RECORD BASS AND TUNA— SILURUS WHAT? 245 



with a Giants), i attributes to it characteristics and habits, which 

 Phny totidem sententiis, if not verbis, transfers to the Silurus, 

 although he thrice mentions the Glaiiis. .EUan, in addition 

 to XIV. 25. declares in XII. 14, that the Giants is a species of, 

 and very like, the Silurus, while Athenaeus treats them as 

 separate fish. 



As late^as the time of Scaliger, the problem gave rise to 

 discussion which led to no elucidation of what fish exactly 

 corresponds to the classical Silurus. Perhaps the sentence of 

 Albertus Magnus, 2 " a river fish which was called by the Greeks 

 Giants, but by us Silurus," seemed, although only a conjectural 

 compromise, as near as we could get to the identity. 



Agassiz, however, reluctant to accept Cuvier's identification 

 of the Giants with the Silurus glanis, came to the conclusion 

 (after examining six specimens of a Siluroid new to Ichthy- 

 ologists, which he obtained from the Acheloiis in Western 

 Greece) that from agreement in the form of the anal fin, the 

 position of the gall bladder, the connected spawn, etc., they 

 were the same as Aristotle's Glanis. To this Siluroid Agassiz 

 gave the name Glanis aristotelis : it is, perhaps, better known 

 as Parasilurus aristotelis.^ 



If the Silurus be the Scheid of Germany, his strength, habits, 

 and ferocity, as set forth in our authors are indeed very credible. 

 From Aristotle we learn that this " river fish " is easy to hook 

 (as we should suspect from its rapacity, which has been tersely 

 summarised in " pisces pisci praeda at huic omnes "), but from 

 its huge powers and hard teeth very bard to hold. 



The passage in Pliny, IX. 75, which he extracts from 

 Aristotle ^—" Silurus mas solus omnium edita custodit ova, 

 ssepe et quinquagenis diebus, ne absumantur ab aliis " — has 

 by a wrong rendering accorded to the male Silurus the proud 

 distinction of being the only male fish that guards its eggs. 

 This is absurd, for other instances, e.g. Chromis simonis, 

 exist. 



1 N. H., VI. 13. 



- De Anim.,'VUl. ^. p. 262. . , „ ,„ ,• . 



3 Theodore GiU. " The Remarkable Story of a Greek Fish, Washington 

 Univ. Bull., Jan. 1907, pp 5-15' 

 * N. H., VI. 13. 



