Note 342 — Chapter VIII · THE TWO PLINYS—MARTIAL—WAS THE ROD JOINTED?
Reading edition
Cantu seems to refer more naturally to the song of the call bird (Oppian, hal., IV. 120 ff.), rather than to that of the fowler, but cf. Cato (the poet of the third century a.d.), in Disticha, I. 27, “Fistula dulce canit volucrem dum decipit auceps”; and Tibullus, II. 5, 31, “Fistula cui semper decrescit harundinis ordo.” In addition to catching birds by rods and birdlime, a common practice according to Aristophanes was to confine doves, etc., with limbs tied up or with eyes covered, in a net, and thus allure other doves, etc., to the snare. Illex was the technical name for the decoy bird. For this purpose use was made both of kindred and of hostile species, such as the owl and falcon. The latter was also trained to catch the bird, which had been decoyed within its reach. Cf. Martial, Ep., XIV. 218. Aristophanes, Aves, 1082 f.
Τὰς περιστεράς θ’ ὁμοίως ξυλλαβὼν εἵρξας ἕχει κἀπαναγκάζει παλεύειν δεδεμένας ἐν δικτύῳ.
Ibid., 526 ff., trans. B. H. Kennedy:
“And the cunning fowlers for you set Snare and springs, twig, trap, gin, cage, and net.”
Plautus. Asin., I. 3, 67 f.:
“Ædis nobis area est, auceps sum ego, Esca est meretrix, lectus illex est, amatores aves.”