332 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



lous, and the Spercheios, to Avhich were appended labels with the 

 local names under which they are known to the Greek fishermen at 

 the present day. A more interesting collection than this I have sel- 

 dom had an opportunity to examine. In it were half a dozen speci- 

 mens labelled vXavidia (Glanidia), caught in the Achelous, the chief 

 river in Acarnania, from which locality Aristotle himself had derived his 

 information about the Glanis. The identity of the name and of the 

 place leave no doubt that I am now in possession of the true Glanis 

 of the Greek philosopher ; that this Glanis is a genuine Siluroid, but 

 not the Silurus Glanis of the systematic writers.* It is a distinct 



* The following quotations will sustain these assertions : — 



" The Cordylus swims with its feet and its tail ; and it has a tail like the Glanis.'^ 

 — Aristotle, Hist. An. I. 5. 3. 



" Of those that have gills, some have simple gills and some have double ; but 

 the last, nearest the body, is in all cases simple. And some have few gills, others 

 have many, but all have an equal number on both sides. Those that have the 

 fewest have one on each side, bat that double, as the Capros ; others have two on 

 each side, one simple, the other double, as the Conger Eel and the Scarus ; others 

 have four simple ones on each side, as the Elops, the Synagris, the Muroena, and 

 the Eel ; and others still have four, but in two lines, except the last, as the Kichle, 

 the Perke, the Glanis, the Cyprinos.'' — Ibid. II. 9. 4. 



" Of those belonging to the sea, and having lungs, the dolphin has no gall- 

 bladder ; but all birds and fishes have the gall-bladder, the egg-laying, the four- 

 footed, and, to speak generally, sometimes more, sometimes less. But some of the 

 fishes have it on the liver, as the Galeodes, the Glanis, the Rhine, the Leiobatos, 

 the Narkc ; and of the lung fishes, the Enchelys, the Belone, and the Zygsena." — 

 Ibid. II. 11.7. 



" The river and lake fishes are exempt from pestilential disease, but some of 

 them have peculiar disorders, as the Glanis, which, about the time of the dog-star, by 

 reason of swimming on the surfece, becomes sun-struck, and is stupefied by loud 

 thunder ; and many Glanides in shallow water perish by the bite of snakes." — Ibid. 

 VIII. 20. 12. 



These passages show, that, — 1. The anal fin of the Glanis of Aristotle has 

 the form of the Glanidia of the Achelous. 2. The description of the gill agrees 

 equally with those of the specimens in my possession. 3. The presence of the 

 gall-bladder in the position described is another point of agreement. 4. The con- 

 nected spawn of the Siluroid diff'ers from the isolated eggs laid by many other fishes, 

 as, for instance, the Salmonidce. 5. The swimming near the surface agrees fully 

 with what is observed among Siluroids in hot weather. So every statement of 

 Aristotle relating to his Glanis, either agrees with the structure observed in the 

 specimens obtained from Acarnania, or, as far as the habits are concerned, with the 

 mode of spawning of the North American Pimelodus, with perhaps the single ex- 

 ception, that the account of Aristotle is more minute than any statements that 

 could at this moment be made respecting our fishes of that family. 



The passages here given contain all that Aristotle has said of the Glanis. 



