HALIEUTICA, IV. 121-138 



guileful doom for birds hides in a dense thicket a 

 female bird," his tame companion in hunting birds 

 of the same cry ; and she shrilly pipes her sweet ^ 

 song, and the birds, hearing, all hasten towards her 

 and rush of themselves into the snare, misled by 

 the call of the female cry : hke unto them the 

 Parrot-wrasses rush into the belly of the weel. 



A hke doom does love bring upon the Grey Mullets "^ 

 (Cephalus) ; for they also are beguiled by a female ** 

 trailed in the waves. She should be in good condi- 

 tion and fat of limb. For so, when they behold her, 

 they gather around in countless numbers and 

 wondrously overcome by her beauty they will not 

 leave her but ever^'where the spells of desire lead 

 them charmed, yea even wert thou to draw forth 

 the female snare from the water and lead them to 

 the unfriendly dry land : they follow in a body, and 

 heed neither fraud nor fishermen. But even as 

 youths when they remark the face of a woman 

 exceeding fair first gaze at her from afar, admiring 

 her lovely form, and thereafter they draw near and, 



linea longinqua per os ad branchias relig-ata eraissum in 

 mare eademque linea retractum feminae sequantur at! litus 

 rursusque feminam mares partus tempore. The method is 

 still practised: Apost. p. 4o "Ce nest pas le scare seulement 

 qui se peche ainsi, mais aussi les muges. surtout I'espece 

 Capita dans 1^ cotes de Peloponnese, sur les cotes du 

 departement d'Elide. . . . On opere ainsi: On tache d'abord 

 d'attraper soit aux filets, soit a la ligne, une femelle de 

 muge, qu'on designe sous le nom vulgaire de 'Slird4>a. On 

 I'attache ensuite par I'opercule sur une ligne portee par 

 un long roseau, au mojen duquel on la tire sur I'eau ; les 

 autres muges, les males surtout, la suivent, toujours en 

 quantite, un second pecheur, jxiste derriere celuiqui traine le 

 poisson sur I'eau, jette sur eux son filet circulaire {-re^o^oKov}, 

 epervier, . . . et en capture le plus grand nonibre possible." 

 This fishing is pursued from April to the end of June. 



413 



