HALIEUTICA, III. 156-176 



The Cuttle-fishes " again practise this craft.'' They 

 have seated in their heads a dark muddy fluid blacker 

 than pitch, a mysterious drug causing a watery 

 cloud, which is their natural defence against destruc- 

 tion. When fear seizes them, immediately they dis- 

 charge the dusky drops thereof and the cloudy fluid 

 stains and obscures all around the paths of the sea 

 and ruins all the view ; and they straightway through 

 the turbid waters easily escape man or haplv mightier 

 fish. 



A like craft is practised also by the air-travelling " 

 tribes of the Calamary.** Only their fluid is not 

 black but reddish,* but the device which they employ 

 is altogether similar. 



Such are the cunning devices ^ of fishes ; yet not- 

 withstanding they perish by the subtle wiles of fisher- 

 men. Those which run in the sheer depths of the 

 sea the fishers capture easily, since they possess no 

 subtle craft. For ere now one has caught and landed 

 a deep-sea fish vvith onions ' or with bare hooks. 

 Those on the other hand which range near the sea- 

 girding land have sharper wits ; yet even of these 



' Schol. ri(p6<f>otTa ' aepi rerofieya " raj T€i'0i5ai <pTiff'a' r)€p6- 

 , (poiTa ytvtdXa cii ev t<^ dept tpoiTuvra ' rerovTai yap xai 5ia toD 

 dfpos (pfpovrai ws inroirTepa' revdidfs 5' eiai to, Koiftcs ^fyofieva 

 xaXaadpia. One might be tempted to take the sense to be 

 " travelling in darkness " like Homer's r}€p6<t>oiTos 'Epivvs (II. 

 ix. 571), but the reference is no doubt, as the schol. takes 

 it, to its flying habits ; cf. U. i. +27 ff. ; Epicharm. ap. Athen. 

 318 e voTavai TevdiSa. 



'* H. i. i2S u. Cf. note on v. lofi above. 



* Athen. 326 b ?xf' ^^ iv Tevdis) atoi d6\ov . . , ou fuXcwa 

 dW (lixpov. But Ov. Hal. 129 Et nigrum niveo portans in 

 corpore virus | Loligo. 



f Cf. H. l 7. 



» On baits in general see A. 534 a 1 1-534 b 10 ; 591 a b. 



361 



