CORYPH.'ENA EQUISETIS. 69 



sent the Hippuri of Pliny and Ovid, the IWoy^o/ of Aristotle, Athc- 

 nreus,* and Oppian. These, Ovid says, were swift, pelagic fishcs.j" By 

 Oppian they are not, as Cuvier asserts, " ranges parmi les Cctaces," but 

 enumerated with the Tunny, the Sword-fish (Xiphias), the Orcynus, &c. 

 and others, which inhabit the unfathomable depths of the sea, far from the 

 dry land ( 'AXiiur. a. 179 — 184) ; and he relates that they follow closely, 

 in shoals, floating bodies, especially timbers of wrecks ; that they delight 

 in the shade thus afforded ; and that, advantage being taken of this' pro- 

 pensity, they are caught easily and in great numbers ( 'AX. ^- 404 — 438). 

 Aristotle, that patriarch at once of the natural and dialectic sciences, says 

 merely that the 'I'^'Trovgog spawns in spring, and that the fry are of ex- 

 tremely rapid gi-owth (Hist. E. 0. 4); which Rondelet, in later times, 

 writing of some species of Dorado, confirms, on the authority of the 

 Spanish fishermen. In another place he mentions that it hides itself in 

 winter (Hist. 0. /^. 1), and is only caught at certain regular seasons, and 

 those always the same. 



I cannot think with Cuvier these traits to be " peu distinctifs ;" and 

 when to them is added the consideration of the etymological appropriate- 

 ness, whether of the name iWoy^oj, horse-tail, so aptly referring to the 

 form and elongation of the dorsal fin, or to the nature of its rays ; or 

 KOgv(pa,ivcc, in allusion to the resemblance to an ancient casque or helmet 

 with its crest {zo^v<P'^) of the head and fore-part of the dorsal fin ; I am of 

 opinion that no identity can be less justly doubted than that of some 

 species of the modern genera, Cori/phana, or Lampugus, or PompiluSy 

 with the 'iTrorovgog, or zo§v(pcciv(x,, or a^vsvT^g, of the ancients. Inhabit- 

 ants of the open sea or ocean in the warmer or tropical latitudes, they 

 scarcely approach the shores except for spawning, towards the sunmier or 

 the autumn ; and in Madeira they are never taken but during these seasons. 

 They possess amazing swiftness and unwearied activity ; often following 

 vessels, in their shade rather than in their track, hundreds of miles 

 without rest or intermission ; and from their voracity become an easy 

 prey to sailors in such circumstances. In the month of June 1828, the 



* Cuvier reverses the fact in saying that the names CoryphcBna and Hipptirus are derived " le 

 premier d'Aristote, et le second d'Athenee." (Hist. ix. 275.) The first (xajuipa/va), as far as I can 

 find, does not occur at all in Aristotle. Athenseus mentions both : quotes Dorion and Epoenetus, say- 

 ing that the "trfrai/goj is called the xoju(pa/v« : Numenius, stating in his Halieutics that it is also 

 called oc^nurris, from its continual leaping ; and Archestratus, affirming those of Carystus (in Euboea) 

 to be the best. He also quotes from Aristotle the traits marked in the text above, but adds no new 

 ones of his own. See Athen. (Dindorf) VII. 68. Vol. ii. p. 661. 



t Cuvier (Hist. ix. 275), without noticing the latter character, has, by an evident misprint, 

 " sapide" for the former " rapide." Ovid's words are 



Nam gaudent pelai/o, quales Scombrique Bovesque, 

 Hippuri celeres, et nigro tergore Milvi. 



Hal. 94, 95 (e textu Elzev. Burmann, and Maittaire). 



VOL. I. G 



