SCOMBEEID^. 185 



lion. In our own racej a mere exuberance of these 

 names creates no confusion or ambiguity as to the iden- 

 tity of the bearer : thus in the case of one John William 

 Richard Alexander Dwyer^ all these prefixeSj we know, 

 represent the same identical footman whom Justinian 

 Stubbsj Esq., was happy enough to have in his employ ; 

 and in the case also of some petty German princess, pre- 

 sented at court with a longer string of names than of 

 family pearls or diamonds, though we smile at the dower, 

 we do not for an instant lose sight of the unicity of the 

 lady to whom the onomastic necklace belongs. But this 

 is not the case with regard to birds, beasts, or fishes ; 

 and when we read in our Buffons, under the word thunny, 

 such a host of aliases as thunnus, thynnis, pelamys, 

 sarda^ auxis, xanthias, triton, thersites, cheladonias, me- 

 landrya^ synodon, cybia, cete, etc., all designating the 

 same individual in different stages of development, though 

 now inexplicable by any interpreter but an CEdipus, — 

 puzzled and perplexed, we are ready to joia in the la- 

 mentations of a jingling ' patterer,' whom we once met 

 at the corner of Paradise-row, rehearsing to the rats and 

 rabble of that district the bygone advantages of Eden: — 



Now, sure, my dears, we all must grieve 

 Por tke good old times of Adam and Eve : 

 When all the beasts, bpth wild and tame. 

 Promiscuous flock'd, and round Mm^came ; 

 Whilst he look'd round from where he sat, 

 And call'd them all by names most pat. 



Qvmio^, thynnus, thunny, was the word by which 

 the Greeks designated the fish when it was more 

 than a year old ; of this there can be no doubt, as the 

 statement is Aristotle's : the etymology of the term is 

 not so clear as its signification. Some give it a Greek, 

 some a Hebrew root; the former tracing it to dveuv, 

 which means, to bound furiously, and admirably depicts 



