Note 564 — Chapter IV · GALEN

The nest of the fabled cinnamon bird was supposed to contain supplies of the spice, which Herodotus (III, 111) tells us the Arabian merchants procured by leaving heavy pieces of flesh for the birds to carry to their nests, which then broke down under the excessive weight. In Aristotle’s History of Animals (IX, 13) the nests are shot down with arrows tipped with lead. For other allusions to the cinnamon bird in classical literature see D’Arcy W. Thompson, A Glossary of Greek Birds, Oxford, 1895, p. 82.