From: Paul Rakow <>
To: <>
Date: Sunday, 15 November 1998 2:00
Subject: Re: [BIRDCHAT] Aristotle (384-322 BC) A big lister
> Trevor,
>
> A translation of Aristotle's book about natural history is
> available on-line, it is fascinating reading. Sometimes he
> believes tall stories, but usually he is more sensible than
> a lot of the Romans and medieval Europeans.
>
> http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/history_anim.mb.txt
>
> Most of the species-descriptions for birds are in book IX,
> the last one. (I haven't counted to see how many there are).
> Some are very evocative, for example "The nightingale, when the
> hills are taking on verdure, sings continually for fifteen days
> and fifteen nights; afterwards it sings, but not continuously."
>
> (And Aristotle did know the difference between birds and bats,
> his definition of birds is that they had to have feathered wings,
> and he thinks that flying creatures with leather wings, such as flying
> foxes and bats should be put into a different group, which he says
> doesn't yet have a name.)
>
> Paul Rakow
>
> Regensburg, Germany
>
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------
>Trevor Quested <> quoted:
>
>"To our knowledge, Aristotle (384-322 BC) was the first person to look at
birds
>scientifically, describing what he considered to be 170 varieties and
>discussing their physiology, reproduction, and ecology. Aristotle was the
first
>to make systematic classification of birds based on observation and
dissection,
>he divided birds into eight groups."
>
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