[2791] See c. [71] of the present Book.
[2792] This name, Cuvier says, appears so rarely in the ancient writers, that it is difficult to ascertain its exact signification. The moderns, he says, have pretty generally agreed to give it to the carp, but without any good and sufficient foundation. It was a lake or river fish, which, as Aristotle says, Hist. Anim. B. vi. c. 14, deposited its eggs five or six times in the year, and which had a palate so fleshy, that it might almost be mistaken for a tongue, B. iv. c. 8, characteristics that appear well suited to the carp. But then, on the other hand, Oppian mentions it, Halieut. B. i., as a shore fish, implying apparently that it belonged to the sea; and Pliny himself, in c. 25 of the present Book, does the same, by his words, “hoc et in mari accidere cyprino.” The words “in mari,” however, he has added, of his own accord, to the account which he has derived from Aristotle.
[2793] The fish called the sea-scorpion. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. v. c. 11.
[2794] “Sola autumno, occasu Vergiliarum.” It seems questionable whether the reading should not be “solea:” “the sole in autumn, at the setting of the Vergiliæ.”
[2795] The Pleiades.
[2796] See c. [40] of the present Book.
[2797] Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. v. c. 11.
[2798] “Prosequitur afflatu.” Aristotle says that it pours over them its ink or atramentum, καταφυσᾷ τὸν θόλον.
[2799] Philostratus, Hist. B. v. c. 17, says that so full is it of eggs, that after it is dead they will more than fill a vessel far larger than the cavities of its head.
[2800] Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. v. c. 14.