1890} The Fishes of Greece 



poned a trip to Athens planned some time before Joint 

 by Hoffman and myself in the joint interest of s ^" 

 Philology and Zoology. There I expected to make fish and 

 a study of the Greek fish fauna, while Hoffman Ashnam 

 recorded the current names of the various species, 

 with a view to comparing them with those used by 

 Aristotle. Such an investigation, we thought, would 

 afford an excellent means of testing the duration and 

 modification of words in the common speech of the 

 Greek people. It would, moreover, be peculiarly 

 interesting, as nowhere else in the world is there 

 available so long a record of popular animal nomen- 

 clature. 



As matters finally turned out, Hoffman went alone 

 to Greece in 1890 and brought back 83 species, each 

 with its current local name attached. Supplementing 

 his observations, we drew on a catalogue of the fishes 

 of Greece by the Athenian naturalist, Nicholas Apos- 

 tolides, and thus secured 133 additional names. In 

 1892, therefore, we published jointly "A Catalogue of 

 the Fishes of Greece, with Notes on the Names Now 

 in Use and Those Employed by Classical Authors." 



The long persistence of popular nomenclature was 

 clearly demonstrated by our research. Thus scorpios, 

 scorpina, and scorpin follow closely the classical 

 (TKopTrcuW ; bopa and goupa suggest the original /3dot//, 

 and the Italian boga; phaggri the more ancient 

 Traypos, whence comes par go in Spanish and "porgy" 

 or "pogy" in English. 



One interesting item verified the curious obser- 

 vation made by Aristotle only, that the fishing frog 

 ^arpa^o? 6 aAios has the gall bladder attached to 

 the intestines at some distance from the liver, and 

 connected with it by a duct. 



C 33i 3 



