Chap. 24.1 
riSHES. 
393 
na,^' and the phagrus.^* When the winter has been very severe, 
chromis, has a still stronger resemblance to the maigre, and that, as Belon 
informs us, the ombrine, or Scisena cirrhosa, is still sometimes called at 
Marseilles the " chro," or the " chrau,'* and that, as Gyllius says, on the 
coast of Genoa it has the name of " chro," it would not be improbable 
that this is really the chromis of the Greeks, as Belon supposes. 
From (TKia, the Greek for " shadow ;" which name, as Cuvier says, 
has been translated by the moderns by the word "ombre," or "umbra." 
But this name has been given at the present day to so many fish of various 
kinds, from the " ombra " of the Italians and the " maigre ** of the French, 
the Scieena umbra of the naturalists, the ombrine or Scisena cirrhosa of 
Linn{Bus, to the ombre of Auvergne, the Salmo thymallus of Linnaeus, and 
the ombre chevalier, the Salmo umbra of Linnseus, that this synonyme does 
not aid us in discovering its identity. Aristotle says nothing relative to his 
scifEua, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 19, except that it has stones in the head, a 
thing that is common to this with many other fish. Pliny, in copying this 
passage, preserves the Greek name ; but Ovid, Columella, and Ausonius 
^ive it the name of "umbra the one, however, described by the first two 
IS a sea-fish, while that of Ausonius is a fresh-water fish. Yarro, who cites 
the name of umbra among those given to fish, adds that the species which 
bears it owes its name to its peculiar colour ; and as Ovid calls it " livens," 
or " livid," it may be presumed to have been of a dark colour. It is very 
possible, then, that it may have been the corvus marinus, or sea-crow, the 
Sciaena nigra of Linnaeus. 
8* Or pagrus. This passage is from Aristotle, Hist. Nat. B. viii. c. 19. 
Cuvier says that there are several names of fish, known in the Mediteranean 
at the present day, as being from the (pdypog of Aristotle, such as the 
pagri or pageau, the fragolino, &c. names of a fish of a red silvery hue, the 
Sparus erythrinus of Linnseus, his Sparus pagrus being another species. 
The modern Greeks also call it (pdypog, the best proof of its identity with 
the phagros of Aristotle, or pager or phagrus of Pliny. This phagrus, Cu- 
vier says, was not improbably the same as the modern pagre, as their cha- 
racteristics quite agree, so far as those of the ancient phagrus are described. 
It is of red colour, and we find Ovid (Halieut. 1. 108,) speaking of the 
"rutilus pagur," and it was, according to Aristotle, B. viii. c. 13, caught 
equally out at sea and near the shore, and had stones in the head, B. viii. c. 
19, or, in other words, stony bodies of large size in the labyrinthine cavities 
of the ear. Oppian, Halieut. B. iii. 1. 185, says that the channe forms a 
delicate morsel for the pagrus, which shows that it was of considerable size ; 
and several authors quoted by Athenseus, B. vii., give it the epithet of 
" great." Hicesius says, in the same place, that it resembles the erythrus, 
the chromis, the anthias, and other fish of very diff'erent character among 
themselves ; but it is only in relation to the flesh that he makes these com- 
parisons, so that we are unable to come to any conclusion as to the form. 
But we find Numenius, als.o quoted by Athenseus, speaking of the (pdypov 
\o(piriv, the- " crested phagrus," possibly in allusion to the height of the 
neck. The properties of its flesh are, if possible, still less characteristic. He- 
cesius says that it is of sweet flavour and nourishing, but rather astringent. 
Galen, however, says that it is hard, and difficult of digestion, when old. 
