GADEANS AND PLEITEONECTS. 351 



The grounds upon which the modern merlucius or sea 

 pike, and the ancient marine donkey, were assumed to 

 be identical, will scarcely hear the test of inquiry, as in- 

 deed Hardouin confesses, declaring that though he trans- 

 lates Pliny's word ' asellus' by merlucius, or hake, he 

 does so rather out of respect to the opinion of the learned 

 than because he considers the fact to be certain and esta- 

 blished. In order to put the reader in a capacity to judge 

 on what slight grounds this opinion has been hazarded, 

 we win now give him all the details furnished by classic 

 authors respecting this fish. Varro says that aseUus is 

 named from the ass-hke hue of his skin ; Aristotle, that 

 he is a ground fish, who buries himself temporarily in 

 the sand,* where, by means of certain little oral appen- 

 dages, he inveigles prey after the manner of the fishing 

 frog;t (this indolent mode of sustentation has procured 

 for the Greek ass-fish the reproachful term of sluggard, 

 ovav vwOpov yevo^, as we read in Oppian.) ^lian adds 

 to all this, that he is of a solitary turUj^ hating society, 

 and in short, if we may invent the word, quite a ' misich- 

 thys,' that his heart is in his stomach§ and that he car- 

 ries stones iu his head.|| Putting these several hints 

 together, they furnish, we think, abundant evidence that 



* The Svos, says Aristotle, is one of those fish which hide for a 

 season, for which reason he is not always to be taken. Pliny and 

 .^■lia.Ti repeat the same statement. Phny says this retreat takes 

 place dnring the great heats of summer ; .ffilian, at the rising of 

 the dog-star, and that it lasts for sixty days. The hake however 

 is taken all the yea/r round. 



t The onos hides in sand, while it employs, like the fishing 

 frog, certaki oral appendages, which the sailors call the pa^dta 

 (angler's tackle), and by means of these they entice little fish, de- 

 coyed by these morements, which they mistake for the undula- 

 tions of fucus. 



J MovdrpoTTos ecTi, koI aiv oKKok ^lovv ovk dve)(fTm, 



§ "Ex" 8f opa l-)(6va>v /idvos ovtos ev tj ya<tTp\ Trjv Kapbiav. 



jl "E;^€t Sc tv eyKe(j)aKa XiBovs, ohrcpovv ioiKacri p,v\ais rb (rx^fia. 



