26 flint's natural HTSTORT. [Book XXXII. 



ticularly, and when tlie rays of the sun penetrate the shallow 

 waters, that they are swollen with an abundance of milk.^^ This, 

 too, would appear to be the reason why they are so small when 

 found out at sea ; the opacity of the water tending to arrest 

 their growth, and the moping consequent thereon producing a 

 comparative indisposition for food. 



Oysters are of various colours ; in Spain they are red, in 

 Illyricum of a tawny hue, and at Circeii ®' black, both in meat 

 and shell. But in every country, those oysters are the most 

 highly esteemed that are compact without being slimy from 

 their secretions, and are remarkable more for their thickness 

 than their breadth. They should never be taken in either 

 muddy or sandy spots, but from a firm, hard bottom ; the 

 meat^^ should be compressed, and not of a fleshy consistence ; 

 and the oyster should be free from fringed edges, and lying 

 ■wholly in the cavity of the shell. Persons of experience in 

 these matters add another characteristic ; a fine purple thread, 

 they say, should run round the margins of the beard, this being 

 looked upon as a sign of superior quality, and obtaining for 

 them their name of " calliblephara." ^^ 



Oysters are all the better for travelling and being removed 

 to new waters ; thus, for example, the oysters of Brundisium, 

 it is thought, when fed in the waters of Avernus, both retain 

 their own native juices and acquire the flavour of those of 



61 See B. ix. c. 74. It. is at the spawning season that this milky liquid 

 is found in the oyster ; a period at which the meat of tlie fish is considered 

 unwholesome as food. We have a saying that the oyster should never be 

 eaten in the months without an r ; that the same, too, was the opinion iu 

 the middle ages is proved by the Leonine line : 



*' Mensibus erratis vos ostrea raanducatis." 



" In the r'd months you may your oysters eat." 



6- See B. iii. c. 9. Horace speaks of the oysters of Circeii, B. ii. 

 Sat. 4. 1. 33. 



" There has been considerable discussion among the commentators as 

 to the meanin<^ of the word " spondylus" here. "We are inclined to adopt 

 the opinion of Venette, and to think tliat it means the so-called "meat " 

 of the oyster. It must be short, and consequently plump and compara- 

 tively destitute of beard, and it must not be fleshy, as that would imply a 

 degree of toughness not desirable in an oyster. The words " nee fibris 

 laciniata ac tota in alvo," only seem to be an amplification of the pre- 

 ceding ones, " spondylo brevi et non carnoso." 



f* Literally, " Having beautiful eyebrows." 



