(The aithyia, or diver, and the larus, or gull, lay their eggs
on rocks bordering on the sea, two or three at a time; but the gull
lays in the summer, and the diver at the beginning of spring, just
after the winter solstice, and it broods over its eggs as birds do
in general. And neither of these birds resorts to a hiding-place.)

The halcyon is the most rarely seen of all birds. It is seen
only about the time of the setting of the Pleiads and the winter
solstice. When ships are lying at anchor in the roads, it will hover
about a vessel and then disappear in a moment, and Stesichorus in
one of his poems alludes to this peculiarity. The nightingale also
breeds at the beginning of summer, and lays five or six eggs; from
autumn until spring it retires to a hiding-place.