick: they are excellent food for persons who do not take strong exercise. It appears from Martial that the Romans were fond of capons. (xiii.) Both Aristotle and Pliny mention that cocks were converted into capons by means of a heated iron. The ficedula, called συκαλὶς by Aristotle, was much sought after by the Romans. It was the _beccafigo_ of the modern Italians, who are still very fond of it. Its flesh being fat, it was dressed with much pepper, as we learn from Martial and Petronius Arbiter. Galen and Simeon Seth agree that the flesh of geese is indigestible and excrementitious, and nearly allied to the ostrich. It would appear, from Odyss. xix, 536, that tame geese were reared for food in the heroic ages. According to Martial, the breast and neck are the only parts of the duck which are fit to be eaten. (Xenia.) Athenæus mentions that the swan was sometimes brought to the table. (Deipnos. ix.) Its flesh is very hard. The crane and the stork were not regular articles of food, but Horace mentions that the latter had been used as such for the first time in his days (Sat. ii, 2, 49); and Athenæus enumerates the former among the viands at a banquet. Psellua calls the crane nutritious, but difficult of digestion. The tongue of the flamingo (_Phœnicopterus ruber_) was reckoned an exquisite delicacy by the Roman epicures. See Martial (xiii, 71); Juvenal (Sat. ii); Philostratus (in vit. Apoll.) The favorite delicacy of Heliogabalus was the tongue of the flamingo. (Aug. Hist.) The present is as good an occasion as we shall most probably find, of saying something regarding the use of the locust, or _gryllus migratorius_, as an article of food. Every person will think of John the Baptist, who lived on locusts and wild honey, in the desert of Arabia. Agatharcides gives a very curious account of the _Acridophagi_ or locust-eaters. He describes them as being of a very slender make, and extremely swarthy. He says they did not live beyond forty, being cut off by a sort of tick (_ricinus_) which formed in their bodies. (Apud Photium.) SECT. LXXXIII.—ON EGGS.