RECORD BASS AND TUNA—SILURUS WHAT? 245 
with a Glanis),! attributes to it characteristics and habits, which 
Pliny totidem sententiis, if not verbis, transfers to the Silurus, 
although he thrice mentions the Glanis. Elian, in addition 
to XIV. 25, declares in XII. 14, that the Glamis is a species of, 
and very like, the Szlurus, while Athenzus treats them as 
separate fish. 
As late as the time of Scaliger, the problem gave rise to 
discussion which led to no elucidation of what fish exactly 
corresponds to the classical Silurus. Perhaps the sentence of 
Albertus Magnus,? “a river fish which was called by the Greeks 
Glanis, but by us Silurus,” seemed, although only a conjectural 
compromise, as near as we could get to the identity. 
Agassiz, however, reluctant to accept Cuvier’s identification 
of the Glanis with the Silurus glanis, came to the conclusion 
(after examining six specimens of a Siluroid new to Ichthy- 
ologists, which he obtained from the Acheloiis in Western 
Greece) that from agreement in the form of the anal fin, the 
position of the gall bladder, the connected spawn, etc., they 
were the same as Aristotle’s Glanis. To this Siluroid Agassiz 
gave the name Glanis aristotelis: it is, perhaps, better known 
as Parasilurus aristotelis.8 
If the Silurus be the Scheid of Germany, his strength, habits, 
and ferocity, as set forth in our authors are indeed very credible. 
From Aristotle we learn that this “ river fish’ is easy to hook 
(as we should suspect from its rapacity, which has been tersely 
summarised in ‘‘ pisces pisci preda at huic omnes’), but from 
its huge powers and hard teeth very hard to hold. 
The passage in Pliny, IX. 75, which he extracts from 
Aristotle 4—“‘ Silurus mas solus omnium edita custodit ova, 
sepe et quinquagenis diebus, ne absumantur ab aliis ”—has 
by a wrong rendering accorded to the male Siluvus the proud 
distinction of being the only male fish that guards its eggs. 
This is absurd, for other instances, ¢.g. Chromis simonis, 
exist. 
1 N. H., VI. 13. 
2 De Anim., VIII. 3, p. 262. 
3 Theodore Gill, ‘‘ The Remarkable Story of a Greek Fish,” Washington 
Univ. Bull., age oe PP 5-15. 
4 N.4H., VI. 
