Where Does The Phrase "Birds Of A Feather"� Come From?

The full phrase, "birds of a feather flock together," comes from one of Aesop's fables. A farmer wanted to catch some cranes that had been stealing his corn. He spread a net and managed to catch them all. Among them was a stork, who protested, "It's not fair to trap me too; you can see I'm not a crane, and besides I wasn't just stealing your corn out of greed, like they were. I'm a good son and I needed the corn to help my poor parents." The farmer laughed and said, "It may all be as you say, but it makes no difference to me. As far as I'm concerned I caught you with the cranes, you were stealing my corn like the cranes and I'm going to treat you like a crane." The main message of this fable is that people with a common (often criminal) purpose or mentality will tend to be found together.