BOOK X. Lxxxviii, 191-XC. 194 



by many other creatures. Eagles have clearer 

 sight, vultures a keener sense of smell, moles acuter 

 hearing — although they are buried in the earth, so 

 dense and deaf an element of nature, and although 

 moreover all sound travels upward, they can overhear 

 people talking, and it is actually said that if you 

 speak about them they understand and run away. 

 Among men, when one is first of all denied hearing 

 he also is robbed of the power of talking, and there 

 are no persons deaf from birth who are not also 

 dumb. The sea-oyster probably has no sense of 

 hearing ; but it is said that the razor-shell dives at a 

 sound : consequently people fishing make a practice 

 of silence. LXXXIX. Fish indeed have no auditory Fishes 

 organs or passages, but nevertheless it is obvious that ^^S"^" 

 they hear, inasmuch as it can be obsei-ved that in some 

 fishponds wild fish have a habit of flocking togethcr 

 to be fed at the sound of clapping, and in the 

 Emperor's aquarimn the various kinds of fish coine 

 in answer to their names, or in some cases individual 

 fish. Consequently it is also stated that the mullet, 

 the wolf-fish, the stockfish and the chromis hear very 

 clearly, and therefore Hve in shallow water. 



XC. It is clearly obvious that fish possess a sense FUhes 

 of smell, as they are not all attracted by the same l^l^ii"^ 

 food, and they smell a thing before they seize it. 

 Some fish even when hiding in caves are driven out 

 by a fisherman who smears the mouth of the crag 

 with brine used in pickUng — they run away as it 

 vvere from the recognition of their own dead body ; 

 and they also flock together from the deep water to 

 certain smells, for instance a burnt cuttle-fish or 

 polyp, which are thrown into wicker creels for this 

 pui-pose. Indeed the stench of a ship's bilge makes 



415 



