Chap. 20.] riSHES. 38P 



the other hand, the tui-bot^^ enters it. The sepia '^ is not found 

 in this sea, although the loligo^^ is. Among the rock-fish, the 

 sea- thrush ^^ and the sea-blackbird are wanting, as also pui'ples, 

 though oysters abound here. All these, however, pass the 

 winter in the ^gean Sea ; and of those which enter the Euxine, 

 the only ones that do not^*^ return are the ti'ichiag.^' — It will 

 be as well to use the Greek names which most of them bear, 

 seeing that to the same species different countries have given 

 different appellations. — These last, however, are the only ones 

 that enter the river Ister,^^ and passing along its subterraneous 

 passages, make their way from it to the Adriatic f^ and this is 



^ Pleuronectes maximus of Linnaeus. 



57 The cuttle-fish. The Sepia officinalis of Linnaeus. 



5^ The ink-fish. The Sepia loligo of Linnaeus. 



55 Cuvier suggests that the turdus, or sea-thrush, and the merula, or sea- 

 blackbird, were both fishes of the labrus tribe, usually known as " breams." 

 Hippolytus Salvianus, in his book on the "Water Animals, states, that in his 

 day-^both these fish were extremely well known, and that they still 

 retained the names of tordo and merlo. Rondelet, B. vi., says, that the 

 fish anciently called turdus, was in his time known by the name of 

 *' vielle," among the French. The dictionaries give " merling, or 

 whiting," as the sjTionyme of " merula." 



^ Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 16, says, that on going into the 

 Euxine, the trichiae are either taken or else devoured by the other fishes, 

 for that they are never seen to return. 



s^ The trichias, according to Cuvier, is a fish belonging to the family of 

 herrings. A scholiast on Aristophanes attributes the origin of the name 

 to the fine fish bones like hairs (Opt4), with which the flesh is filled, wliich 

 is a characteristic peculiar to the herring kind. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. 

 B. vi. c. 15, represents the membras, the trichis, and the trichias, as dif- 

 ferent ages of the same fish. The trichis was little, and very common. In 

 Aristophanes, Knights, 1. 662, we find an obol mentioned as the price of a 

 hundred. From the Acharnae of the same author, we learn that it was 

 salted as provision for the fleets. Cuvier thinks that everything combines 

 to point out the sardine, the Clupea sprattus of Linnaeus, as the trichis, or 

 else a similar kind of fish, the melette of the African coast, the Clupea 

 meletta of the naturalists. In this latter case tlie trichias, he thinks, may 

 have been the sardine, or, perhaps, the Clupea ficta of Lacepede, which is 

 called the " sardine" in some places, and at Lake Garda, in Lombardy, 

 more especially. 



^ The Damibe. Cuvier says, that this passage probably bears reference 

 to the clupea ficta or finte, which, as well as the shad, is in the habit of 

 passing up streams. As for the story of the fish finding their way to the 

 Adriatic, it is utterly without foundation. Cuvier adds, that the main 

 difference between the finte and the clupea alosa, or shad, is, that the 

 former has very fine teeth, the latter none at all. 



^3 Pliny has already remarked, B. iii. c. 18, in reference to the supposed 



