Pliny the Elder, The Natural History, BOOK VIII. THE NATURE OF THE TERRESTRIAL ANIMALS., CHAP. 83. (58.)—PLACES IN WHICH CERTAIN ANIMALS ARE NOT TO BE FOUND.

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CHAP. 83. (58.)—PLACES IN WHICH CERTAIN ANIMALS ARE NOT TO BE FOUND.

It is a remarkable fact, that nature has not only assigned different countries to different animals, but that even in the same country, it has denied certain species to peculiar localities.¹ In Italy the dormouse is found in one part only, the Messian forest.² In Lycia the gazelle never passes beyond the mountains which border upon Syria;³ nor does the wild ass in that vicinity pass over those which divide Cappadocia from Cilicia. On the banks of the Hellespont, the stags never pass into a strange territory, and about Arginussa⁴ they never go beyond Mount Elaphus; those upon that mountain, too, have cloven ears. In the island of Poroselene,⁵ the weasels will not so much as cross a certain road. In Bœotia, the moles, which were introduced at Lebadea, fly from the very soil of that country, while in the neighbourhood, at Orchomenus, the very same animals tear up all the fields. We have seen coverlets for beds made of the skins of these creatures, so that our sense of religion does not prevent us from employing these ominous animals for the purposes of luxury. When hares have been brought to Ithaca, they die as soon as ever they touch the shore, and the same is the case with rabbits, on the shores of the island of Ebusus;⁶ while they abound in the vicinity, Spain namely, and the Balearic isles. In Cyrene, the frogs were formerly dumb, and this species still exists, although croaking ones were carried over there from the continent. At the present day, even, the frogs in the island of Seriphos are dumb; but when they are carried to other places, they croak; the same thing is also said to have taken place at Sicandrus, a lake of Thessaly.⁷ In Italy, the bite of the shrew-mouse⁸ is venomous; an animal which is not to be found in any region beyond the Apennines. In whatever country it exists, it always dies immediately if it goes across the rut made by a wheel. Upon Olympus, a mountain of Macedonia, there are no wolves, nor yet in the isle of Crete.⁹ In this island there are neither foxes, nor bears, nor, indeed, any kind of baneful animal,¹⁰ with the exception of the phalangium, a species of spider, of which I shall speak in its appropriate place.¹¹ It is a thing still more remarkable, that in this island there are no stags, except in the district of Cydon;¹² the same is the case with the wild boar, the woodcock,¹³ and the hedgehog. In Africa, there are neither wild boars, stags, deer, nor bears.

1 Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 33.—B.

2 According to Hardouin, this forest is termed, in modem times, Bosco di Baccano; it is nine miles S.W. of Rome.

3 Cuvier informs us, that "Le dorcas des Grecs n'est le daim, comme le dit Hardouin, mais le chevreuil; car Aristote (De Partib. Anim. 1. iii. c. 2) dit que c'est le plus petit des animaux a comes que nous connaissions (sans doute en Gréce); et le dorcas Libyca, trés-bien decrit par Ælien (1. xiv. c. 4), est certainement la gazelle commune, 'antelope dorcas,'" Ajasson, vol. vi. pp. 467, 468; Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 565. Respecting the localities here mentioned, it has been proposed to substitute Cilicia for Syria, Syria and Lycia being at a considerable distance from each other.—B.

4 See B. v. c. 39.

5 See B. v. c.. 38.

6 See B. iii. c. 1, and the Note to the passage. See also c. 81 of this Book.

7 Ælian, B. ii. c. 37, gives the same account of the frogs of Seriphos and the lake of Thessaly, but gives the name of Pierus to the lake.—B.

8 "Mus araneüs; the' shrew-mouse,'" according to Cuvier, "La musaraigne n'est pas venimeuse. Il s'en faut beaucoup qu'elle n'existe pas au nord des Apennins; et elle ne périt point passe qu'elle a traversé une ornière, quoique souvent elle puisse y être écrasée. C'est un des quadrupédes que l'on tue le plus aisément par un coup léger." Ajasson, vol. vi. p. 468.—B.

9 Ælian, 13. iii. c. 32, gives the same account, which he professes to have taken from Theophrastus.—B.

10 This is also stated by Ælian.

11 B. xi. c. 23, and B. xxix. c. 27.—B.

12 See B. iv. c. 20.

13 "Attagenæ;" the commentators have suspected some inaccuracy with respect to this word, as we have no other remarks on birds in this part of Pliny's work; Lemaire, vol. iii. pp. 567, 568.—B.

The Natural History. Pliny the Elder. John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S. H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A. London. Taylor and Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street. 1855.

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Pliny the Elder, The Natural History
John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A., Ed.

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CHAP. 83. (58.)—PLACES IN WHICH CERTAIN ANIMALS ARE NOT TO BE FOUND.

Pliny the Elder, The Natural History John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A., Ed.

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CHAP. 83. (58.)—PLACES IN WHICH CERTAIN ANIMALS ARE NOT TO BE FOUND.

Pliny the Elder, The Natural History
John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A., Ed.