Chap. 18.] FISHES. 385 



of an azure colour, and have received their name from their 

 peculiar conformation. These fish, he says, are of such enor- 

 mous strength, that with their teeth they seize hold of the 

 trunks of elephants that come to drink, and so drag them into 

 the water. 



CHAP. 18. TUNNIES, CORDYLA, AND PELAMIDES, AND THE VA- 

 RIOUS PARTS OF THEM THAT ARE SALTED. MELANDRYA, APO- 

 LECTI, AND CYBIA. 



The male tunny has no ventral fin; 32 these fish enter the 

 Euxine in large bodies from the main 33 sea, in the spring, and 

 will spawn nowhere else. The young ones, which in autumn 

 accompany the females to the open sea, are known as " cor- 

 dyla." 34 In the spring they are called " pelamides," 35 from 

 KqXbg, the Greek for " mud," and after they are a year old, 

 " thynni." When this fish is cut up into pieces, the neck, 

 the belly, and the throat, 36 are the most esteemed parts ; but 

 they must be eaten only when they are quite fresh, and even 

 then they cause severe fits of flatulence ; the other parts ; with 

 the flesh entire, are preserved in salt. Those pieces, which 

 bear a resemblance to an oaken board, have thence received 

 the name of " melandrya." 37 The least esteemed among these 

 parts are those which are the nearest to the tail, because they 

 have no fat upon them ; while those parts are considered the 

 most delicate, which lie nearest the neck ; 38 in other fishes, 



13 Although taken primarily from Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. v. c. 9, as 

 Cuvier observes, this assertion is incorrect, as the male does not in any way 

 differ from the female in the conformation of the fins. Pliny, however, has 

 exaggerated the statement of Aristotle, who only says, that the female 

 differs from the male in having a little fin under the belly, which the male 

 has not ; and not that the male has no ventral fin whatever. 



33 " Magno mari ;" meaning, no doubt, the Mediterranean. 



34 Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. vi. c. 17. 



33 Or " mud-fish," either from being born in mud, as Festus says, or 

 from their concealing themselves in it. 



36 "Clidio." The ** clidion," or " clidium," was the part of the fish 

 which extended, as Festus says, from the two shoulders (armos) to the 

 tast. The " claviculae" were thus called by the Greek physicians. 



7 The Greeks called the inner part, or black-coloured heart of the oak, 

 av dpvoc, whence the present name. Athenaeus, B. vi. speaks of 

 the choice parts cut from the orcyni, large tunnies, which were taken in 

 the straits of Gades. 



38 " Faucibus." Cuvier observes, that modern experience has confirmed 



TOL. II. C C 



