And Aristonymus, in his Theseus, says—

There was a cockle (κόγχος) and other fish too drawn from the sea
At the same time, and by the same net.

And Phrynichus uses the word in the same way in his Satyrs. But Icesius, the Erasistratean, says that some cockles are rough, and some royal; and that the rough have a disagreeable juice, and afford but little nourishment, and are easily digested; and that people who are hunting for the purple-fish use them as bait: but of the smooth ones those are best which are the largest, in exact proportion to their size. And Hegesander, in his Memorials, says that the rough cockles are called by the Macedonians coryci, but by the Athenians crii.

34. Now Icesius says that limpets are more digestible than those shell-fish which have been already mentioned; but that oysters are not so nutritious as limpets, and are filling, but nevertheless are more digestible.

But of mussels, the Ephesian ones, and those which resemble them, are, as to their juicy qualities, superior to the periwinkles, but inferior to the cockles; but they have more effect as diuretics than as aperients. But some of them are like squills, with a very disagreeable juice, and without any flavour; but there is a kind which is smaller than they are, and which are rough outside, which are more diuretic, and full of a more pleasant juice than the kind which resembles squills: but they are less nutritious, by reason of their sizes, and also because their nature is inferior. But the necks of

[[146]]the ceryces are exceedingly good for the stomach, and are not so nutritious as mussels and cockles and periwinkles; but for people who have a weak stomach, and who do not easily expel the food into the cavity of the bowels, they are useful, inasmuch as they do not easily turn on the stomach. For those things which are confessedly digestible are, on the contrary, very unwholesome for people of such a constitution, being very easily inclined to turn on the stomach, because they are tender and easily dissolved. On which account the bags containing their entrails are not suited to vigorous stomachs, but they are very good for those whose bowels are in a weak state. But what are more nutritious than the others, and far nicer in taste, are the entrails of the purple-fish; though they certainly are somewhat like the squill. For indeed all shell-fish are of the same character; but the purple-fish and the solen have this peculiar characteristic, that if they are boiled they yield a thick juice. But the necks of the purple-fish, when boiled by themselves, are exceedingly good for bringing the stomach into a good condition. And Posidippus speaks of them in his Locrians in these terms:—

It is time now to eat eels and crabs,
Cockles, and fresh sea-urchins, and fish sounds,
And pinnas, and the necks of fish, and mussels.

35. Balani, if they are of the larger sort, are easily digested, and are good for the stomach. But otaria (and they are produced in the island called Pharos, which is close to Alexandria) are more nutritious than any of the before-mentioned fish, but they are not easily secreted. But Antigonus the Carystian, in his book upon Language, says that this kind of oyster is called by the Æolians the Ear of Venus. Pholades are very nutritious, but they have a disagreeable smell; but common oysters are very like all these sorts of shell-fish, and are more nutritious. There are also some kinds which are called wild oysters; and they are very nutritious, but they have not a good smell, and moreover they have a very indifferent flavour. But Aristotle, in his treatise about Animals, says, "Oysters are of all the following kinds: there are the pinna, the mussel, the oyster, the cteis, the solen, the cockle, the limpet, the small oyster, the balanus. And of migratory fish there are the purple-fish, the sweet purple-fish, the sea-urchin, the strobelus. Now the cteis has a rough shell, marked in streaks;

[[147]]but the oyster has no streaks, and a smooth shell. The pinna has a smooth mouth; but the large oyster has a wide mouth, and is bivalve, and has a smooth shell. But the limpet is univalve, and has a smooth shell; and the mussel has a united shell. The solen and balanus are univalve, and have a smooth shell; and the cockle is a mixture of both kinds." Epænetus also says, in his Cookery Book, that the interior part of the pinna is called mecon. But in the fifth book of his treatise on the Parts of Animals, Aristotle says, "The purple-fish are born about spring, and the ceryces at the end of the winter. And altogether," says he, "all shell-fish appear in the spring to have what are called eggs; and in the autumn, too, except those kinds of sea-urchins which are good to eat. And these fish indeed have eggs in the greatest number at those seasons, but they are never without them; and they have them in the greatest numbers at the time of full moon, and in the warm weather, with the exception of those fish which are found in the Euripus of the Pyrrhæans; for they are best in the winter, and they are small, but full of eggs. And nearly all the cockle tribe appear to breed in like manner at about the same season."

36. And continuing the subject, the philosopher says again, "The purple-fish therefore being all collected together in the spring at the same place, make what is called melicera. And that is something like honeycomb, but not indeed so elegant, but it is as if a great number of the husks of white vetches were fastened together; and there is no open passage in any of them: nor are the purple-fish born of this melicera, but they, and nearly all other shell-fish, are produced of mud and putrefaction; and this is, as it were, a kind of purification both for them and for the purple-fish, for they too make this melicera. And when they begin to make it, they emit a sort of sticky mass, from which those things grow which resemble husks. All these are eventually separated, and they drop blood on the ground. And in the place where they do so, there are myriads of little purple-fish born, adhering to one another in the ground, and the old purple-fish are caught while carrying them. And if they are caught before they have produced their young, they sometimes produce them in the very pots in which they are caught when collected together in them, and the young look like a bunch of grapes.