PEISTHETAERUS Went in the copse, and whooped, and whooped for nothing.
HOOPOE Torotinx! Torotinx, Comrade here’s a bird approaching, coming to receive our visit. Aye by Zeus, what bird do you call it? Surely not a peacock, is it? That the Hoopoe here will teach us. Prithee, friend, what bird is he?
HOOPOE That is not a common object, such as you can always see; That’s a marsh-bird.
EUELPIDES Lovely creature! nice and red like flaming flame.
HOOPOE So he should be, for Flamingo is the lovely creature’s name. Hi there!
PEISTHETAERUS What? The row you’re making!
EUELPIDES Here’s another, full in view. Aye by Zeus, another truly, with a foreign aspect too. Who is he, the summit-ascending, Muse-prophetical, wondrous bird?
HOOPOE He’s a Median.
PEISTHETAERUS He a Median! Heracles, the thing’s absurd. How on earth without a camel could a Median hither fly?
EUELPIDES Here they’re coming; here’s another, with his crest erected high.
PEISTHETAERUS Goodness gracious, that’s a hoopoe; yes, by Zeus, another one! Are not you the only Hoopoe?
HOOPOE I’m his grandsire; he’s the son Of the Philocléan hoopoe: as with you a name will pass, Callias siring Hipponicus, Hipponicus Callias.
PEISTHETAERUS O then that is Callias is it? How his feathers moult away!
HOOPOE Aye, the simple generous creature, he’s to parasites a prey. And the females flock around him, plucking out his feathers too,
PEISTHETAERUS O Poseidon, here’s another; here’s a bird of brilliant hue! What’s the name of this, I wonder.
HOOPOE That’s a Glutton styled by us.
PEISTHETAERUS Is there then another Glutton than our own Cleonymus?
EUELPIDES Our Cleonymus, I fancy, would have thrown his crest away.
PEISTHETAERUS But what means the crest-equipment of so many birds, I pray? Are they going to race in armour?
HOOPOE No, my worthy friend, they make Make their dwellings, like the Carians, on the crests for safety’s sake.
PEISTHETAERUS O Poseidon, what the mischief! see the birds are everywhere Fluttering onward.
EUELPIDES King Apollo, what a cloud! O! O! look there, Now we cannot see the entrance for the numbers crowding in.
PEISTHETAERUS Here you see a partridge coming, there by Zeus a francolin, Here a widgeon onward hurries, there’s a halcyon, sure as fate.
EUELPIDES Who’s behind her?
PEISTHETAERUS That’s a clipper; he’s the lady halcyon’s mate.
EUELPIDES Can a clipper be a bird then?
PEISTHETAERUS Sporgilus is surely so. Here’s an owl.
EUELPIDES And who to Athens brought an owl, I’d like to know.
PEISTHETAERUS Jay and turtle, lark and sedgebird, thyme-finch, ring-dove first, and then Rock-dove, stock-dove, cuckoo, falcon, fiery-crest, and willow wren,
HOOPOE Lammergeyer, porphyrion, kestrel, waxwing, nuthatch, water-hen.
EUELPIDES (Singing.) Ohé for the birds, Ohé! Ohé! Ohé for the blackbirds, ho! How they twitter, how they go, shrieking and screaming to and fro. Goodness! are they going to charge us? They are gazing here, and see All their beaks they open widely.
PEISTHETAERUS That is what occurs to me.
CHORUS Wh-wh-wh-wh-wh-wh-wh-wh-where may he be that was calling for me? In what locality pastureth he?
HOOPOE I am ready, waiting here; never from my friends I stir.
CHORUS Te-te-te-te-te-te-te-te-teach me, I pray, in an amicable way, what is the news you have gotten to say.
HOOPOE News auspicious! News amazing! News delightful, safe, and free! Birds! Two men of subtlest genius hither have arrived to me.
CHORUS Who! What! When! say that again.
HOOPOE Here, I say, have come two elders, travelling to the birds from man, And the stem they are bringing with them of a most stupendous plan.
CHORUS You who have made the greatest error since my callow life began, What do you say?
HOOPOE Now don’t be nervous.
CHORUS What is the thing you have done to me?
HOOPOE I’ve received two men, enamoured of your sweet society.
CHORUS You have really dared to do it?
HOOPOE Gladly I the deed avow.
CHORUS And the pair are now amongst us?
HOOPOE Aye, if I’m amongst you now.
CHORUS O! O! Out upon you! We are cheated and betrayed, we have suffered shame and wrong! For our comrade and our friend who has fed with us so long,
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