the crow, among other kinds of food, feeds upon nuts. if these prove too hard for his beak to break, the crow flies to a great height, and then lets them fall again and again upon the stones and tiles beneath, until at last the shell is cracked, and the bird is able to open them. the crow is a bird of a very ill-omened garrulity, though it has been highly praised by some. it is observed, that from the rising of the constellation arcturus until the arrival of the swallow, it is rarely to be seen about the sacred groves and temples of minerva, and in athens not at all. it is the only bird that continues to feed its young for some time after they have begun to fly. the crow is most inauspicious at the time of incubation, or, in other words, just after the summer solstice.
all the other birds of the same kind—like the raven, for example—drive their young ones from their nest, and compel them to fly. in small hamlets there are never more than two pairs to be found; and in the neighborhood of crannon, in thessaly, never more than one, the parents always quitting the spot to give place to their offspring. ravens are the 192 only birds that seem to have any comprehension of the meaning of their auspices; for when the guests of medus were assassinated, they all took their departure from peloponnesus and the region of attica. they are of the very worst omen when they swallow their voice, as if they were being choked.
the birds of the night—the owlet, the horned owl, and the screech-owl—have crooked talons, and the sight of all is defective in the day-time. the horned owl is especially funereal, and is greatly abhorred in all auspices of a public nature; it inhabits desolate spots of a frightful and inaccessible nature: the monster of the night, its voice is heard, not with any tuneful note, but emitting a sort of shriek. it is therefore looked upon as a direful omen to see it in a city. i know, however, for a fact, that it is not portentous of evil when it settles on the top of a private house. it cannot fly whither it wishes in a straight line, but is always carried forward by a sidelong movement. a horned owl entered the very sanctuary of the capitol, in the consulship of palpelius and pedanius; in consequence of which, rome was purified on the nones of march in that year.
an inauspicious bird also is that known as the “incendiary,” on account of which we find in the annals, the city has had to be repeatedly purified; as, for instance, in the consulship of cassius and marius, in which year also it was purified, in consequence of a horned owl being seen. what kind of bird this incendiary[170] was, we do not find stated, nor is it known by tradition. some persons explain the term this way; they say that the name “incendiary” was applied to every bird that was seen carrying a burning coal from the pyre, or altar.
the owlet shows considerable shrewdness in its engagements with other birds; for when surrounded by too great a 193 number, it throws itself on its back, resists with its feet, and rolling up its body into a mass, defends itself with the beak and talons, until the hawk, attracted by a certain natural affinity, comes to its assistance, and takes its share in the combat. nigidius says that the owlet has nine different notes.
