Note 631 — Chapter IV · POULTRY, FRUIT, WINE, ETC.
Reading edition
No bird appears to have puzzled commentators more than the attagas, some supposing it to be the francolin, or grouse, which is Schneider’s opinion; others, as Passow, the hazel-hen; others, again, as Ainsworth, consider it to have been a delicious bird, resembling our wood-cock, or snipe. Mr. Mitchell’s edit. of the Acharnæ of Aristophanes, 783.—This learned writer professes not to understand what Schneider means by francolin. The word in Italian is francolino, as appears from Bellon. v. 6: Les Italiens ont nommé cet oiseau Francolin, que parcequ’il est franc dans ce pays, c’est-à-dire, qu’il est defendu au peuple d’en tuer: il n’y a que les princes qui aient cette prérogative.—Valmont de Bomare, ii. 739.—Hardouin thinks, that the Attagas is the gallina rustica, or gelinotte de bois, which Laveaux explains to be a sort of partridge.—Cf. Dict. Franç. in voce, and Plin. Hist. Nat. xi. 68. ed. Franz. Cf. Schol. Aristoph. Vesp. 257. This bird was plentiful about Marathon, Pac. 249.