[1718] We may here refer to the judicious remarks of Cuvier, Ajasson, vol. vi. pp. 427, 428, and Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 399, on the leucrocotta. It seems impossible to identify Pliny’s description with any known animal, and it is not unlikely that he has confused the accounts of authors who were speaking of different animals. Some of the characteristics of the leucrocotta agree with those of the Indian antelope, while others seem to resemble those of the hyæna.—B.
[1719] Perhaps the eale may have been the two-horned rhinoceros, as some naturalists say that there is a degree of mobility in the horns of that animal; the same observation has been made with respect to the wild or forest bulls, the description of which animal, in Pliny, is probably from Diodorus Siculus.—B.
[1720] This description of the mantichora appears to be taken from the Indica of Ctesias; it has been also adopted by Aristotle and Ælian, but they have qualified their accounts by some expressions of doubt, which are omitted by Pliny. It has been conjectured, that Ctesias took his description from the hieroglyphic figures in his time, probably common in the East, and still found in the ruins of the Assyrian and Persian cities, Nineveh and Persepolis, for instance.—B.
[1721] Probably meaning, “not cloven.”
[1722] Cuvier conjectures, that this is from Ctesias, and says, that a similar animal is to be seen on one of the sculptures of Persepolis.—B.
[1723] Probably the stag of the Ganges, the “Cervus axis” of Linnæus; but if so, Pliny has omitted to mention the horns.—B.
[1724] White apes are now unknown, as a distinct species, but individuals are occasionally found nearly without colour.—B.
[1725] The “one-horned,” or the unicorn.
[1726] We have a discussion by Cuvier, respecting the existence of the unicorn, or of any animal similar to that here described, with a single horn. He remarks, that the only single-horned quadruped of which we have any certain knowledge, is the rhinoceros, and that the only horns which have been discovered, and which can have been single horns, belong to it. There are five animals mentioned by the ancients, as having single horns, the Indian ass, the single-horned horse, the single-horned ox, the monoceros, described in the text, and the oryx of Africa, which Pliny speaks of in c. 79 of this Book, and in B. xi. c. 106. There are many curious accounts given by travellers of acknowledged veracity, respecting animals seen in the more remote parts of Asia and Africa, answering to the description of the unicorn, and there are representations of the same in ancient sculptures; but they do not amount to that kind of evidence which can at all supply the place of direct proof.—B.
[1727] These will be found in B. v. c. 10.