jan 1, 234 - Aelianus "De Natura Animalium"

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§ 17.16 Theopompus says that at the season of the third ploughing and sowing the Veneti who live on the shores of the Adriatic despatch presents to the Jackdaws, and these presents would be cakes of ground barley with honey and oil well and truly kneaded. The purpose of these presents is to placate the Jackdaws and to declare a truce, so that they shall refrain from digging up and collecting here and there the fruits of Demeter sown in the soil. And Lycus confirms this adding further: the following details . .. scarlet thongs, and after setting them out they withdraw. And the clouds of Jackdaws remain outside the boundaries, while two or three birds, selected like ambassadors from cities, are sent to take a good look and see how many presents there, are. After their inspection they return and summon the birds, giving the call which is natural for them to utter and for the others to respond to. And the birds come in clouds, and if they eat the aforesaid presents, the Veneti know that there is a truce between them and the aforesaid birds. If however they ignore and scorn them as skimpy and refuse to eat them, the inhabitants are confident that a famine will be the price they have to pay for this rejection. For if the aforesaid birds remain unfed and, so to say, unbribed, they swoop upon the ploughlands and pillage in the most distressing way the greater part of what has been sown, digging up and tracking out the seeds in their anger.

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