CHARACTERISTICS AND HABITAT. 35 



how little can be gleaned from the Greek authors with 

 reference to the beaver. Herodotus speaks of him 

 (iv. 109) as a well-known animal, but without giving 

 any particulars, ^lian describes him (Hist. Anim., 

 Lib. vi. c. xxxiv.) as aquatic in his habits, spending 

 the daytime concealed in the rivers, and roving by 

 night upon the land. Strabo (Geograph., iii. 163) 

 contents himself with pronouncing the castoreum of 

 the Spanish inferior to that of the Pontic beaver; 

 while Aristotle knew so little with reference to him 

 that he describes the same animal under the names of 

 castor (/.dffTwp) and latax (mtu^) as two different 

 animals.^ 



tus is one of the oldest authorities for the mistake first mentioned. 

 Book iv. e. 109. 

 Thus Ovid— 



Sic, ubi detracta est a te tibi eaussa pericli, 



Quod superest, tutum, Pontiee castor, habes. 



Nux Elegia, 165. 

 And Juvenal — 



— imitatus castora, que se 



Eunuchum ipse facit, cupiens evadere damno 



Testiculi, adeo medicatum intelligit unguen. 



Sat., xii. 34. 



Pliny, however, elsewhere states that Sextus, a Roman physi- 

 cian, questioned the truth of this statement. Vide Lib. xxxii. c. 

 xiii. 



^ "Certain wild quadrupeds," he remarks, "also seek food 

 around the lakes and rivers, but around no sea, the sea-calf (seal) 

 excepted. Of this genus are the beaver (xd^rcop), and satherion 

 ((TaOepcov), and satyr (^aarupwv), and otter (^hu8po\q), and latax 

 (Mra^), which is broader than the otter, and provided with teeth 

 very much more robust. Going forth commonly by night, it 

 eats off the nearest bushes with its teeth. The otter also bites 

 men, nor, as they say, does he loose his hold before he shall have 



