The verbs ἐλεᾷ, βασκᾷ, and ἐλασᾷ form a tripartite sequence of present active indicatives describing the bird's actions, but the syntax here is deceptive: the first two are standard verbs (to pity and to bewitch/charm), while ἐλασᾷ is the third-person singular of ἐλαύνω, which in this context (describing a bird's movement) functions as a rare, almost onomatopoeic usage denoting a specific fluttering or darting motion, distinct from its typical sense of driving or driving away. The subsequent nouns ἐρωδιῷ and καταρράκτῃ are dative of accompaniment or manner, indicating the bird is mimicking or moving alongside these specific types of birds (heron and waterfall-bird?), creating a syntactic ambiguity where the dative could be interpreted as either instrumental or locative, a construction not immediately resolved by standard grammatical paradigms.