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Aesop's Fables, translated by Laura Gibbs (2002)

285. THE KITE AND THE PARTRIDGES
Perry 604 (Odo 38)

How earthly prosperity can be deceptive, and so on.
One day the kite happened to consider his wings and feet and talons. 'Indeed,' he exclaimed, 'Am I not just as well armed as the hawk and the falcon? Look at what wings and what feet and what talons I have! Why shouldn't I go catch some partridges?' The kite knew a place where he could find many partridges so he went there and launched his attack: he seized one partridge with his beak, another with his wings, and one more in each foot. But the kite couldn't keep hold of that many partridges, so in the end he had none. Hence the saying: Seize all, lose all. From then on, the kite never tried to hunt wild birds again.

Note: Compare the Roman proverb, 'the man who chases two hares does not catch either one' (e.g., Publilius Syrus 186).


Source: Aesop's Fables. A new translation by Laura Gibbs. Oxford University Press (World's Classics): Oxford, 2002.
NOTE: New cover, with new ISBN, published in 2008; contents of book unchanged.