The loligo is also able to dart above the surface of the water, and the scallop does the same, just like an arrow as it were. In the sæpia,2519 the male is parti-coloured, blacker than the female, and more courageous. If the female is struck with a fish-spear, the male comes to her aid; but the female, the instant the male is struck, takes to flight. Both of them, as soon as ever they find themselves in danger of being caught. discharge2520 a kind of ink, which with them is in place of blood,2521 and thus darkening the water, take to flight.
About This Book
The volume assembles an encyclopedic survey of the known world and its living inhabitants, moving from detailed regional geography and descriptions of seas, rivers, islands, and peoples to extended treatments of humanity, its generation, anatomy, and the origins and inventions of arts. Subsequent books catalog terrestrial animals—their habits, capture, and uses—followed by comprehensive observations on fish and marine creatures, their sizes and behaviors. Accounts mix naturalistic description, reported marvels, medicinal uses derived from animals, and travel and secondhand reports, organized as topical chapters intended as a practical compendium of natural and human phenomena.