174 PEOSB HAIilEUTICS. 



Spakid^. 



Of the Sparidse, the jSfth and next family of Acan- 

 thopterygianSj the subdivisions are numerous^ and many 

 of the species highly interesting : there is no family, ac- 

 cording to Lacepede, which quarters its members over so 

 large a portion of the globe as this. It has some repre- 

 sentatives swimming in all waters, fresh, brackish, and 

 salt, limpid and turbid; and in every latitude, from the hot 

 springs of Barbary to the icy hyaline of the arctic circle. 

 From among a great many claimants to notice, we select 

 for remark three fish well known both to the ancient and 

 modem world ; the Sargos, the Dentex, and the Aurata. 



The perpetuity of the old Greek word adfrfo's, hodie 

 sargue or sargs, still given to the same fish in divers 

 localities, is sufficient to identify the modern with the 

 ancient bearers of the name. No finny creature has 

 been the subject of more misrepresentation, or had 

 greater liberties taken with his natural history, than the 

 sargos. Extremely uxorious, he never moves anywhere, 

 it has been said, but in company with at least a hundred 

 shes, to enjoy privacy with whom he will enter into any 

 decoy (however clumsy), and place the whole party in the 

 hands of thafishermen. This procedure, silly though it be, 

 is exceeded by another which, if the account be true, places 

 the intelligence of the sargos at a very low standard. 

 ' These fish,' write their biographers, ' have so strong an 

 afiection for goats, that whenever a herd comes to bathe 

 they flock in amongst them, skipping and springing out 

 of the sea to enjoy their society while they remain, and 

 long after the goats have left, the sargs continue near 

 the spot; this being known to fishermen, they have 

 only to dress themselves up as goats and enter the water, 

 to secure as many as are in the vicinity.' Oppian thus 

 relates the adventure : 



