Chap. 20.] 
FISHES. 
389 
the other hand, the turbot"^ enters it. The sepia is not found 
in this sea, although the loligo^® is. Among the rock-fish, the 
sea- thrush and the sea-blackbird are wanting, as also purples, 
though oysters abound here. All these, however, pass the 
winter in the ^gean Sea ; and of those which enter the Euxine, 
the only ones that do not^^ return are the trichise.^^ — It will 
be a^ well to use the Greek names which most of them bear, 
seeing that to the same species different countries have given 
different appellations. — These last, however, are the only ones 
that enter the river Ister,^^ and passing along its subterraneous 
passages, make their way from it to the Adriatic and this is 
Pleuronectes maximus of Linnseus. 
^' The cuttle-fish. The Sepia officinahs of Linnaeus. 
^8 The ink-fish. The Sepia loHgo of Linnaeus. 
Cuvier suggests that the turdus, or sea-thrush, and the merula, or sea- 
blackbird, were both fishes of the labrus tribe, usually known as "breams." 
Hippolytus Salvianus, in his book on the Water Animals, states, that in his 
day^both these fish were extremely well known, and that they still 
retained the names of tordo and merlo. Rondelet, B. vi., says, that the 
fish anciently called turdus, was in his time known by the name of 
" vielle," among the French. The dictionaries give merling, or 
whiting," as the synonyme of merula." 
^0 Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 16, says, that on going into the 
Euxine, the trichiae are either taken or else devoured by the other fishes, 
for that they are never seen to return. 
®^ The trichias, according to Cuvier, is a fish belonging to the family of 
herrings. A scholiast on Aristophanes attributes the origin of the name 
to the fine fish bones like hairs {9pi^), with which the flesh is filled, which 
is a characteristic peculiar to the herring kind. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. 
B. vi. c. 15, represents the membras, the trichis, and the trichias, as dif- 
ferent ages of the same fish. The trichis was little, and very common. In 
Aristophanes, Knights, 1. 662, we find an obol mentioned as the price of a 
hundred. From the Acharnee of the same author, we learn that it was 
salted as provision for the fleets. Cuvier thinks that everything combines 
to point out the sardine, the Clupea sprattus of Linnaeus, as the trichis, or 
else a similar kind of fish, the melette of the African coast, the Clupea 
meletta of the naturalists. In this latter case the trichias, he thinks, may 
have been the sardine, or, perhaps, the Clupea ficta of Lacepede, which is 
called the " sardine" in some places, and at Lake Garda, in Lombardy, 
more especially. 
62 The Danube. Cuvier says, that this passage probably bears reference 
to the clupea ficta or finte, which, as well as the shad, is in the habit of 
passing up streams. As for the story of the fish finding their way to the 
Adriatic, it is utterly without foundation. Cuvier adds, that the main 
difference between the finte and the clupea alosa, or shad, is, that the 
former has very fine teeth, the latter none at all. 
Pliny has already remarked, B. iii. c. 18, in reference to the supposed 
