406 PLINY'S NATURAL HISTOEY. [Book IX. 



CHAP, 34. (19.) FISHES WHICH HATE A YOICE. FISHES WITH- 

 OUT GILLS. 



Arcadia produces a wonder in its fish called exocoetus, 45 from 

 the fact that it comes ashore to sleep. In the neighbourhood 

 of the river Clitorius, 46 this fish is said to be gifted with powers 

 of speech, and to have no gills ; 47 by some writers it is called 

 the adonis. 



CHAP. 35. FISHES WHICH COME ON LAND. THE PEOPEB TIME FOR 



CATCHING FISH. 



Those fish, also, which are known by the name of sea-mice, 48 



name of Paladru, fish of most delicate flavour, called " umblae," were to 

 be taken in the month of December, and at no other part of the year ; so, 

 too, the alausee, which are found in the Rhine, near Strasburg, in the month, 

 of May only, and at no other time. 



45 'ATTO rov tw KOITCLV, " from its sleeping out of the water." This 

 fish is also mentioned by Theophrastus, in his Fragment on the " Fish that 

 live on dry land ; " by Clearchus the Peripatetic, as quoted by Athenaeus, 

 B. viii.; Oppian, in his Halieutics, B. i. 1. 158; and JElian, Hist. Anim. 

 B. ix. c. 36. The fish, however, mentioned by all these authorities, is a sea- 

 fish, while that of Pliny, being found in Arcadia, must, of necessity, be a river 

 fish. The proper name of the fish here mentioned by him was Troi/ciXiag, 

 Hardouin says, so called from the variety of its colours. Cuvier says, that 

 the fish here mentioned is not the Exocoetus of Linnaeus, which is one of 

 the flying fish, but is clearly of opinion that it is one of the genus Blen- 

 nius, or Gobio, that is alluded to ; for these small fish are often to be found 

 left on the shore when the waters retire, and have the property of being 

 able to remain alive for a considerable time without water. 



46 In the river Aroanius, which falls into the Clitorius. Pausanias 

 mentions this story, but adds, that he never could hear the fish, although 

 he often went there to listen, Mnaseas of Patrae, an author quoted by 

 Athena3us, B. viii., also mentions these vocal fishes. 



47 Cuvier understands this to mean only, that the openings of the gills 

 are remarkably small : for, as he says, there is no fish whatever without 

 gills. It is very possible, however, that Pliny may have mistranslated a 

 passage found in Athenaeus, and quoted from Clearchus the Peripatetic, 

 in which he says that some fish have a voice, and yet have no throat, 

 fipoyxov ; which may have, possibly, been mistaken by our author for 

 /3pd 7X ia, " gills." 



" Marini mures." Cuvier says, that according to Oppian, Halieut. B. 

 v. c. 174, et seq., the sea-mice, small as they are, attack other fish, and 

 offer resistance even to man himself. Their skin, he says, is very solid, 

 and their teeth very strong. Theophrastus names them along with seals 

 and birds, as feeding both on land and at sea. Cuvier is somewhat at a 

 loss whether to pronounce them, with Dalechamps, to be a kind of turtle. 

 If so, he considers that this would be tke little turtle, Testudo coriacea of 



