Illustrated: Pica Loquax et Aquila

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M0495 - M0496 - M0497

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496. Pica Loquax et Aquila. Pica aquilam rogabat ut se inter suos familiares et domesticos acciperet, quando id mereretur cum corporis pulchritudine, tum ad mandata peragenda linguae volubilitate. Cui aquila “Hoc facerem,” respondit, “ni vererer ne, quae intra tegulam fiunt, tua loquacitate cuncta efferres.”

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M0496 (not in Perry). Source: Abstemius 26. This fable is not in Perry’s catalog; Perry omitted most of Abstemius’s fables. For a story of human gossip, see the story of the man who laid an egg, #944. For another fable about the chattering magpie, see #552.