LIBER X · CAPUT 17
THE OWLET
Latine · Mayhoff 1906
Noctuarum contra aves sollers dimicatio. maiore circumdatae multitudine resupinae pedibus repugnant collectaeque in artum rostro et unguibus totae teguntur. auxiliatur accipiter collegio quodam naturae bellumque partitur. noctuas sexagenis diebus hiemis cubare et novem voces habere tradit Nigidius.
English · Bostock & Riley 1855–57
The owlet shows considerable shrewdness in its engagements with other birds; for when surrounded by too great a number, it throws itself on its back, and so, resisting with its feet, and rolling up its body into a mass, defends itself with the beak and talons; until the hawk, attracted by a certain natural affinity, comes to its assistance, and takes its share in the combat. Nigidius says, that the incubation of the owlet lasts sixty days, during the winter, and that it has nine different notes.