386 
PLINT'S IfATURAL HISTORY. 
[Book IX. 
however, the parts about the tail have the most nutriment^^ in 
them. The pelamides are cut up into small sections, known 
as apolecti and these again are divided into cubical 
pieces, which are thence called ^^cybia.'^*^ 
CHAP. 19. THE AUEIAS AND THE SCOMBER. 
All kinds of fish grow*^ with remarkable rapidity, and more 
especially those in the Euxine ; the reason^^ of which is the 
vast number of rivers which discharge their fresh water into 
it. One fish, the growth of which is quite perceptible, day by 
day, is known as the amia.** This fish, and the pelamides, 
together with the tunnies,^^ enter the Euxine in shoals, for 
the purpose of obtaining a sweeter nutriment, each under the 
command of its own leader ; but first of all the scomber*^ ap- 
what Pliny says, as to the difference of flavour in these various parts of the 
tunny. He refers to Cetti, 1st, Nat. di Sardegna^ vol. iii. p. 137. 
**Exercitatissima/* " In greatest request, as being most stirred and 
exercised,'* is the translation given by Holland ; while Littre renders it 
*'mieux nourries," best nourished." According to the general notion in 
this country, the part about the tail is reckoned inferior, and anything but 
the "best nourished." It is doubtful if exercitatissima" is the correct 
reading ; and if it is, its precise meaning has yet to be ascertained. 
From the Greek ol-koKiktoi^ " choice bits," or, as we shojald say, 
* nit-bits. 
41 From the Greek Kvpia. 
42 Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B, vi. c. 16. 
43 Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 25. 
44 This fish does not seem to have been exactly identified till recently ; 
but was generally supposed to have been of the tunny genus. Appian 
says, that it is rather smaller than the tunny. Rondelet, B. viii., speaks of 
it as being, in his time, known by the name of "byza." Cuvier has the fol- 
lowing remark. " The ' amia' of the ancients, as Eondelet was well aware, 
was the same fish, to which, incorrectly, upon nearly all the coasts of the 
Mediterranean, the name of * pelamis' has been transferred. It is, in 
fact, the same as the ' liniosa ' of Salvianus, the ' pelamis ' of Belon, 
the ' thynnus primus' of Aldrovandus, and the ' scomber sarda' of Bloch. 
The proof of ail these being synonymous, is the fact, that the ' scomber sarda' 
is the only species of the tunny genus in the Mediterranean, which has 
strong, sharp, cutting teeth, and is capable of attacking large fish, which 
Aristotle relates respecting the amia. Hist. Anim. B. ix. c. 37. The same 
author too, was well aware of the length of its gall-bladder, which is greater 
than in most other fishes." 
45 Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B, viii. c. 16. 
46 Generally supposed, as Cuvier says, to have been the same as the 
mackerel, or Scomber seombrus of Linnaeus, and with very fair reason. 
From the frequent remarks made on the subject by the Roman poets, we 
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