HALIEUTICA, I. 397-411 



the sea ; so too the shielded Turtle " and the woeful, 

 lamentable Castorids,'' which utter on the shores 

 their grievous voice '^ of e\'il omen. He who receives 

 in his ears their voice of sorrow, shall soon be not 

 far from death, but that dread sound prophesies for 

 him doom and death. Nay, even the shameless 

 Whale,'* they say, leaves the sea for the dry land 

 and basks in the sun. And Seals * in the night-time 

 always leave the sea, and often in the day-time they 

 abide at their ease on the rocks and on the sands 

 and take their sleep outside the sea. 



O Father Zeus, in thee and by thee are all things 

 rooted, whether thou dwellest in the highest height 

 of heaven or whether thou dMellest everj^vhere ; 

 for that is impossible for a mortal to declare. With 



such passages as A. 589 a 10-b 11 which deals with amphi- 

 bious animals (rd {Trafi^xxrepi^oyra) where both 8e\<pis and 

 <pd\aii>a are mentioned. The (paXaiva of Aristotle [cf. esp. 

 A. 4-89 b 4 Ix^' ^^ Mf'' 5€\<pis tov avXbv (blow-hole) dia rov 

 vihrov, i) 8e (pdXaiva ev rui /ierwTrc^) is probably Physeter macra- 

 cephalus or, according to A. and W., Delphinu^ tursio, which 

 is rarer than the common Dolphin [Delphinus delphis) and 

 more frequent in the S. Mediterranean, particularly off 

 Crete (Erh. p. 28). 



* Ael. I.e. Kve<t>a1ai Se al (puKai e^iacri fiaWov ijSrj fieuroi Kal 

 /jLeaTifx^pias oCffTji KadevSovffi. rrjs da\d(T<TT)s l^w. toCtq toi /cat 

 'Onvpos rj5ei (Hom, O. iv. 448). A. 566 b 27; Plin. ix. 41. 

 The only Seal found in the Mediterranean appears to be 

 Phoca monaclnis which is common in the Cyclades : *' Es 

 giebt kaum ein Eiland, grosseres oder kleineres im agaischen 

 Meere, wo nicht ein und mehre Paare dieser Robben ihr 

 Standquartier aufgeschlagen batten, obwohl man sie nur 

 sehr selten, bei ruhigem Wetter oder Tageslicht wohl nie, 

 zu Gesichte bekommt. Den Fischern des Archipels ist sie 

 besser bekannt ; sie wissen die beinahe unterseeischen 

 Uferschluchten, in denen sie sich verbirgt, wohl zu finden, 

 und bezeichnen sie allgemein mit dem Ausdrucke (puKorpvirai " 

 (Erii. p. 18). 



247 



