Note 17 — BOOK II.
Rowland Smith translation
A dreadful serpent.... ... glided to the tree. Eight youngling sparrows with the parent bird Sat screen'd with foliage on the topmost bough. The screaming little ones with ease he gorg'd, And while the mother, circling o'er his head, With shrillest agony bewail'd her loss, He seiz'd her by the wing, first drew her down Within his spiry folds, and then devoured."—Il. ii. 308. Cowper.