LIBER X · CAPUT 6
THE VULTURE
Latine · Mayhoff 1906
Vulturum praevalent nigri. nidos nemo attigit; ideo et fuere qui putarent illos ex adverso orbe advolare. falso: nidificant in excelsissimis rupibus; fetus quidem saepe cernuntur, fere bini. Vmbricius, haruspicum in nostro aevo peritissimus, parere tradit ova XIII, uno ex his reliqua ova nidumque lustrare, mox abicere. triduo autem ante advolare eos, ubi cadavera futura sunt.
English · Bostock & Riley 1855–57
Of the vultures, the black ones are the strongest. No person has yet found a vulture’s nest: hence it is that there are some who have thought, though erroneously, that these birds come from the opposite hemisphere. The fact is, that they build their nest upon the very highest rocks; their young ones, indeed, are often to be seen, being generally two in number. Umbricius, the most skilful among the aruspices of our time, says that the vulture lays thirteen eggs, and that with one of these eggs it purifies the others and its nest, and then throws it away: he states also that they hover about for three days, over the spot where carcases are about to be found.