I make you not a bird (ὄρνιθα) of this my journey.
And Xenophon, in the second book of his Cyropædia, says—"Going in pursuit of birds (τοὺς ὄρνιθας) in the severest winter." And Menander, in his Twin Sisters, says—
I came laden with birds (ὄρνεις).
And immediately afterwards he has
He sends off birds (ὄρνιθας ἀποστέλλει).
And that they often used ὄρνεις as the plural form we have the evidence of Menander to prove to us: and also Alcman says somewhere or other—
The damsels all with unaccomplish'd ends
Departed; just as frighten'd birds (ὄρνεις) who see
A hostile kite which hovers o'er their heads.
And Eupolis, in his Peoples, says—
Is it not hard that I should have such sons,
When every bird (ὄρνεις) has offspring like its sire?
ANAXANDRIDES.