CHAP. 88. (62.)—THE ANTIPATHIES AND SYMPATHIES THAT EXIST BETWEEN AQUATIC ANIMALS.
There are also marvellous instances to be found of antipathies and sympathies existing between them. The mullet and the wolf-fish2848 are animated with a mutual hatred; and so too, the conger and the murena gnaw each other’s2849 tails. The cray-fish has so great a dread of the polypus, that if it sees it near, it expires in an instant: the conger dreads the cray-fish; while, again, the conger tears the body of the polypus. Nigidius informs us that the wolf-fish gnaws the tail of the mullet, and yet that, during certain months, they are on terms of friendship; all those, however, which thus lose their tails, survive their misfortune. On the other hand, in addition to those which we have already mentioned as going in company together, an instance of friendship is found in the balæna and the musculus,2850 for, as the eye-brows of the former are very heavy, they sometimes fall over its eyes, and quite close them by their ponderousness, upon which the musculus swims before, and points out the shallow places which are likely to prove inconvenient to its vast bulk,2851 thus serving it in the stead of eyes. We shall now have to speak of the nature of the birds.
Summary.—Remarkable facts, narratives, and observations, 650.
Roman authors quoted.—Turranius Gracilis,2852 Trogus,2853 Mæcenas,2854 Alfius Flavus,2855 Cornelius Nepos,2856 Laberius the Mimographer,2857 Fabianus,2858 Fenestella,2859 Mucianus,2860 Ælius Stilo,2861 Statius Sebosus,2862 Melissus,2863 Seneca,2864 Cicero,2865 Æmilius Macer,2866 Messala Corvinus,2867 Trebius Niger,2868 Nigidius.2869
Foreign authors quoted.—Aristotle,2870 King Archelaus,2871 Callimachus,2872 Democritus,2873 Theophrastus,2874 Thrasyllus,2874 Hegesidemus,2875 Cythnius,2876 Alexander Polyhistor.2877