3/0 PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY. [Book IX. 



ments than a bird, more instantaneous than the flight of an 

 arrow, and were it not for the fact that his mouth is situate 

 much below his muzzle, 56 almost, indeed, in the middle of the 

 belly, not a fish would be able to escape his pursuit. But 

 Nature, 57 in her prudence, has thrown certain impediments in 

 his way ; for unless he turns, and throws himself on his back, 

 he can seize nothing, and it is this circumstance more espe- 

 cially that gives proof of his extraordinary swiftness. For, if 

 pressed by hunger, 58 he will follow a fish, as it flies down, to 

 the very bottom of the water, and then after holding his breath 

 thus long, will dart again to the surface to respire, with the 

 speed of an arrow discharged from a bow ; and often, on such 

 occasions, he is known to leap out of the water with such a 

 bound, as to fly right over the sails 59 of a ship. 



Dolphins generally go in couples ; the females bring forth 

 their young in the tenth month, during the summer season, 

 sometimes two in number. 60 They suckle their young at the 

 teat like the balsena, and even carry them during the weak- 

 ness of infancy; in addition to which, long after they are 

 grown up, they accompany them, so great is their affection for 

 their progeny. The young ones grow very speedily, and in 

 ten years are supposed to arrive at their full size. The dol- 



56 Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 5. From this description Hardouin 

 is induced to think that Eondelet and Aldrovandus are wrong in their 

 conclusions that it is the sea-hog, or porpoise, that is meant. Cuvier also 

 says, that this description will not apply to the real dolphin, though it is 

 strictly applicable to the Squalus acanthias, Squalus ricinus, and others ; to 

 the former of which also the spines or stings mentioned by Pliny appro- 

 priately belong ; all the other characteristics, he says, which are here men- 

 tioned by Pliny, are applicable to the real dolphin, though in modern 

 times it has never been brought to such a degree of tameness. Hence it 

 is that some writers have supposed that Pliny is here speaking of the Tri- 

 chechus manatus of Linna3us, by the French called " lamentin," by us 

 the "sea-cow." Cuvier says, that he should be inclined to be of the same 

 opinion, were it not for the fact that that animal does not frequent the coasts 

 of the Mediterranean. 



5 J Copied literally from Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 5, and De.Part. 

 Anim. B. iv. c. 13. 



58 Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. ix, c. 74. 



59 Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. ix. c. 48, says not the sails, but the masts 

 of ships ; and Pintianus remarks, that Pliny has been deceived by the re- 

 semblance of the words, iorog and lariov. Lilian, Hist. Anim. B. xii, c. 

 12, has a similar statement also. 



60 Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. vi. c, 9. Oppian, Halieut. B. i. 1. 660. 



