BOOK XI. cxii. 266-269 



a sound by rubbing against it. He thinks that flies, 

 bees and other siniilar creatures begin and cease to 

 give an audible sound when they begin and cease to 

 fly, as the sound is caused by friction and by the air 

 inside theni, not by breathing ; and that locusts make 

 a sound by rubbing their wings against their thighs. 

 It is indeed believed that among aquatic creatures 

 scallops similarly make a i-ushing sound when they 

 fly, but tliat shell-fish and crustaceans have no voice 

 nor sound of any kind. But the other fishes, although 

 they lack hmgs and windpipe, are not entirely devoid 

 of any sound at all — people advance the quibble that 

 their hiss is niade with the teeth — and the fish in the 

 river Achelous called the boar-fish " has a grunt, and 

 so have others about which we have spoken.* Ovi- 

 pai'ous species have a hiss — snakes a long one, tor- 

 toises an abrupt one. Frogs have a special kind of 

 voice, as has been said,*' unless in their case also we 

 are to allow some uncertainty, because ' voice ' 

 means a sound formed in the mouth, not in the chest. 

 Still in the case of frogs the nature of the localities 

 also makes a great deal of difference : the frogs in 

 Macedonia are reported to be dumb, and also the 

 boars. Among birds the smaller ones are more 

 talkative, and particularly at the mating season. 

 Some birds,e.g. quails,give a cry when fighting,others, 

 e.g. partridges, before a fight, others, e.g. domestic 

 fowls, when they have won. With the latter the 

 cocks have a crow of their own, but with other birds, 

 for instance the nightingale class, the hens also have 

 the same note. Some birds sing all the year, some 

 at certain seasons, as has been said in deahng with the 

 species separately. The elephant squeezes out a 

 sound Hke a sneeze from its actual mouth, not through 



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