434. Cornix et Avium Reges. Aves consultabant de pluribus regibus eligendis, cum aquila tantos volucrum greges sola regere non posset, fecissentque voto satis nisi cornicis monitu a tali consilio destitissent. Quae cum causa rogaretur cur non plures reges duceret eligendos, “Quia difficilius,” cornix inquit, “plures quam unus saccus implentur.”
M0434 (not in Perry). Source: Abstemius 59. This fable is not in Perry’s catalog; Perry omitted most of Abstemius’s fables. For the demands that a king might make, see the story of the tyrannical lion, #22.