HALIEUTICA, V. 575-600 



stroke of brazen harpoons, they slay child and mother 

 together in a connnon doom : slay her not unwilling 

 to be slain, since over her dead child the mother 

 wittingly and wilhngly meets her death. As when 

 a snake " chances upon the young brood of a swallow 

 under the eaves and approaches them : and them 

 he slays and seizes A^ithin his teeth, and the mother 

 first circles about distraught, pitifully crying her 

 lament for their slaying ; but when she sees her 

 children perished, no more she seeks escape from 

 destruction but flutters under the verj' jaws of the 

 serpent, until the doom that slew the children over- 

 takes the mother bird : even so also with the young 

 Dolphin perishes the nnother, coming a willing prey 

 into the hands of the fishermen. 



As for the Testacean ** tribes which crawl in the 

 sea, report tells that all these in due cycle are full 

 of flesh when the moon " is waxing and inhabit a 

 rich dwelling, but when she wanes, again they 

 become more meagre and wTinkled of limb : such 

 compelling force resides in them. Of these men 

 gather some from the sand with their hands, diving 

 under the sea ; others they pull from the rocks to 

 which they stubbornly chng ; yet others the waves 

 cast up on the very shores or in trenches digged in 

 the sand. 



The Purple-shells <* again among Shell-fish are 

 eminently gluttonous," and by gluttony is the true 

 manner of their capture. Small weels ^ Hke baskets 



'Ato\X65w/)oj . . . iv Tois irept "ZilKppovoi vpodeU to. " Xjx»'6T€/)a 

 rav irop<pvpav " (prjffiv oti Trapoinia iarlv koi X^7e«, ws niv rivei, 

 OTTO Tov ^dfi/iaroi' ov yap &.v irpoff^avari ?X(cei f<p' iavrb Kai toU 

 Tpoffiraparedeifjievoit ifj-iroifi xP^f"-"-''''^^ avyrjif dXXot S' axo tov 

 itfiov. 

 * Oppian's account is paraphrased Ael. vii. 34. 



507 



