Chap. 30.] THE ITKX, ETC. 279 



which has brown hair and two rnammse on the breast,'" as well 

 as many monstrous kinds of a similar nature ; horses with 

 wings, and armed with horns, which are called pegasi ;" the 

 crocotta, an animal which looks as though it had been produced 

 by the union of the wolf and the dog,*' for it can break any 

 thing, with its teeth, and instantly on swallowing it digest it 

 • with the stomach ; monkeys, too, with black heads, the hair 

 of the ase, and a voice quite unlike that of any other animal." 

 There are oxen, too, Uke those of India, some with one horn, 

 and others with three ; the leucrocotta, a wild beast of extra- 

 ordinary swiftness, the size of the wild ass, with the legs of 

 a stag, the neck,..tail, and breast of a lion, the head of a badger, 

 a cloven hoof, the mouth slit up as far as the ears, and one con- 

 tinuous bone instead of teeth f it is said, too, that this animal 

 can imitate the human voice. Among the same people, there 

 is also found an animal called eale ; it is the size of the river- 

 horse, has the tail of the elephant, and is of a black or tawny 



nseus : it is common in many parts of J^ia and Africa, in the retired 

 forest districts, and sfill exists in the Pyrenees and the mountains of 

 Naples. — B. 



." As far as the accounts of the sphinx are to he regarded as not en- 

 tirely fabulous, we must suppose it to have originated in some specie^ of 

 —the monkey tribe ; perhaps the Simla troglodytes or ohimpanze.;— B, 



w Of course the winged horse is an imaginary being, nor does it appear 

 ■what is the origin of the fable ; the honis are an unusual appendage to 

 the pegasus. — ;B. The pegasus and the rhinoceros together may have 

 given rise to that fabulous animal,, the unicorn. See, however, the Mono- 

 ceros, mentioned in c. 31. 



*' Although a hybrid animal is produced by the union of the wolf and 

 the dog, it does not form a permanent species. But, as Cuvier remarks, 

 by the insertion pf '' velut," Pliny seems to imply that the crocotta imites 

 the physical properties of the two animals. Ctesias, Indic. c. 32, gives an 

 account of the cynolycus, or "dog-wolf," from which Pliny seems to have 

 taken his crocotta. — B. 



*' It does not seem possible to determine what species of monkey is 

 here designated; it is most probable that he himself had no accurate 

 knowledge. — B. 



™ We may here refer to the judicious remarks of Cuvier, Ajasson, vol. 

 vi. pp. 427, 428, and Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 399, on the leucrocotta. It 

 seems impossible to identify Pliny's description with any known animal, and 

 it is not unlikely that he has confused the accounts of authors who were 

 speaking of different animals. Some of the characteristics of the leucro- 

 cotta agree vrith those of the Indian antelope, while others seem to re- 

 semble those of the hyaena. — B. 



