INTRODUCTION 



might easily lead to confusion with KaXXix&vs, but 

 we think that in discussing the identity of that fish 

 and of the Anthias the Callionymus may be left out 

 of the question. 



The identification of the Anthias and the Cal- 

 lichthys has hitherto proved an insoluble problem. 

 Both are pelagic fishes, comparable in size to the 

 Tunny. The one definite distinction between them, 

 if we can trust it, is that the Anthias is, according 

 to Oppian H. i. 253 and iii. 328, toothless, whereas 

 according to Athen. 282 c Aristotle described the 

 Callichthys as KapxapoSovs. 



Rondelet," who supjwsed the name Anthias to be 

 applied to more than one fish, identified his Anthias 

 primus with Serranus anthias — the Barbier of the 

 Mediterranean — Labriis anthiaslu., Anthias sacer Bloch, 

 "le plus beau jx)isson de mer, aux couleurs les plus 

 eclatantes " (Apost. p. 13). " Le barbier est un des 

 plus beaux |X)issons de la Mediterranee et des plus 

 faciles a caracteriser. La longue epine flexible qui 

 s'eleve sur son dos, les filets qui prolongent ses 



*• Guillaume Rondelet (b. at Montpellier in 1507), the 

 greatest of the sixteenth -century naturalists who laid 

 the foundations of modern Ichthyology. He had a unique 

 knowledge of the fishes of the Mediterranean. Of his work 

 on fishes the first part, Lihri de piscibus marinis in qiiihiM 

 verae piscinm effigies expressae sunt, appeared at Lyons in 

 1554 ; the second, Unirersae aquatillum historiae jxirs altera, 

 cum veris ipsorum imaginibus in 1555. Almost simultane- 

 ously P. Belon (who was murdered by robbers when 

 gathering herbs at a late hour in the Bois de Boulogne, no 

 doubt in connexion with a translation of Dioscorides, on 

 which he was engaged) published his iJe aquatUibus libri ii., 

 Paris, 1553; H. Salviani his Aqiiatilium anlmalium historia, 

 1554—1.557; and Conrad Gesner- the correspondent of Dr. 

 John Caius — his Ilistoriae animalium liher ir., qui est de 

 piscinm et aqtiatilium animanfium natura, Zurich, 1558. 



lix 



