Chap. 47.] BEATERS. 297 



corocotta is produced, which has the same faculty of imitating 

 the voices of men and cattle. Its gaze is always fixed and 

 immoveable ; it has no gums in either of its jaws, and the 

 teeth are one continuous piece of bone ; they are enclosed in a 

 sort of box as it were, that they may not be blunted by rub- 

 bing against each other. Juba informs us, that the mantichora 

 of ^Ethiopia can also imitate the human speech. 



CHAP. 46. WILD ASSES. 



Great numbers of hyaenas are produced in Africa, which 

 also gives birth to multitudes of wild asses. In this species 

 each male rules over a herd of females. Fearing rivals in 

 their lust, they carefully watch the pregnant females, and cas- 

 trate the young males with their teeth, as soon as they are 

 born. 32 The pregnant females, on the other hand, seek con- 

 cealment, and endeavour to bring forth in secret, being 

 desirous to increase their opportunities of sexual indulgence. 



CHAP. 47. BEAVERS, AMPHIBIOUS ANIMALS J 33 OTTEES. 



The beavers of the Euxine, when they are closely pressed by 

 danger, themselves cut off the same part, as they know that 

 it is for this that they are pursued. This substance is called 

 castoreum by the physicians. 34 In addition to this, the bite 

 of this animal is terrible ; with its teeth it can cut down trees 



Ajasson, vol. vi. p. 447 ; Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 439, thinks that the stories 

 of the corocotta and the catoblepas, owe their origin to mutilated accounts 

 of the hyaena, and the animal known to us as the gnu. 



32 According to Cuvier, what Pliny here says respecting the herds of 

 wild asses, and the power of the old males, is correct ; hut it is doubtful 

 whether there is any foundation for "what is said about the castration of 

 the newly-born animals ; Ajassoii, uU supra; Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 440. B. 



" De aquaticis et iisdem terrestribus ;" although these words are in- 

 serted in the title of this Chapter, the subject is not treated of in it. B. 



34 Pliny here adopts the vulgar opinion respecting the origin of the 

 substance called "castor," and in B. xxxii. c. 13, gives a more correct de- 

 scription, which he had derived from a physician, named Sextius. It is 

 a fetid, oily substance, secreted by a gland situate near the prepuce. Cu- 

 vier remarks, that when the gland becomes distended with this secretion, 

 the animal may probably get rid of it by rubbing the part against a stone 

 or tree, and in this way, leave the castor for the hunters, thus giving rise 

 to the vulgar error. Ajasson, vol. vi. p. 448 ; Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 440. B. 



