Aristotle's History of Animals / In Ten Books

by Aristotle

Of all wild animals the elephant is the most tame and gentle; for many of them are capable of instruction and intelligence, and they have been taught to worship the king. It is a very sensitive creature, and abounding in intellect. The male never again touches a female that he has once impregnated. Some persons say that the elephant will live for two hundred years, others an hundred and twenty, and the female lives nearly as long as the male. They arrive at perfection when sixty years old. They bear winter and cold weather very badly. It is an animal that lives in the neighbourhood of rivers, though not in them. It can also walk through rivers, and will advance as long as it can keep its proboscis above the surface; for it blows and breathes through this organ, but it cannot swim on account of the weight of its body.

Chapter XXXIV.

Camels refuse to have sexual intercourse with their dams, even when forced; for once a camel driver, who was in want of a male camel, veiled the dam and introduced her young to her. When the covering fell off in the act of copulation, he finished what he was about, and soon afterwards bit the camel driver to death. It is said also that the king of Scythia had an excellent mare, which always produced good colts. He wished to have a colt out of the mare by the best of these horses, and introduced him for copulation, but he would not do it. When she was covered up, however, he performed the act unwittingly. As soon as the form of the mare was shown after copulation, and the horse saw what was done, he ran away and threw himself down a precipice.

Chapter XXXV.

1. Among marine animals there are many instances reported of the mild, gentle disposition of the dolphin, and of its love of its children, and its affection, in the neighbourhood of Tarentum, Caria, and other places. It is said that when a dolphin was captured and wounded on the coast of Caria, so great a number came up to the harbour, that the fishermen let him go, when they all went away together. And one large dolphin, it is said, always follows the young ones, to take care of them; and sometimes a herd of large and small dolphins has been seen together, and two of these having left appeared soon after, supporting and carrying on their back a small dead dolphin, that was ready to sink, as if in pity for it, that it might not be devoured by any other wild creature.

2. Some incredible things are also told of their swiftness, for it appears to be the swiftest of all animals, whether marine or terrestrial. They will leap over the sails of large ships. This is especially the case when they pursue a fish for the sake of food; for their hunger will make them pursue their prey into the depths of the sea, if it retreats to the bottom. And when they have to return from a great depth, they hold their breath, as if they were reckoning the distance, and then they gather themselves up, and dart forward like an arrow, desirous of shortening their distance from a breathing-place. And if they meet with a ship they will throw themselves over its sails. Divers also do the same thing when they have sunk themselves into deep water, for they also gather up their strength in order to rise to the surface. The males and females live in pairs with each other. There is some doubt as to the reason why they cast themselves on the land, for they say that sometimes they appear to do this without any cause.

Chapter XXXVI.

1. As the actions of all animals agree with their dispositions, so also their dispositions will change with their actions, and some of their parts also. This takes place among birds; for hens, when they have conquered the cock, desire to copulate with others, and their crest and rump become elevated, so that it is difficult to say whether they are hens or not. In some, also, small spurs are found; and some males, after the death of the female, have been seen to take the same care of the young as the female would have done, leading them about and feeding them, and neither crowing, nor desiring sexual intercourse. And some male birds have been seen to be so effeminate from their birth, that they neither crowed, nor desired sexual intercourse, and would submit themselves to any males that desired them.

3. Many birds at particular seasons change both their colour and their voice, as the blackbird, which becomes russet instead of black, and assumes another voice, for it sings in the summer time, but in winter it chatters and screams violently. The thrush also alters its colour, for in winter it is grey, and in summer is variegated on the neck; but its voice does not alter. The nightingale sings unceasingly for fifteen days and nights, when the mountains become thick with leaves. As the summer advances it utters another voice, not quick and varied, but simple; its colour also is altered, and in Italy it is called by another name at this season of the year. It only shews itself for a short time, for it lies concealed.

3. The erithacus, and the bird called phœnicurus, are changed one into the other. The erithacus is a winter bird, the phœnicurus a summer bird; they differ in nothing but the colour. The sycalis and melancoryphus are the same, for these also are interchanged. The sycalis is found in the autumn, and the melancoryphus immediately after the end of the autumn. They also differ from each other in nothing but their colour and voice, and to prove that it is the same bird, each kind has been seen immediately after the change took place; and when the change was not quite complete, there was nothing characteristic of either form. Nor is it absurd to suppose that these birds change their voices or their colours, for the dove utters no sound in the winter, unless it may be on a fine day in a severe winter, when it will utter its sound to the astonishment of those that know its habits; and as soon as spring commences, it begins to utter its voice: and, on the whole, birds make the greatest number and variety of voices at the season of coition.