And, by the way in which, it is owing to the distress occasioned by the bulkiness of its physique that the chicken at all times screams while flying: for the labour is extreme. The corncrake calls them within the night time, and when the birdcatchers hear the croak of the bird in the nighttime they know that the quails are on the move. These carnivorous animals never eat grass except when they’re sick, simply as canines deliver on a vomit by eating grass and thereby purge themselves. Jag-toothed animals drink by lapping, as do additionally some animals with teeth otherwise formed, as the mouse. Birds, a rule, drink by suction, but the long necked birds stop and elevate their heads at intervals; the purple coot is the only one (of the lengthy-necked birds) that swallows water by gulps. Of birds, the following are migratory-the crane, the swan, the pelican, and the lesser goose. Sheep are a lot improved in situation by drinking, and accordingly they give the flocks salt every five days in summer, to the extent of 1 medimnus to the hundred sheep, and that is discovered to render a flock healthier and fatter.
So much for these animals. Camels live for about thirty years; in some distinctive instances they dwell much longer, and cases have been known of their dwelling to the age of a hundred. Of these Pyrrhic cattle, by the way, they are saying that there are only about 4 hundred on the planet, that they’re the private property of the Epirote royal household, that they cannot thrive out of Epirus, and that individuals elsewhere have tried to rear them, but with out success. When quails come to land, if or not it’s fair weather or if a north wind is blowing, they will pair off and manage pretty comfortably; but when a southerly wind prevail they’re tremendously distressed owing to the difficulties in the way in which of flight, for a southerly wind is wet and violent. It eats fruit, and is enabled by the suppleness of its physique to climb a tree; it also eats vegetables, and it will break up a hive to get on the honey; it eats crabs and ants also, and is in a normal means carnivorous. They will explain all the things to you and make you are feeling at ease.
The otter will bite a man, and it is alleged that every time it bites it won’t ever let go till it hears a bone crack. The beaver is flatter than the otter and has strong teeth; it typically at night-time emerges from the water and goes nibbling on the bark of the aspens that fringe the riversides. The solitary wolf is more apt to attack man than the wolf that goes with a pack. Sheep are fattened by twigs of the olive or of the oleaster, by vetch, and bran of every kind; and these articles of food fatten all the more if they be first sprinkled with brine. The habits of animals are all related with either breeding and the rearing of younger, or with the procuring a due supply of food; and these habits are modified so as to swimsuit cold and heat and the variations of the seasons. Animals which are coated with tessellates-such as the lizard and the opposite quadrupeds, and the serpents-are omnivorous: at all occasions they are carnivorous and graminivorous; and serpents, by the best way, are of all animals the best gluttons.