Chapter XIV.

1. The jay changes its voice frequently, for it utters a different one, as we may say, almost every day; it lays about nine eggs; it makes its nest upon trees, of hair and wool; when the acorns fall, it conceals and stores them up. Many persons have reported that the stork is fed by its young, and some people say the merops also, and that they are fed by the young, not only in their old age, but as soon as the young birds are able to do so, and that the parents remain within the nest; in appearance, this bird is green beneath the wings, and blue above, as the kingfisher, and its wings are red at the extremity. It lays six or seven eggs in the autumn, in muddy caverns, and digs as much as four cubits into the ground.

2. The bird called chloris from being yellow beneath, is of the size of the lark, and lays four or five eggs; it makes its nest of symphytum, which it pulls up by the root, and lines it with straw, hair, and wool. The blackbird and jay do the same, and line their nests with the same materials; the nest of the acanthyllis is also artfully constructed, for it is folded together like a ball of flax, and has a small entrance. And the natives of those places say that there is a cinnamon bird, and that they bring the cinnamon from the same places as the bird, and that it makes its nest of it. It builds its nest in lofty trees and among their branches, but the natives of the country tip their arrows with lead, with which they destroy the nests, and then pick out the cinnamon from the other material.