BOOK IX

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THE NATURAL HISTORY OF FISHES.

1. Why the largest animals are found in the sea 358

2. The sea monsters of the Indian Ocean 359

3. The largest animals that are found in each ocean 361

4. The forms of the Tritons and Nereids. The forms of sea-elephants 362

5. The balæna and the orca 365

6. Whether fishes respire, and whether they sleep 367

7. Dolphins 369

8. Human beings who have been beloved by dolphins 371

9. Places where dolphins help men to fish 374

10. Other wonderful things relating to dolphins 376

11. The tursio 377

12. Turtles; the various kinds of turtles, and how they are caught _ib._

13. Who first invented the art of cutting tortoise-shell 379

14. Distribution of aquatic animals into various species _ib._

15. Those which are covered with hair, or have none, and how they bring forth. Sea-calves, or phocæ 380

16. How many kinds of fish there are 381

17. Which of the fishes are of the largest size 382

18. Tunnies, cordyla, and pelamides, and the various parts of them that are salted. Melandrya, apolecti, and cybia 385

19. The aurias and the scomber 386

20. Fishes which are never found in the Euxine; those which enter it and return 387

21. Why fishes leap above the surface of the water 390

22. That auguries are derived from fishes 391

23. What kinds of fishes have no males _ib._

24. Fishes which have a stone in the head; those which keep themselves concealed during winter; and those which are not taken in winter, except upon stated days 392

25. Fishes which conceal themselves during the summer; those which are influenced by the stars 396

26. The mullet 397

27. The acipenser 398

28. The lupus, the asellus 399

29. The scarus, the mustela 400

30. The various kinds of mullets, and the sargus that attends them 401

31. Enormous prices of some fish 403

32. That the same kinds are not everywhere equally esteemed 404

33. Gills and scales 405

34. Fishes which have a voice.—Fishes without gills 406

35. Fishes which come on land; the proper time for catching fish _ib._

36. Classification of fishes, according to the shape of the body 407

37. The fins of fish, and their mode of swimming 408

38. Eels 409

39. The murena _ib._

40. Various kinds of flat fish 411

41. The echeneis, and its uses in enchantments 412

42. Fishes which change their colour 414

43. Fishes which fly above the water—the sea-swallow—the fish that shines in the night—the horned fish—the sea-dragon 415

44. Fishes which have no blood.—Fishes known as soft fish 416

45. The sæpia, the loligo, the scallop 417

46. The polypus _ib._

47. The nautilus, or sailing polypus 419

48. The various kinds of polypi; their shrewdness _ib._

49. The sailing nauplius 422

50. Sea-animals which are enclosed with a crust; the cray-fish 423

51. The various kinds of crabs; the pinnotheres, the sea urchin, cockles, and scallops 424

52. Various kinds of shell-fish 428

53. What numerous appliances of luxury are found in the sea 429

54. Pearls; how they are produced, and where 430

55. How pearls are found 433

56. The various kinds of pearls 434

57. Remarkable facts connected with pearls—their nature 436

58. Instances of the use of pearls 437

59. How pearls first came into use at Rome 440

60. The nature of the murex and the purple 441

61. The different kinds of purples 443

62. How wools are dyed with the juices of the purple 445

63. When purple was first used at Rome; when the laticlave vestment and the prætexta were first worn 447

64. Fabrics called conchyliated 448

65. The amethyst, the Tyrian, the hysginian, and the crimson tints 449

66. The pinna, and the pinnotheres 450

67. The sensitiveness of water-animals; the torpedo, the pastinaca, the scolopendra, the glanis, and the ram-fish 451

68. Bodies which have a third nature, that of the animal and vegetable combined—the sea-nettle 453

69. Sponges; the various kinds of them, and where they are produced: proofs that they are gifted with life by nature 454

70. Dog-fish 456

71. Fishes which are enclosed in a stony shell—sea-animals which have no sensation—other animals which live in the mud 458

72. Venomous sea-animals 459

73. The maladies of fishes 460

74. The generation of fishes 461

75. Fishes which are both oviparous and viviparous 465

76. Fishes the belly of which opens in spawning, and then closes again 466

77. Fishes which have a womb; those which impregnate themselves _ib._

78. The longest lives known amongst fishes 467

79. The first person that formed artificial oyster-beds _ib._

80. Who was the first inventor of preserves for other fish 469

81. Who invented preserves for murenæ _ib._

82. Who invented preserves for sea-snails 470

83. Land-fishes 471

84. The mice of the Nile 472

85. How the fish called the anthias is taken 473

86. Sea-stars 474

87. The marvellous properties of the dactylus 475

88. The antipathies and sympathies that exist between aquatic animals _ib._

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