aucŭpĭum, ii, n. [auceps], bird-catching, fowling.
I Lit.: piscatu, aucupio, venatione, etc., Cic. Fin. 2, 8, 23; Pall. Dec. 6, 2: noctuae, id. Sept. 12.—Poet.: aucupium sagittarum, bird-taking with arrows , Att. ap. Cic. Fin. 5, 11, 32: harundine sumptā Faunus plumoso sum deus aucupio, Prop. 5, 2, 34; cf. Hermann. Opusc. III. p. 121.— Trop., a catching at , lying in wait for something : facere aucupium auribus, Plaut. Mil. 4, 1, 44 (cf. auceps and aucupor): hoc novum est aucupium, a new kind of fowling , new way of catching things , Ter. Eun. 247 (cf. the preced. verse, quaestus): aucupium delectationis, Cic. Or. 25, 84; 58, 197: aucupia verborum, a catching at words , quibbling; cf. auceps, id. Caecin. 23, 65: nomenclationis, Col. 3, 2, 31.—
II Meton. (abstr. for concr.), the birds caught : qui tot res in se habet egregias, Aucupium, omne genus piscis, etc., * Cat. 114, 3; Cels. 2, 26; Sen. Prov. 3.