Chap. 18.] 
FISHES. 
385 
of an azure colour, and have received their name from their 
peculiar conformation. These fish, he says, are of such enor- 
mous strength, that with their teeth they seize hold of the 
trunks of elephants that come to drink, and so drag them into 
the vrater. 
CHAP. 18. TTO^TIES, CORDYLA, AND PELAMIDES, AND THE VA- 
ElOrS PARTS OF THEM THAT ARE SAXTED. MELANDRYA, APO" 
LECTI, AND CYBIA. 
The male tunny has no ventral fin ; these fish enter the 
Euxine in large bodies from the main^^ sea, in the spring, and 
will spawn nowhere else. The young ones, which in autumn 
accompany the females to the open sea, are known as ^'cor- 
dyla.'^^* In the spring they are called pelamides,''^^ from 
'TTjjXo^, the Greek for mud,'* and after they are a year old, 
thynni.'' When this fish is cut up into pieces, the neck, 
the belly, and the throat,^^ are the most esteemed parts ; but 
they must be eaten only when they are quite fresh, and even 
then they cause severe fits of flatulence ; the other parts ; with 
the flesh entire, are preserved in salt. Those pieces, which 
bear a resemblance to an oaken board, have thence received 
the name of melandrya."^^ The least esteemed among these 
parts are those which are the nearest to the tail, because they 
have no fat upon them ; while those parts are considered the 
most delicate, which lie nearest the neck ; in other fishes, 
32 Although taken primarily from Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. v. c. 9, as 
Cuvier observes, this assertion is incorrect, as the male does not in any way 
differ from the female in the conformation of the fins. Pliny, however, has 
exaggerated the statement of Aristotle, who only says, that the female 
differs from the male in having a little fin under the belly, which the male 
has not ; and not that the male has no ventral fin whatever. 
^3 " Magno mari;" meaning, no doubt, the Mediterranean. 
3* Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. vi. c. 17. 
25 Or mud-fish," either from being born in mud, as Festus says, or 
from their concealing themselves in it. 
36 " Clidio." The clidion," or " clidium," was the part of the fish 
which extended, as Festus says, from the two shoulders (armos) to the 
breast. The " claviculas" were thus called by the Greek physicians. 
37 The Greeks called the inner part, or black-coloured heart of the oak, 
fifXav dpvoQ, whence the present name. Athenaeus, B. vi. speaks of 
the choice parts cut from the orcyni, large tunnies, which were taken in 
the straits of Gades. 
38 *' Faucibus." Cuvier observes, that modern experience has confirmed 
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