CHAPTER VII.

The Birds of Virgil.

Virgil’s haunts in Italy, in boyhood and manhood—Virgil true to nature—Pigeons in his poems—Crane and Stork; their migrations—Corvus and cornix—Swans—The ‘alcyon,’ in Latin and Greek ornithology—Voice of the Kingfisher—The ‘acalanthis’; warblers in Italy and Greece—Virgil’s sea-birds and swallows—Nightingale in Homer and Virgil—Simile of ghosts and birds in _Sixth Aeneid_—Autumn migrations from the north 210

NOTES 255

INDEX 263

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE Fox and Snow Finches _Frontispiece_ First Lesson in Flying 20 Redpoles 22 Early Ablutions 28 The Tern, or Sea Swallow 34 Fieldfares 35 Reed Warbler _to face_ 42 Nest on College Bell 67 The Alps in June _Headpiece_ 68 Bonelli’s Warbler 110 Kingham Rectory 111 Feat of a Nuthatch 129 Nest of Spotted Flycatcher 131 Rooks worrying Gulls 142 Whinchat on Telegraph Wires 144 Grasshopper Warbler 155 Out-door Relief 175 The Alps in September _Headpiece_ 177 Crossbills _to face_ 189 Johann Anderegg 209 Willow Warbler’s Nest 254

A YEAR WITH THE BIRDS.