Stymphalis
| Latin name: | Stymphalis |
| Other names: | Ceronfalide, Lapwing, Seronfalide, Simphalides, Stimphalis, Symphalides, Vanellis, Vanellli, Vanello, Vanellus |
| Category: | Bird |
Man-eating birds with beaks of bronze and sharp metallic feathers
General Attributes
The stymphalis appears in some medieval encyclopedias. When this bird sees a man approaching its nest, it flies out to meet him with a cry, foolishly thinking the cry will drive him away.
The stymphalis is a man-eating bird with a beak of bronze, sharp metallic feathers it can launch at its victims, and poisonous dung. According to the Greek legend of the Labors of Hercules, he destroyed the birds with poisoned arrows. It is a bird that It was sometimes confused with the harpy (strophalides, strophades).
The seronfalide is a bird that appears in the Liber floridus of Lambert of Saint-Omer. It has a one line description: Seronfalides aves in insulis habitant (Seronfalides are birds that live on islands). No other description of it is provided. Based on Isidore's description of of the bird that lives on islands, this bird is most likely the stymphalis.
Reality
This bird is identified by some as the lapwing, subfamily Vanellinae of family Charadriidae.
