298 SUPPLEMENT ON 



seiller, as the verb braire is applied to the voice of the ass, 

 and aboxjer to that of the dog. Some fishermen pretend that 

 the males alone make this noise in spawning time, and that it 

 is possible to take them by imitating it, and without employ- 

 ing any bait. One of those which came from Dieppe was 

 caught in nets spread near the shore. It was found sleeping, 

 as often occurs to fishes taken in this way. But when it awoke, 

 it agitated itself with so much violence that it caused the 

 fisherman who approached it to tumble into the water, and 

 the man was forced to call for assistance to enable him to 

 master the fish. 



Duhamel also tells us that the maigre is a fish of most ex- 

 traordinary force, and that on this account it is customary to 

 knock it down the moment it is taken. 



This author relates that at Royan the fishermen consider 

 the appearance of the maigre as an indication of the arrival 

 of the sardines, and at Dieppe the same opinion is entertained 

 touching the herrings. This fish, therefore, is like all the other 

 large voracious species which follow the shoals of migrating 

 fish, where they find excellent nutriment in abundance. 



The stones which the maigre has in the ear, like all other 

 osseous fish, but which in it, as well as in the corb and in the 

 umbrina, are larger in proportion than in any other genus, have 

 been remarked by the ancients, who frequently tell us that the 

 umbra has stones in the head, and the people attributed to 

 them imaginary virtues, such as they attribute to all singular 

 objects. They were formerly named, according to Belon, 

 colic-stones, and they were worn on the neck enclosed in gold, 

 to cure and even to prevent this malady ; but for this purpose 

 it was necessary that they should be received as a gift, and 

 those which were bought lost their virtue. 



The detailed description of this fish is inadmissible within 

 our limits. There is a species from the Cape (scicena 

 hololepidota, Cuv. et Val.) so similar that the Baron can 



