NAPLES BAY AND FISH-MAEKET. Ill 



and the flowers fading in the sun. But this is more 

 particularly true of ItaUan than of English markets, 

 owing to the much greater heat, which sooner tells un- 

 favourably on the supply of food : and it applies more 

 especially to the peseheria. The first half-hour when 

 the fish are taken out of the water, is the time to see 

 them in their glory ; after that, the brilliancy of the ex- 

 hibition closes ; though even then the vast variety of 

 shapes, the endless complexity of warlike accoutrements, 

 and their many contrivances for escaping danger, must 

 occasionally not only strike the eye but arrest the atten- 

 tion of the most incurious non-observer, as he beholds 

 here lying before him the amassed treasures of the deep. 



Flat fish, with eyes distorted, square, ovoid, rhomboid, long. 

 Some cased ia mail, some shppery-backed, the feeble and the 



strong ; 

 Soft-fiimed,*(') and armed with weapons, to poison, stab, or 



matd,(^) 

 Their baby -brood who educate to drum, shrill, grunt, and call ;(') 

 Who build at sea,('') who bed on shore, (') who ox-hke chew the 



cud,e) 



* (■) Malaco- and Acantho-pterygians. P) Scorpaena, trigon, 

 balsestra, and many raise. P) The pogonias d/ntms, the umbra 

 or old-wife shrills, the gurnard gnmts, and Clearphus makes men- 

 tion of some Arcadian fish which are plainly vocal ; he says, (j)6iy- 

 yovrai yap Km TToXiiv rjxov dnoTcKova-t. {*) Aristotle describes the 

 mdification of this remarkable fish. (') The anabas (from dva- 

 ^aiva), because he climbs trees and roosts in the branches, thus 

 accomplishing Horace's prodigy — 



Piscium et summa genus haesit uhno, 

 Nota qua sedes fuerat columbis ; 



which might be rendered — 



And Anabas now climbs to rest 



On high-peroh'd pahn, ia turtle's nest ; 



and Exocsetus, whose name tells its story. (*) Scarus — ' solus qui 

 ruminat escas.' — Ov, (') Luna. (^) Loligo. (°) Narke. (■") Blue- 

 finned gurnard. 



