CHAP. 24. (21.)—THE DUNGHILL COCK.
Next after the peacock, the animal that acts as our watchman by night, and which Nature has produced for the purpose
of arousing mortals to their labours, and dispelling their slumbers, shows itself most actuated by feelings of vanity. The
cock knows how to distinguish the stars, and marks the
different periods of the day, every three hours, by his note.
These animals go to roost with the setting of the sun, and at
the fourth watch of the camp recall man to his cares and toils.
They do not allow the rising of the sun to creep upon us un-
awares, but by their note proclaim the coming day, and they
prelude their crowing by clapping their sides with their wings.
They exercise a rigorous sway over the other birds of their
kind, and, in every place where they are kept, hold the supreme
command. This, however, is only obtained after repeated
battles among themselves, as they are well aware that they
have weapons on their legs, produced for that very purpose, as
it were, and the contest often ends in the death of both the
combatants at the same moment. If, on the other hand, one
of them obtains the mastery, he instantly by his note proclaims
himself the conqueror, and testifies by his crowing that he has
been victorious; While his conquered opponent silently slinks
away, and, though with a very bad grace, submits to servitude.
And with equal pride does the throng of the poultry yard strut
along, with head uplifted and crest erect. These, too, are the
only ones among the winged race that repeatedly look up to
the heavens, with the tail, which in its drooping shape resembles that of a sickle, raised aloft: and so it is that these
birds inspire terror even in the lion,
1 the most courageous of
all animals.
Some of these birds, too, are reared for nothing but warfare
and perpetual combats, and have even shed a lustre thereby
on their native places, Rhodes and Tanagra. The next rank
is considered to belong to those of Melos
2 and Chalcis. Hence,
it is not without very good reason that the consular purple of
Rome pays these birds such singular honours. It is from the
feeding of these creatures that the omens
3 by fowls are derived; it is these that regulate
4 day by day the movements of
our magistrates, and open or shut to them their own houses,
as the case may be; it is these that give an impulse to the
fasces of the Roman magistracy, or withhold them; it is these
that command battles or forbid them, and furnish auspices for
victories to be gained in every part of the world. It is these
that hold supreme rule over those who are themselves the rulers
of the earth, and whose entrails and fibres are as pleasing to
the gods as the first spoils of victory. Their note, when heard
at an unusual hour or in the evening, has also its peculiar presages; for, on one occasion, by crowing the whole night through
for several nights, they presaged to the Boeotians that famous
victory
5 which they gained over the Lacedæmonians; such,
in fact, being the interpretation that was put upon it by way
of prognostic, as this bird, when conquered, is never known to
crow.