i64 THE SCARUS— " FISHING PROHIBITED " 



caUed the Mullet, when he can annex no other food, eats the 

 sea-hare without fatal consequences, after which he " tenerescit 

 tantum et ingratior ^ viliorque fit." These Mullet, sold by 

 fraudulent fishermen as Scari, caused the indictment of Diphilus. 

 Rondolet bears witness that near Massilia similar sales took 

 place " ab imperitis piscatoribus," but surely " too skilled " 

 would be the better epithet. It is but fair to add that Athen., 

 VIII. 51, asserts that the Scams also eats the sea-hare. 



For this long discursus, the repute of the Scants, the disputes 

 of epicures and of doctors whether it be a dainty, or a sound 

 diet, and the exclusive properties attributed to it by Greek and 

 Roman writers must be my excuse. 



Summarising these last, we find that the Scarus, in addition 

 to being the most passionate in his love 2, alone of all fishes, 



(A) Is not a cannibal, but a vegetarian (Phny, IX. 29). 

 Oppian claims for the mugil — grey mullet — that it is the only 

 non-carnivorous fish (II. 642-3). Couch gives as his considered 

 opinion, " Mugil capito is the only fish of which I am able to 

 express my belief that it usually selects for its food nothing 

 that has life." Modern authorities have established that the 

 scarus feeds on molluscs also, 



(B) Seems to ruminate or does ruminate. 3 



(C) Belongs to, 



"The only kind that dare 

 To form shrill sounds, and strike the trembling air." * 



(D) Sleeps at night. ^ 



" Scarus alone their faded eyelids close 

 In grateful intervals of soft repose." 



(Oppian, II. 661 ff.) 

 ^ Mayhoff would read inertior. 

 ^ /Elian, I. 2. 



* Aristotle and Pliny, supra; Oppian, I. 135-7 '> -^lian, II. 54. 



* Aristotle (according to Athen., VIII. 3) states that the scunis and sea- 

 hog are the only fishes that have any kind of voice, but in reahty he (IV. 9) 

 mentions five others, among which is the cuckoo-fish, who " whistle and 

 grunt " (see Pliny, XI. 112 ; Oppian, I. 134-5). Athenzeus errs, for Aristotle 

 {N. H., IV. 9, 8) asserts that the Dolphin when out of the water " groans and 

 cries " ; while Pliny (IX. 7) says of the Dolphin, " Pro voce gemitus humano 

 similis." Aristotle expressly differentiates between the five mentioned fish 

 and the Dolphin — for the former possess no lungs, windpipe, or pharynx, 

 and so can produce no voice, only " sound," while " the dolphin has a voice 

 and therefore utters vocal and vowel sounds, for it is furnished with a lung and 

 a windpipe." 



* Someone may throw at me the sentence of Seleucus of Tarsus, who in the 



