416 
pltny's natural histoht. 
[Book IX. 
foot and a half above the surface of the water. The sea- 
dragon/^ again, if caught and thrown on the sand, works out 
a hole for itself with its muzzle, with the most wonderful 
celerity. 
CHAP. 44. (28.) FISHES WHICH HATE 1^0 BLOOD. EISHES KlfOWN 
AS SOFT FISH. 
The varieties of fish which we shall now mention are those 
which have no blood : they are of three kinds^^ — first, those 
which are known as '^soft;^' next, those which have thin crusts ; 
and, lastly, those which are enclosed in hard shells. The soft 
fish are the loligo,^^ the ssepia,^^ the polypus, and others of a 
similar nature. These last have the head between the feet 
and the belly, and have, all of them, eight feet : in the saepia 
and the loligo two of these feet are very long^^ and rough, 
and by means of these they lift the food to their mouth, and 
attach themselves to places in the sea, as though with an 
anchor ; the others act as so many arms, by means of which 
they seize their prey.^'^ 
therefore, that it is the great horned ray, now known as the cephalopterus,"* 
which, being often fifteen feet and more in diameter, answers much better 
to the description of its size implied by Pliny from the length of its horns. 
It is also mentioned under the name of cornuta in B. xxxii. c. 53, in com- 
pany with the saw-fish, the sword-fish, the dog-fish, and other large fishes. 
16 CuYier is of opinion, that Eondelet is correct in his suggestion that 
this is the sea-spider, called the " vive " in France, the viver or weever 
with us, and the Trachinus draco of Linnoeus, which fish is still called 
dpdicaiva by the modern Greeks. Pliny, in c. 48 of the present Book, 
charges the sea-spider with doing much mischief, by means of the spines or 
stickles on its back. Now iElian, B. ii. c. 50, and Oppian, Halieut. 1. 458, 
say the same of the sea-dragon ; and this is a well-known property of the 
modern vive, the Trachinus draco of Linnaeus. Pliny speaks more especially, 
in B. xxxii. c. 53, of the wounds which it makes with the spines or stickles 
of its opercules, which the vive is also able to infiict ; and in addition to 
this, it has the power of burrowing into the sand in a most incredibly short 
space of time. 
^'^ Cuvier remarks, that this division of the bloodless fish by Aristotle into 
the mollusca, testacea, and Crustacea, has been followed by naturalists almost 
down to the present day. 
1^ The Sagpia loligo of Linnseus ; the calmar of the French, or ink-fish. 
19 The Saepia officinalis of Linnaeus ; the s'eche of the French ; our cuttle- 
fish. 
2^ The Saepia octopodia of Linnseus, or eight-footed cuttle-fish. 
21 Cuvier remarks, that this account of the arms or feelers of the saepia 
and loligo is very exact. 
22 " Quibus venantur." Hardouin suggests that the proper reading 
