Some creatures can make provision against change without
stirring from their ordinary haunts; others migrate, quitting Pontus
and the cold countries after the autumnal equinox to avoid the
approaching winter, and after the spring equinox migrating from warm
lands to cool lands to avoid the coming heat. In some cases they
migrate from places near at hand, in others they may be said to come
from the ends of the world, as in the case of the crane; for these
birds migrate from the steppes of Scythia to the marshlands south of
Egypt where the Nile has its source. And it is here, by the way,
that they are said to fight with the pygmies; and the story is not
fabulous, but there is in reality a race of dwarfish men, and the
horses are little in proportion, and the men live in caves
underground. Pelicans also migrate, and fly from the Strymon to the
Ister, and breed on the banks of this river. They depart in flocks,
and the birds in front wait for those in the rear, owing to the fact
that when the flock is passing over the intervening mountain range,
the birds in the rear lose sight of their companions in the van.
Fishes also in a similar manner shift their habitat now out of
the Euxine and now into it.
Pages:
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434
435
436
437
438
439
440
441
442
443
444
445