Chap. 43.] FISHES. 415 



while at other times it is white, in spring it is parti-coloured. 

 This last is the only fish that builds itself' a nest ; it makes it 

 of sea- weed, and there deposits its eggs. 



CHAP. 43. FISHES WHICH FLY ABOVE THE WATER. THE SEA- 

 SWALLOW. THE FISH THAT SHINES IN THE NIGHT. THE 



HORNED FISH. THE SEA-DRAGON. 



The sea-swallow, 12 being able to fly, bears a strong resem- 

 blance to the bird of that name ; the sea-kite 13 too, flies as well. 



(27.) There is a fish that comes up to the surface of the sea, 

 known, from the following circumstance, as the lantern-fish : 14 

 thrusting from its mouth a tongue that shines like fire, it emits 

 a most brilliant light on calm nights. Another fish, which, 

 from its horns, has received its name, 15 raises them nearly a 



12 This name, Cuvier observes, is still common on the coasts of the 

 Mediterranean, to two kinds of flying fish, the Dactylopterus, or Trigla 

 volitans of Linnaeus, and the Exocoetus volitans of Linnaeus. It is to the 

 first, he thinks, that the ancients more especially gave the name of swallow, 

 although Salvianus and Belon are of the contrary opinion. Oppian, 

 Halieut. B. ii. 11. 457461, ranks the sea-swallow with the scorpion, the 

 dragon, and other fish the spines of which produce mortal wounds, and 

 JElian, B. ii. c. 5, states to the same effect. But the exoccetus has no 

 spines, while the dactylopterus has terrible ones on its prteopercules. Speu- 

 sippus also, as quoted in Athenaeus, B. vii., gives no less decisive testimony, 

 in saying that the sea-cuckoo, the trigla, and the sea-swallow, have a 

 strong resemblance to each other ; the fact being that the dactylopterus is 

 of the same genus as the sea-cuckoo, the Trigla cuculus of Linnaeus. 



13 Ovid, Halieut. 1. 96, speaks of this fish as having a black back. Cu- 

 vier therefore suggests that it may possibly be the perlon, the Trigla hi- 

 rundo of Linnaeus, the back of which is of a dark brown, and the great 

 size of the pectoral fins of which may have given rise to the notion of its 

 being able to fly. It is also very possible, he says, that it may have been 

 the exoccetus, the back of which is of a blue colour. 



14 Lucerna. Probably, as Cuvier says, one of those numerous molluscs, 

 or zoophytes, which give out a brilliant light, and perhaps the Pyrosoma 

 of Peron. No period being found in the MSS. after the word " milvus" 

 " kite/' it was long thought that this passage applied to the sea-kite ; 

 and it is owing to this circumstance that we find the ichthyologists enume- 

 rating a Trigla lucerna. The correction, however, is approved of by Cuvier, 

 who says that he has found none of the genus triglae to give forth a light ; 

 except, indeed, when, like other fish, it begins to be putrid. 



15 Probably the " cornuta," mentioned in the Note on the sea-ox in c. 40 ; 

 see p. 411. Cuvier says that it was long supp.osed that the fish here alluded 

 to might be the Malarmat of the Mediterranean, the Trigla cataphracta of 

 Linmeus, the muzzle of which is divided into two horns; but then they 

 are only half an inch long, instead of a foot and a half. He is of opinion, 



