94 plint's natural history. Book XI. 



they are destitute of lungs and the tracheal artery, they are 

 not entirely without the power of emitting certain sounds : it 

 is only a mere joke to sa)^ that the noise which they make is 

 produced by grating their teeth together. The fish, too, that 

 is found in the river Acheloiis, and is known as the boar-fish, 64 

 makes a grunting noise, as do some others which we have pre- 

 viously 55 mentioned. The oviparous animals hiss: in the 

 serpent this hissing is prolonged, in the tortoise it is short and 

 abrupt. Frogs make a peculiar noise of their own, as already 

 stated; 56 unless, indeed, this, too, is to be looked upon as a 

 matter of doubt ; but their noise originates in the mouth, and 

 not in the thorax. Still, however, in reference to this subject, 

 the nature of the various localities exercises a very considerable 

 influence, for in Macedonia, it is said, the frogs are dumb, and 

 the same in reference to the wild boars there. Among birds, 

 the smaller ones chirp and twitter the most, and more espe- 

 cially about the time of pairing. Others, again, exercise their 

 voice while fighting, the quail, for instance ; others before 

 they begin to fight, such as the partridge ; and others when, 

 they have gained the victory, the dunghill cock, for instance. 

 The males in these species have a peculiar note of their own, 

 while in others, the nightingale for example, the male has 

 the same note as the female. 



Some birds sing all the year round, others only at certain 

 times of the year, as we have already mentioned when speak- 

 ing of them individually. The elephant produces a noise 

 similar to that of sneezing, by the aid of the mouth, and in- 

 dependently of the nostrils ; but by means of the nostrils it 

 emits a sound similar to the hoarse braying of a trumpet. 

 It is only in the bovine race that the voice of the female is the 

 deepest, it being in all other kinds of animals more shrill than 

 that of the male ; it is the same also with the male of the 

 human race when castrated. The infant at its birth is never 

 heard to utter a cry before it has entirely left the uterus : 

 it begins to speak at the end of the first year. A son of 

 Croesus, 57 however, spoke when only six months old, and, while 

 yet wielding the child's rattle, afforded portentous omens, for 



54 "Aper." 55 B. ix. c. 7. 



56 See c. 65 of the present Book. 



51 Not the dumb son mentioned by Herodotus, who saved his father's 

 life at the taking of Surdes. 



