Plutarch's Romane Questions · Plutarch
38.
_What is the reason that_ Quintus Metellus _the high priest, and reputed besides a wise man and a politike, forbad to observe auspices, or to take presages by flight of birds, after the moneth_ Sextilis, _now called August_. IS it for that, as we are woont to attend upon such observations about noone or in the beginning of the day, at the entrance also and toward the middle of the moneth: but we take heed and beware of the daies declination, as inauspicate and unmeet for such purposes; even so _Metellus_ supposed, that the time after eight moneths was (as it were) the evening of the yeere, and the latter end of it, declining now and wearing toward an end. Or haply, because we are to make use of these birds, and to observe their flight for presage, whiles they are entire, perfect and nothing defective, such as they are before Summer time. But about Autumne some of them moult, grow to be sickly and weake; others are over young and too small; and some againe appeare not at all, but like passengers are gone at such a time into another countrey.
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