Chap. 30.] TUE LYNX, ETC. 279 



which has brown hair and two mammse on the breast, ^^ as well 

 as many monstrous kinds of a similar nature ; horses with 

 wings, and armed with horns, which are called pegasi ;*^ the 

 crocotta, an animal which looks as though it had been produced 

 by the union of the wolf and the dog,^^ for it can break any 

 thing with its teeth, and instantly on swallowing it digest it 

 with the stomach ; monkeys, too, with black heads, the hair 

 of the ass, and a voice quite unlike that of any other animal.^* 

 There are oxen, too, like those of India, some with one horn, 

 and others with three ; the leucrocotta, a wild beast of extra- 

 ordinary swiftness, the size of the wild ass, with the legs of 

 a stag, the neck, tail, and breast of a lion, the head of a badger, 

 a cloven hoof, the mouth slit up as far as the ears, and one con- 

 tinuous bone instead of teeth f^ it is said, too, that this animal 

 can imitate the human voice. Among the same people, there 

 is also found an animal called eale ; it is the size of the river- 

 horse, has the tail of the elephant, and is of a black or tawny 



iiieus : it is common in many parts of Asia and Africa, in tbe retired 

 forest districts, and still exists in the Pyrenees and the mountains of 

 Naples. — B. 



*^ As far as the accounts of the sphinx are to be regarded as not en- 

 tirely fabulous, we must suppose it to have originated in some species of 

 the monkey tribe; perhaps the Simia troglodytes or chimpanze. — B. 



*7 Of coui-se the winged horse is an imaginary being, nor does it appear 

 what is the origin of the fable ; the horns are an unusual appendage to 

 the pegasus. — B. The pegasus and the rhinoceros together may have 

 given rise to that fabulous animal, the unicorn. See, however, the Mono- 

 ceros, mentioned in c. 31. 



*3 Although a hybrid animal is produced by the union of the wolf and 

 the dog, it does not form a permanent species. But, as Cuvier remarks, 

 by the insertion of '' velut/' Pliny seems to imply that the crocotta unites 

 the physical properties of the two animals. Ctesias, Indie, c. 32, gives an 

 account of the cynolycus, or "dog-wolf," from which Pliny seems to have 

 taken his crocotta, — B. 



"^^ It does not seem possible to determine what species of monkey is 

 here designated ; it is most probable that he himself had no accurate 

 knowledge. — B. 



^ "We may here refer to the judicious remarks of Cuvier, Ajasson, vol. 

 vi. pp. 427, 428, and Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 399, on the leucrocotta. It 

 seems impossible to identify Pliny's description with any known animal, and 

 it is not unlikely that he has confused the accounts of authors who were 

 speaking of different animals. Some of the characteristics of the leucro- 

 cotta agree with those of the Indian antelope, while others seem to re- 

 semble those of the hyaena. — B. 



