94 
PLINY's natural niSTORT. 
Book XI. 
they are destitute of lungs and the tracheal artery, they are 
not entirely without the power of emitting certain sounds : it 
is only a mere joke to say that the noise which they make is 
produced by grating their teeth together. The fish, too, that 
is found in the river Acheloiis, and is known as the boar-fish,** 
makes a grunting noise, as do some others which we have pre- 
viously^^ mentioned. The oviparous animals hiss: in the 
serpent this hissing is prolonged, in the tortoise it is short and 
abrupt. Erogs make a peculiar noise of their own, as already 
stated ; unless, indeed, this, too, is to be looked upon as a 
matter of doubt ; but their noise originates in the mouth, and 
not in the thorax. Still, however, in reference to this subject, 
the nature of the various localities exercises a very considerable 
influence, for in Macedonia, it is said, the frogs are dumb, and 
the same in reference to the wild boars there. Among birds, 
the smaller ones chirp and twitter the most, and more espe- 
cially about the time of pairing. Others, again, exercise their 
voice while fighting, the quail, for instance ; others before 
they begin to fight, such as the partridge ; and others when 
they have gained the victory, the dunghill cock, for instance. 
The males in these species have a peculiar note of their own, 
while in others, the nightingale for example, the male has 
the same note as the female. 
Some birds sing all the year round, others only at certain 
times of the year, as we have already mentioned when speak- 
ing of them individually. The elephant produces a noise 
similar to that of sneezing, by the aid of the mouth, and in- | 
dependently of the nostrils ; but by means of the nostrils it I 
emits a sound similar to the hoarse braying of a trumpet. 
It is only in the bovine race that the voice of the female is the 
deepest, it being in all other kinds of animals more shrill than 
that of the male ; it is the same also with the male of the 
human race when castrated. The infant at its birth is never 
heard to utter a cry before it has entirely left the uterus : 
it begins to speak at the end of the first year. A son of 
Croesus, however, spoke when only six months old, and, while 
yet wielding the child's rattle, afi'orded portentous omens, for 
5^ Aper." 55 B. ix. c. 7. 
5s See c. 65 of the present Book. 
5' Not the dumb son mentioned by Herodotus, Tvho saved his father s 
life at the taking of Sardes. 
