132 History of Nature. [BooK IX. 



the Stream. Now he is in no Honour; which I wonder at, 

 considering he is so seldom to be found. Some call him 

 Elops. Afterwards, Cornelius JVepos and Laberias the comic 

 Poet have written, that the Lupus and Asellus obtained the 

 chief Credit. Of the Lupus, those that are the most com- 

 mended are those which are called Lanati, from the White- 

 ness and Tenderness of their Flesh. Of Aselli, there are two 

 Sorts : Callarige, 1 which are the less ; and Bacchi, which are 

 never taken but in deep Water, and therefore they are pre- 

 ferred to the former. But the Lupi that are caught in the 

 River are preferred to the others. The Scarus 2 hath now 

 assigned to it the chief Place ; and it is said to be the only 

 Fish that cheweth the Cud, and to live on Herbs and not 

 on other Fishes. It is chiefly found in the Carpathian Sea ; 

 and of its own accord never passeth the Promontory Lectos 

 in Troas. When Tiberius Claudius was Sovereign, Optatus^ 

 his Freedman and Admiral of the Fleet, brought them out of 

 that Sea, and dispersed them between Ostia and the Coast 

 of Campania. Care was taken by strict Command, for 

 almost five Years, that if any were taken they should be 

 returned into the Sea. After this they were frequently found 

 along the Coast of Italy, whereas before they had not been 

 taken. And thus Gluttony hath supplied its Taste by sowing 

 Fish, and given a new Inhabitant to the Sea, to take away 

 our Wonder that foreign Birds are prepared at Rome. Next 

 to these Fishes, at least, the Table is served with a Kind of 

 Mustela, 3 which, wonderful to say, are bred in a Lake of 



' It may be, that the name Callarias is synonymous with Asellus, 

 and therefore the Haddock ; but Linneus has given it to the Dorse : the 

 Bacchus is believed to be the Cod-fish, Gadm morrhua of Linneus ; 

 Morrhua vulgaris, Cuv. Baccata is still the name for this fish in Italy.- 

 -Wern. Club. 



2 Scarus creticus. Cuv. See B. xxxii. c. 2. It became the fashion 

 to carry this fish alive to table, as the Surmullet also was, and for the 

 same reason that the guests might observe their changes of colour in the 

 act of dying. Those of the Surmullet are never restored as they existed 

 during life. Wern. Club. 



3 Gadm fo/a.- LINN. Lota viilgans.Cuv. The Eelpont. Wern. 

 Club. 



