352 PLTNT's IfATTJEAL HISTOET. [Book VIII. 



end to Ly their winter's rest, when they conceal themselves 

 and sleep ; they are young again by the summer. The field- 

 mouse*' also enjoys a simjlar repose. 



CHAP. 83. (58.) PIACES IN "WHICH CEKTAUf ANIMALS AKE NOT 



TO BE FOUND. 



It is a remarkable fact, that nature has not only assigned 

 different countries to different animals, but that even in the 

 same country, it has denied certain species to peculiar localities.*'^ 

 In Italy the dormouse is found in one part only, the Messian 

 forest.*^ In Lycia the gazelle never passes beyond the moun- 

 tains which border upon Syria ;" nor does the wild ass in that 

 vicinity pass over those which divide Cappadocia from CUicia. 

 On the banks of the Hellespont, the stags never pass into a 

 strange territory, and about Arginussa*' they never go beyond 

 Mount Elaphus ; those upon that mountain, too, have cloven 

 ears. In the island of Poroselene,'* the weasels will not so 

 much as cross a certain road. In Boeotia, the moles, which were 

 introduced at Lebadea, fly from the very soil of that country, 

 while in the neighbourhood, at Orchomenus, the very same 

 animals tear up all the fields. We have seen coverlets for 

 beds made of the skins of these creatures, so that our sense of 

 religion does not prevent us from employing these ominous 

 animals for the purposes of luxury. When hares have been 

 brought to Ithaca, they die as soon as ever they touch the 

 shore, and the same is the case with rabbits, on the shores of 

 the island of Ebusus;*' while they abound in the vicinity, 



61 "Nitelis." See B. xvi. c. 69. Probably the anipial now known as 

 the Myoxus nitela of Linnsus. 



52 Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 33.— B. 



6' According to Hardouin, this forest is termed, in modem times, Boseo 

 di Baccano ; it is nine miles S."W. of Borne. 



'* Cuvier informs us, that " Lo dorcas des Grecs n'est le daim, comme 

 le dit Hardouin, mais le chevreuil ; car Aristote (De Partib. Anim. 1. iii. 

 c. 2) dit que c'est le plus petit des animaux a cornes que nous connaissions 

 (sans doute en Gr&ce) ; et le dorcas Libyca, trfes-bieu decrit par .Sllien 

 (1. xiv. c. 4), est certainement la gazelle commune, ' antelope dorcas,' " 

 AjasBon, vol. vi. pp. 467, 468 ; Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 565. Eespecting the 

 localities here mentioned, it has been proposed to substitute Cilicia for Syria, 

 Syria and Lycia being at a considerable distance from each other. — B. 



« See B. T. c. 39. ^ See B. v. c. 38. 



" See B. iii. c. 11, and the Note to the passage. See also c. 81 of this 

 Book. 



