HALIEUTICA, II. 117-134 



she opens the doors of guile and suddenly seizes 

 them, and with wide gape cunningly catches her 

 prey, even all that she takes at a swoop. 



Yea, the crafty Cuttle-fish" also has found a cunning 

 manner of hunting. From her head** grow long 

 slender branches,'' hke locks of hair, wherewith as 

 with lines she draws and captures fish, prone in the 

 sand and coiled beneath her shell.'* With those locks, 

 too, when the waves rage in wintry weather, she 

 clings to the rocks even as a ship fastens her cables to 

 the rocks upon the shore. 



Prawns ' are small to look at and small too is the 

 strength of their limbs, yet by their craft they de- 

 stroy a vahant fish, even the Basse ^ named'' for its 

 gluttony. For the Basse are eager and keen to seize 

 the Pra^vns ; and these have no strength either to 

 flee or to fight, yet as they are destroyed they destroy 

 and slay their slayers. When the gaping ^ Basse have 

 caught them within their teeth, they leap oftentimes 



(internal) part, towards the back of the body, which is 

 described A. 524 b ■2-2 t% /luv ovv arjiria Kai ry revOidi Kal rt^ 

 Tevdip evTos (an to, arepea ev ti^ wpavu tov cnhfuntn, h koKovci 

 t6 nev a-yjirioi' to 5e ^i(poi, rf. P. A. 654 a 20, was apparently 

 sometimes called tarpaKov, cf. Athen. 323 c TTf)v ffTjiriav 5e 

 ' ApiiTTore\7]s {<pri<ri) irc5as ^X"** oktJj . . ., ?x" ^* '^'^' oSoyras 

 dvo . . . Kai TO Xeyd/xevov dffTpaKov iv T(f vilirifi. Oppian may 

 have misunderstood this, or, equating 6<jTpaKov with vQtov, he 

 may have meant i-ir' oaTpaKif) eiXvOeiaa as =" hunched up." 

 It seems then not advisable to alter the text. 



' A. 5-25 a 3-t y^vrj di rXfio} rijv Kapibuv . . . at t€ Kv<pal Kal 

 ai Kpdyyoves Kai to /xtKpov yfvos (A. P. A. 684 a 14), probably 

 Palaemon sqtiilla, Squilla mantis, and Cranc/on ruUfciris 

 (shrimps). Ael. i. 30 gives a similar account of their fight 

 with the Basse, and classes them as eXetoi, es (pvKiwv, ireTpatai. 



* Labrax lupus Cuv., M.G. Xoi-pd/ci; Apost. p. 12. 



" i.e. Xd^pa^ from Xd^poi : ixOvujv oxpo^ayicTaTOi, Ael. I.e. 



* Ael. I.e. Kfxv''^ 3f o Xd^pa^ Kai fi-iya. 



293 



