234 ARISTOTLE'S EN AIM A, 



evidently intended to be P. sarda, is not good, for the snout 

 is too blunt and the bands too highly inclined. The bands 

 of P. sarda are, however, subject to variation, and it is 

 most probable that Eondelet's Aviia was this fish. 



Aristotle says that Belone is a long fish,* and that it 

 splits open to allow its comparatively few but large eggs to 

 escape, for a slit is formed under its abdomen, and yet the 

 splitting does not kill the fish, for the wound heals again, t 

 Although these statements do not correctly describe what 

 takes place, it is evident that Belone is one of the pipe fishes, 

 such as Syngnathus acus, the eggs of which pass into the 

 sub-caudal pouch of the male, and remain there during the 

 process of incubation. 



The three fishes Clianne, Erythrinos, and Psetta are 

 remarkable because Aristotle seems to have believed that 

 they were hermaphrodite. His statements on this subject 

 have been discussed in Chapter xiv. 



Aristotle's Glanis has been discussed by many naturalists, 

 but it is only comparatively recently that it has been 

 satisfactorily identified. In addition to other information 

 about this fish, Aristotle says that its tail is like that of a 

 water-newt, I that its gall-bladder is close to its liver, § that 

 it is a freshwater fish depositing large ova, which are 

 connected together like those of a frog, that the ova develop 

 very slowly and are guarded by the male fish, which some- 

 times spoils the fishing-hooks with its hard teeth, and that 

 the large Glanides spawn in deep water, but the smaller 

 ones in shallow water, near the roots of a willow, or among 

 reeds and mosses.il 



Clearly, Aristotle's Glanis is a siluroid fish. Pliny, 

 Artedi, Bloch, and Cuvier identified it with the well-known 

 Silurus glanis. Cuvier entertained no doubt about the 

 correctness of this identification and pointed out that, at 

 Constantinople, S. glanis was called Glanos or Glano.5l On 

 the other hand, Gesner was of opinion that the wels {S. 

 glanis) was unknown to Aristotle, and he identified Glanis 

 with a smaller species of Silurus** Several centuries after 

 Gesner's time, Agassiz, who had considerable experience of 



* H. A. ii. c, 11, s. 7. 



t H. A. vi. c. 12, s. 4, vi. c. 16, s. 4 ; G. A. iii. c. 4, 755a. 

 X H.A.i.c. 5, s. 3. § Ihid. ii. c. 11, s. 7. 



II H. A. vi. c. 13, ss. 2, 4, and 5, ix. c. 25, s. 6. 

 11 Hist. Nat. des Poiss. xiv. p. 344. 

 ** Nomencl. Aquat. Anim. 1560, p. 319. 



