2 THE NATURAL HISTORY OF 



in his "Historia Animalium," lib. iii. cap. 12, speaks of the 

 great or Greenland whale, whilst, in the same book, he 

 treats of the dolphin and porpoise. The account 

 which he gives us of these species is indeed very imper- 

 fect, and a good deal of the marvellous is mixed with his 

 descriptions, but he is much more to be relied upon than 

 any of his successors in the ancient schools of philo- 

 sophy and science : in particular, his natural history of 

 the dolphin is the most faithful of any that we find in 

 the ancient writers, and proves that Aristotle was well 

 acquainted with the true form and manners of the ani- 

 mal which he describes, either from his own observation 

 or from that of his assistants. 



The " Natural History" of the elder Pliny abounds 

 with observations on several species of whales, especially 

 the great whale, which he describes in lib. iii. cap. 37 

 under the name of musculus ; the dolphin, delphinus, 

 lib. ix. cap. 9 ; the porpoise, phoceana, in cap. 8, and the 

 grampus, orca, in cap. 6 of the same book. We are by no 

 means certain, however, that modern writers are correct 

 in identifying the musculus of Pliny with the mysticete, 

 by considering them as synonymous; inasmuch as he 

 speaks of the former as preceding another species, which 

 he calls balcena, by way of leader ; and in several parts 

 of his work he denominates the largest species of the 

 whale cete. The descriptions and relations of Pliny 

 respecting these animals are exceedingly fanciful, showing 

 that disposition towards the marvellous for which this 

 zoologist is so celebrated : his account of the dolphin, 

 in particular, is little better than an entertaining collec- 

 tion of fables, gleaned chiefly from the poets and tra- 

 vellers of the time ; but his account of the grampus, 

 and of the contests between this species and the large 

 whales, is very respectable, and tolerably authentic. 



