2474 Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. v. c. 11, only quotes this story as he had heard it, and does not vouch for its truth. Doro, as quoted by Athenæus, B. vii., makes the zmyrus and the muræna to be of totally different genera. The zmyrus, he says, is without bone, the whole of it is eatable, and it is remarkable for the tenderness of the flesh. There are two kinds, of which the best, he says, are those which are black.

2475 The common muræna, Cuvier says, is spotted with brown and yellow, but there is a larger kind, with stronger teeth and brown all over, the Muræna Christini, of Risso. This, he has no doubt, is the zmyrus of the ancients. Modern naturalists, he says, have incorrectly called Muræna zmyrus, a small kind of conger, which has yellow spots upon the neck.

2476 Cuvier has already made some remarks on this passage in one of his Notes to c. 24 of the present Book. See p. 395.

2477 The Seven Terriones, or plough oxen. The constellation of Ursa Major was thus called by the Romans.

2478 This wretched man was originally a freedman, and though he was on one occasion punished by Augustus for his cruelty, he left him a great part of his property. He died B.C. 15. He is supposed to be the same person as the one against whom Augustus wrote some Fescennine verses, mentioned by Macrobius, Sat. B. ii. c. 4.

2479 Until the Roman youth assumed the toga virilis, they wore the toga prætexta, or senatorial gown. The toga virilis was assumed at the Liberalia, in the month of March; and though no age appears to have been positively fixed for the ceremony, it probably took place, as a general rule, on the feast which next followed the completion of the fourteenth year; though it is not certain that the completion of the fourteenth year was not always the time observed. So long as a male wore the prætexta, he was considered “impubes,” and when he had assumed the toga virilis, he was “pubes.” Hence the word “investis,” or “prætextatus,” (here employed), was the same as impubes.

2480 Thus the “impubes” paid, as Hardouin says, “not in money, but in skin.” Isidorus, in his Glossary, says, “‘Anguilla’ is the name given to the ordinary ‘scutica,’ or whip with which boys are chastised at school.” The witty Rabelais says, B. ii. c. 30, “Whereupon his master gave him such a sound lashing with an eel-skin, that his own would have been worth nothing to make bag-pipe bags of.”

2481 The ray.

2482 The sting-ray; the Raia pastinaca of Linnæus.

2483 The angel-fish; the Squalus squatina of Linnæus.

2484 The Raia torpedo of Linnæus.

2485 Galen, in his explanation of words used by Hippocrates, speaks of the βοῦς θαλάσσιος, which is also described by Oppian, Halieut. B. ii. l. 141, et seq. He speaks of it as growing to the length of eleven or twelve cubits, and having small, weak teeth, which are not easily seen, and compares it in appearance to the roof of a house. Cuvier thinks, that although its horns are not mentioned, a species of large horned ray is alluded to, which is known by the modern naturalists by the name of Cephalopterus, and he thinks it very likely these horns may have given it its Greek appellation. Indeed Pliny himself, in another place, B. xxxii. c. 53, speaks of it under the name of “cornuta,” the “horned-fish.”

2486 A species of ray, most probably.

2487 Cuvier suggests that this was the mylobates, the Raia aquila of Linnæus, which probably obtained this name on account of the width of the pectoral fins, and its peculiar shape.

2488 Βάτραχος ἁλιεὺς, the sea-frog, the Lophius piscatorius of Linnæus, and the baudroie of the French. Cuvier remarks, that though there is little solidity or firmness in the bones of this animal, it is not properly a cartilaginous fish.

2489 This is borrowed from Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. v., who, however, says, καὶ πάντα τὰ γαλεώδη; from which Massarius, Turnebus, and Hippolytus Salvianus are inclined to read “galei,” instead of “squali.” Both terms, however, Hardouin says, are used to denote the genus which the French call “chiens de mer,” “dog-fish.”

2490 It is curious that Aristotle, though he was the inventor of this name, has nowhere stated in what it originated. Galen, De Alim. Fac. B. iii. c. 36, says that it is ἀπὸ τοῦ σέλας ἔχειν, from the fact of their shining at night.

2491 Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 5, and De Part. Anim. B. iv. c. 13.

2492 In c. 7 of the present Book.

2493 Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. vi. c. 8.

2494 Cuvier says that it is true that the sea-frog is oviparous; but it is far from being the case that all the cartilaginous fishes but it are viviparous. The rays, for instance, produce large eggs of a square shape, and enveloped with a very hard horny shell. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 5, and B. ii. c. 16, makes the same exception as to the sea-frog or frog-fish.

2495 This is also from Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. ii. c. 17. Oppian also mentions it, Halieut. B. i. l. 223, et seq., but he gives it all the characteristics of the modern lamprey.

2496 This is the Echeneis remora of Linnæus, Cuvier says. It has upon the head an organ, by means of which it can attach itself to any body. It is thus enabled to fasten to ships and larger fishes; but as for staying a ship, it has not, as Cuvier remarks, the slightest power over the very smallest boat. All the eloquence, therefore, which Pliny expends upon it, in B. xxxii. c. 1, is entirely thrown away.

2497 Ἀπὸ τοῦ ἔχειν νῆας. “From holding back ships.”

2498 Used for the purpose of bringing back lost love, or preventing inconstancy.

2499 Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. ii. c. 17.

2500 Hardouin says that it is very possible that Aristotle may have written to this effect in some one of the fifty books of his that have perished, but that such is not the case in his account given of this fish in his Hist. Anim. B. ii. c. 17, for there he expressly says, “There are some people that say this fish has feet, whereas it has none at all; but they are deceived by the fins, which bear a resemblance to feet.” Cuvier says he cannot see in what way the fins of the remora, or sucking-fish, resemble feet, any more than those belonging to any other fish.

2501 Cuvier says, that the shell-fish to which Pliny here ascribes a power similar to that of the remora, is, if we may judge from his description of it, of the genus called Cypræa, and has very little doubt that its peculiar form caused its consecration to Venus, fully as much as its supposed miraculous powers. He also remarks that Hardouin, in his Note upon this passage, supposes an impossibility, in suggesting that the lips of this shell-fish can bite the sides of a ship; these lips or edges being hard and immoveable. For some curious particulars as to the peculiar form of some kinds of Cypræa, or cowry, and why they more especially attracted attention, and were held sacred to Venus, see the discussion on them, in the Defence made by Apuleius against the charge of sorcery, which was brought against him.

2502 Rondelet, B. xiii. c. 12, says that this kind of shell was formerly used for the purpose of smoothing paper.

2503 Herodotus tells us, B. iii. c. 48, that these were 300 boys of noble families of the Corcyræans, and that they were being sent from Periander of Corinth, to Alyattes, king of Sardes.

2504 Venus was fabled to have emerged from the sea in a shell.

2505 Rabelais refers to these wonderful stories about the echeneis or remora, B. iv. c. 62: “And indeed, why should he have thought this difficult, seeing that —— an echeneis or remora, a silly, weakly fish, in spite of all the winds that blow from the thirty-two points of the compass, will in the midst of a hurricane make you, the biggest first-rate, remain stock still, as if she were becalmed, or the blustering tribe had blown their last; nay, and with the flesh of that fish, preserved with salt, you may fish gold out of the deepest well that ever was sounded with a plummet; for it will certainly draw up the precious metal.”

2506 Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 34; Ælian, Hist. Anim. B. xii. c. 48. Rondelet is of opinion that this mæna was the fish still called menola by the people of Liguria and Rome. It was a fish little valued, and we find it called by Martial, “inutilis mæna,” B. xii. Epigr. 30. Cuvier says, that if it does not change from white to black, as Pliny states, its colours are much more lively in the spring. It also has an offensive smell at certain times, as is noticed by Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 30, and to which Martial alludes in the above epigram. Ovid also mentions it as a fish of no value; held, in all probability, in the same degree of estimation as a sprat with us. It is, no doubt, the Sparus mæna of Linnæus.

2507 We learn from Aristotle, B. viii. c. 30, that the phycis was a whitish fish, which in the spring assumed a variegated colour. In an Epigram of Apollonides it is called “red;” and Speusippus, as quoted in Athenæus, B. v., says that it is similar to the perch and the channe. Ovid speaks of it as frequenting the shore, and Oppian represents it as dwelling among the sea-weed on the rocks. It also lived on shrimps, and its flesh was light and wholesome; while its most singular property was that of making its nest among the fucus or sea-weed, whence its name. All these characteristics, Cuvier says, are to be found, from what Olivi states, in the “go” of the Venetians, found in the Adriatic, the Gobius of Linnæus; the male of which in the spring makes a nest of the roots of the zostera in the mud, in which the female lays her eggs, which are fecundated by itself, and then protected by it against the attacks of enemies. This is probably the fish that is alluded to by Ovid, Halieut. l. 121, “The fish that imitates, beneath the waves, the pretty nests of the birds.”

2508 This name, Cuvier observes, is still common on the coasts of the Mediterranean, to two kinds of flying fish, the Dactylopterus, or Trigla volitans of Linnæus, and the Exocœtus volitans of Linnæus. It is to the first, he thinks, that the ancients more especially gave the name of swallow, although Salvianus and Belon are of the contrary opinion. Oppian, Halieut. B. ii. ll. 457-461, ranks the sea-swallow with the scorpion, the dragon, and other fish the spines of which produce mortal wounds, and Ælian, B. ii. c. 5, states to the same effect. But the exocœtus has no spines, while the dactylopterus has terrible ones on its præopercules. Speusippus also, as quoted in Athenæus, B. vii., gives no less decisive testimony, in saying that the sea-cuckoo, the trigla, and the sea-swallow, have a strong resemblance to each other; the fact being that the dactylopterus is of the same genus as the sea-cuckoo, the Trigla cuculus of Linnæus.

2509 Ovid, Halieut. l. 96, speaks of this fish as having a black back. Cuvier therefore suggests that it may possibly be the perlon, the Trigla hirundo of Linuæus, the back of which is of a dark brown, and the great size of the pectoral fins of which may have given rise to the notion of its being able to fly. It is also very possible, he says, that it may have been the exocœtus, the back of which is of a blue colour.

2510 Lucerna. Probably, as Cuvier says, one of those numerous molluscs, or zoophytes, which give out a brilliant light, and perhaps the Pyrosoma of Péron. No period being found in the MSS. after the word “milvus”—“kite,” it was long thought that this passage applied to the sea-kite; and it is owing to this circumstance that we find the ichthyologists enumerating a Trigla lucerna. The correction, however, is approved of by Cuvier, who says that he has found none of the genus triglæ to give forth a light; except, indeed, when, like other fish, it begins to be putrid.

2511 Probably the “cornuta,” mentioned in the Note on the sea-ox in c. 40; see p. 411. Cuvier says that it was long supposed that the fish here alluded to might be the Malarmat of the Mediterranean, the Trigla cataphracta of Linnæus, the muzzle of which is divided into two horns; but then they are only half an inch long, instead of a foot and a half. He is of opinion, therefore, that it is the great horned ray, now known as the cephalopterus, which, being often fifteen feet and more in diameter, answers much better to the description of its size implied by Pliny from the length of its horns. It is also mentioned under the name of cornuta in B. xxxii. c. 53, in company with the saw-fish, the sword-fish, the dog-fish, and other large fishes.

2512 Cuvier is of opinion, that Rondelet is correct in his suggestion that this is the sea-spider, called the “vive” in France, the viver or weever with us, and the Trachinus draco of Linnæus, which fish is still called δράκαινα by the modern Greeks. Pliny, in c. 48 of the present Book, charges the sea-spider with doing much mischief, by means of the spines or stickles on its back. Now Ælian, B. ii. c. 50, and Oppian, Halieut. l. 458, say the same of the sea-dragon; and this is a well-known property of the modern vive, the Trachinus draco of Linnæus. Pliny speaks more especially, in B. xxxii. c. 53, of the wounds which it makes with the spines or stickles of its opercules, which the vive is also able to inflict; and in addition to this, it has the power of burrowing into the sand in a most incredibly short space of time.

2513 Cuvier remarks, that this division of the bloodless fish by Aristotle into the mollusca, testacea, and crustacea, has been followed by naturalists almost down to the present day.

2514 The Sæpia loligo of Linnæus; the calmar of the French, or ink-fish.

2515 The Sæpia officinalis of Linnæus; the seche of the French; our cuttle-fish.

2516 The Sæpia octopodia of Linnæus, or eight-footed cuttle-fish.

2517 Cuvier remarks, that this account of the arms or feelers of the sæpia and loligo is very exact.

2518 “Quibus venantur.” Hardouin suggests that the proper reading would be “quibus natant”—“by means of which they swim;” for Aristotle says, in the corresponding passage, “with the fins that surround the body they swim.”

2519 Plautus has a line in his Rudens, which shows that when the sæpia was cooked for table, it was customary to take the eyes out. “Bid them knock out his eyes, just as the cooks do with the sæpia.”

2520 Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. iv. c. 2, states to a similar effect, as also Ælian, Hist. Anim. B. i. c. 34; Oppian, Halieut. B. iii. l. 156.

2521 This so-called ink, Cuvier says, is neither their blood nor their bile, but a liquid that is secreted in a bag peculiar to the animal. It is said, that it is from the juices of certain polypi of the Eastern seas, that the genuine Indian or Chinese ink is made; but M. Abel Remusat assures us that he has found nothing in the Chinese writers to confirm this conjecture.

2522 This, as Hardouin says, is the polypus which is found on the sea-shore, and which more frequently comes on dry land than the other kinds.

2523 The arms of the polypus have numerous names with the Latin authors. Ovid calls them “flagella,”—“whips;” others again, “cirri”—“curls;” “pedes”—“feet;” “crura”—“legs;” and “crines”—“hair.”

2524 This, Cuvier says, is quite unintelligible; for all the polypi have an oval body, of the shape of a bag, and there is nothing in them that bears any resemblance to a tail, forked or otherwise.

2525 This channel, Cuvier says, is in form of a funnel reversed, by means of which the animal draws in and ejects the water that is requisite for its respiration, and discharges the ink and other excretions. It is in the fore-part of the body, and at the orifice of the bag, and not on the back, as Pliny says; but, as Cuvier remarks, it was very easy for a person to be deceived in this matter, as the head, being in form of a cylinder, and fringed with the so-called feet, cannot be said to be distinguished into an upper and lower side.

2526 Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. iv. c. 2, says that the animal is obliged to do so, on account of the situation of the eyes.

2527 But Aristotle says, καθάπερ ἐμπεφυσημένην, “as though it were puffed out with air.”

2528 “Acetabulis.” The acetabulum was properly a vinegar cruet, in shape resembling an inverted cone; from a supposed similarity in the appearance, it is here applied to the suckers of the polypus. The Greek name is κοτυληδὼν.

2529 Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. ix. c. 59.

2530 Cuvier says, that the changes of colour of the skin of the polypus are continual, and succeed each other with an extreme rapidity; but that it has not been observed, any more than the chameleon, to take the colour of objects in its vicinity.

2531 This notion is mentioned by Athenæus, Pherecrates, Alcæus, Hesiod, Oppian, and Ælian.

2532 Cuvier says, that Pliny states, in B. xxix. c. 28, that the colotis, or colotes of the Greeks, is the same as their ascalabotes, the “stellio” of the Latins. This stellio is the same as the “gecko” of the moderns, and the species known in Italy and Greece is the same as the “wall gecko” of the French, or the tarente of the Provencals. From what Pliny says here about its tail, it would appear to have been a lizard; but its identity with the stellio, Cuvier says, is very doubtful. It will be mentioned more at length in B. xi. c. 31.

2533 It is very true, Cuvier says, that the tail of the gecko and lizard will grow again after it has been cut off, but without vertebræ. As to the arms of the polypus, he says, it is very possible, seeing that the horns of the snail, which belongs to the same family, will grow again.

2534 This account of the nautilus, Cuvier says, the Argonauta argo of Linnæus, wonderful as it may appear, has been often confirmed by modern observation.

2535 This, Cuvier says, is not a membrane between the two feet or tentacles, but a distinct membranous delatation of the extremity of each of those two organs.

2536 These vessels have been already remarked upon in Note 33 to c. 5 of the present Book.

2537 Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. vi. c. 61.

2538 From ὄζω, “to emit an odour.” This was a small kind of polypus.

2539 Cuvier remarks that, in this Chapter, there are many details relative to the polypus, that have not been observed by modern naturalists; but they may have been observed by the Greeks, upon whose shores and islands the animal was much more frequently to be found than in the west of Europe.

2540 Oppian, Halieut. B. ii. l. 260, describes the battles of these animals with the polypus. He also says, B. iii. c. 198, that they are attracted by the smell of the flesh of the polypus, and so are easily taken.

2541 Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. ix. c. 59.

2542 Oppian, Halieut. B. i. l. 551, says, that they hardly live a year; and Ælian, Hist. Anim. B. vi. c. 28, states to a similar effect.

2543 Basil attributes a similar craftiness to the crab; Hexaem. Homil. vii.

2544 The fishermen at the present day, upon the coast of Normandy, say that the polypus, which they call the chatrou, is a most formidable enemy to swimmers and divers; for when it has embraced any of the limbs with its tentacles, it adheres with such tenacity, that it is quite impossible for a person to disengage himself, or to move any of his limbs.

2545 In Spain; see B. iii. c. 3. Ælian, Hist. Anim. B. vi. c. 13, tells a similar story about a polypus at Puteoli.

2546 “Lacus;” large tubs used in the process of pickling. This story, Cuvier observes, is only surpassed by those told by the Norwegians relative to the “kraken” of their seas, which, according to some versions of the fable, is a polypus of such vast size, that sailors have sometimes mistaken it for an island.

2547 “Nassis.” The “nassa” was a contrivance for catching fish by the junction of osier or willow rods. It was probably made in the shape of a large bottle with a narrow mouth, and placed with the mouth facing the current. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. iv. c. 8, states, that the fishermen, when they were desirous of bringing the fish out of their holes, were in the habit of rubbing the mouth of the holes with salted flesh.

2548 Oppian, Halieut. B. i. c. 310, tells a story of a polypus, of the ozæna species, that was in the habit of climbing trees, and plundering the fruit.

2549 “Afflatu terribili.” This, as Hardouin says, may either mean its bad smell, or stinking water, ejected from its canal.

2550 Its arms or feelers. The amphora, as a measure of capacity, held about nine English gallons.

2551 “Caliculis;” literally, “little glasses.” Its “acetabula,” or suckers, are so called from their peculiar shape.

2552 Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. iv. c. 2, says the same; but, as Hardouin observes, he must mean the Ionian sea.

2553 Cuvier says, that this is only a reproduction, under another name, and with other details, of the story of the nautilus or argonauta; but under the impression that the polyp is not the animal which owns the shell, but is only its associate. It has also been asserted in modern times, he says, that the polyp has seized this shell by force from some other animal, in order to convert it into its boat; but the opinion has not been adopted, as the shell of the nautilus has been never found in the possession of any other animal.

2554 Probably borrowed from the Greeks, who called it ἄκατος. It is supposed to have been a small boat, similar to the Roman “scapha;” like our “skiff” probably.

2555 The “rostrum” of the ancient ships of war.

2556 “Palmulis.” This word also means the blade or broad part of an oar; in which sense it may, perhaps, be here taken.

2557 “Locusta;” literally, the “locust” of the sea. By this name is meant, Cuvier says, the “langouste” of the French (our cray-fish), which has no large forcipes, and has a thorax covered with spines; the Palinurus quadricornis of the naturalists. This is clearly the κάραβος of Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 23; for we generally find it thus translated by Pliny, when he borrows anything from that philosopher. We know that the body of this animal was spiny, from the fact that Tiberius, as we learn from Suetonius, cruelly caused the face of a fisherman who had offended him, to be rubbed with a locusta.

2558 Aristotle, and Theophrastus, in his “Treatise on Animals which conceal themselves,” state to a similar effect.

2559 Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 4, states to a similar effect.

2560 Aristotle, loc. cit., and Ælian, Hist. Anim. B. ix. c. 25, state to the same effect.

2561 Hardouin says, that this must be only understood of the kind of crab known as the “astacus;” that being the one mentioned by Aristotle, in the passage from which Pliny has borrowed.

2562 He mentions, in B. ii. c. 41, the effect which the rays of the moon have upon the growth of shell-fish.

2563 Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. iv. c. 2, has a somewhat similar passage. “The kinds of crabs are numerous, and not easily to be enumerated. First, there are those known as maiæ, then the paguri, which are also called ‘heracleotici;’ and, after them, the river crabs. There are others, again, of a smaller size, and which, for the most part, are known by no name in particular.”

2564 This is, no doubt, the cray-fish, the same animal that has been called the “locusta” in the preceding Chapter. Aristotle states, B. iv. c. 8, that the carabus has the thorax rough and spiny. It is most probable, that it is from this name that our word “crab” is derived.

2565 Cuvier says, that the astacus, which is very accurately described by Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. iv. c. 8, is indisputably the homard of the French (the common lobster of the English); the Cancer gammarius of Linnæus. Pliny, in another place, B. xxx. c. ii., describes it himself under the name of elephantus.

2566 Cuvier remarks, that according to Aristotle, B. iv. c. 2, the maiæ are in the number of the καρκίνοι, or crabs that have a short tail concealed beneath the body, being those of the largest kind. The same philosopher, De Part. Anim. B. iv. c. 8, adds, that these have also short feet and a hard shell. Cuvier says, that many writers have applied this name to the crabs at the present day belonging to the genus inachus, and more especially the Cancer maia of Linnæus. He is more inclined, however, to think that the maia was the common French crab, known as poupart or tourtue, the Cancer pagurus of Linnæus.

2567 Hardouin says, that these are the same that the Venetians were in the habit of calling “cancro poro,” the last word being a corruption, as he thinks, of pagurus. Aristotle says, loc. cit., that they were crabs of middling size.

2568 Or Heracleotic crabs. Aristotle says, De Partib. Anim. B. iv. c. 8, that these crabs had shorter feet and thinner than those of the maiæ. Cuvier suggests, that these may be the commonest kind of crab, the Cancer mænas of Linnæus, or a species very similar.

2569 “Leones.” This name is not found in Aristotle’s account, but it is found in Athenæus, B. iii. c. 106; and in Ælian, Hist. Anim. B. xiv. c. 9. According to Diphilus, as quoted by Athenæus, it was of larger size than the astacus. Ælian describes it as more slender in shape than the cray-fish, and partly of a bluish colour, and with very large forcipes, in which it resembles, Cuvier says, the homard of the French. It is possible, however, he adds, that it may have been only a second name given to the astacus already mentioned; as both Pliny and Ælian, who were not critical observers, are very liable to make errors in names.

2570 Aristotle, Cuvier observes, states the carcini, or crabs, have no tail, the fact being that the tail is extremely small, and is concealed, as it were, in a furrow in the under part of the body. The cray-fish, on the other hand, has a large and broad tail.

2571 Ἱπποὶ. The more common reading is ἱππεῖς, “horsemen.” Cuvier thinks, that in all probability, these are a kind of crab with very long legs, vulgarly known as the sea-spider; the Macropodia and the Leptopodia of Linnæus.