370 
PLINY S NATURAL HISTORY. 
[Book IX. 
ments than a bird, more instantaneous than the flight of an 
arrow, and were it not for the fact that his month is situate 
much below his muzzle,^^ almost, indeed, in the middle of the 
belly, not a fish would be able to escape his pursuit. But 
I^ature,^^ in her prudence, has thrown certain impediments in 
his way.; for unless he turns, and throws himself on his back, 
he can seize nothing, and it is this circumstance more espe- 
cially that gives proof of his extraordinary swiftness. For, if 
pressed by hunger,^''^ he will follow a fish, as it flies down, to 
the very bottom of the water, and then after holding his breath 
thus long, will dart again to the surface to respire, with the 
speed of an arrow discharged from a bow ; and often, on such 
occasions, he is known to leap out of the water with such a 
bound, as to fly right over the sails of a ship. 
Dolphins generally go in couples ; the females bring forth 
their young in the tenth month, during the summer season, 
sometimes two in number.^^ They suckle their young at the 
teat like the balaena, and even carry them during the weak- 
ness of infancy; in addition to which, long after they are 
grown up, they accompany them, so great is their affection for 
their progeny. The young ones grow very speedily, and in 
ten years are supposed to arrive at their full size. The dol- 
Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 5. From this description Hardouin 
is induced to think that Eondelet and Aldrovandus are wrong in their 
conclusions that it is the sea-hog, or porpoise, that is meant. Cuvier also 
says, that this description will not apply to the real dolphin, though it is 
strictly applicable to the Squalus acanthias, Squalus ricinus, and others ; to 
the former of which also the spines or stings mentioned by Pliny appro- 
priately belong ; all the other characteristics, he says, which are here men- 
tioned by Pliny, are applicable to the real dolphin, though in modern 
times it has never been brought to such a degree of tameness. Hence it 
is that some writers have supposed that Pliny is here speaking of the Tri- 
chechus manatus of Linnaeus, by the French called " lamentin," by us 
the "sea-cow." Cuvier says, that he should be inclined to be of the same 
opinion, were it not for the fact that that animal does not frequent the coasts 
of the Mediterranean. 
Copied literally from Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 5, and De Part. 
Anim. B. iv. c. 13. 
Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. ix, c. 74. 
Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. ix. c. 48, says not the sails, but the masts 
of ships ; and Pintianus remarks, that Pliny has been deceived by the re- 
semblance of the words, laroQ and Lariov. ^lian, Hist. Anim. B. xii. c. 
12, has a similar statement also. 
60 Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. vi. c> 9. Oppian, Halieut. B. i. 1. 680. \\ 
