CHAP. 38. (11.)—AN EFFECTUAL WAY OF PUTTING A STOP TO THE
SINGING OF BIRDS.
I must not omit here, in reference to painting, a celebrated
story that is told about Lepidus. During the Triumvirate,
when he was entertained by the magistrates of a certain place,
he had lodgings given him in a house that was wholly surrounded
with trees. The next day, he complained to them in
a threatening tone, that he had been unable to sleep for the
singing of the birds there. Accordingly, they had a dragon
painted, on pieces of parchment of the greatest length that
could possibly be obtained, and surrounded the grove with it;
a thing that so terrified the birds, it is said, that they became
silent at once; and hence it was that it first became known
how this object could be attained.