ACANTHOPTERYGII. 313 



The name of daurade comes from aurata, which appears to 

 have been th.e denomination of these fish among the Latins. 

 The ancient Greeks named them xpvaotypvg, (golden eyebrow), 

 in consequence of the spot of fine golden brilliancy which the 

 common species has between the eyes. Thus at least, it is 

 believed, we can explain the name and prove its application, 

 for as to the rest we find nothing in the ancients which is 

 absolutely characteristic, though at the same time we find 

 nothing which can give rise to exclusion. 



According to Aristotle, the chrysophris has two pairs of 

 fins, its pyloric appendages are few in number; it remains 

 close to the coasts, and in salt marshes or pools ; it spawns in 

 summer, and deposits its eggs at the mouths of rivers ; the 

 great heats oblige it to conceal itself, the cold also causes it 

 to suffer: it is carnivorous, and the fishermen take it bv 

 striking it with a trident when asleep. 



JElian tells us that it is the most timid of all fishes : some 

 branches of poplars implanted in the sand, during a reflux, so 

 terrified the chrysophris which were brought back by the 

 flood, that on the succeeding reflux they did not dare to 

 move, and suffered themselves to be taken by the hand. 



That the aurata of the Latins was the same fish as the 

 chrysophris of the Greeks is evident, from a passage in Pliny, 

 which is manifestly taken from Aristotle, and where the first 

 word is put as a translation of the second. 



Columella tells us that the aurata was of the number of 

 those fishes that the Romans brought up in their vivaria; 

 and even the inventor of vivaria, Sergius Orata, appears to 

 have derived from the daurade the sirname which he bore, 

 and which he left to his branch of the family. It was, above 

 all, the aurata of the Lucrine Lake that the Romans esteemed, 

 and Sergius, who obtained nearly entire possession of that 

 lake, in all probability introduced the species there. 



