Latin Texts & Translations

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. ^[Note] In Italy the dormouse is found in one part only, the Messian forest. ^[Note] In Lycia the gazelle never passes beyond the mountains which border upon Syria; ^[Note] 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 Arginussa ^[Note] they never go beyond Mount Elaphus; those upon that mountain, too, have cloven ears. In the island of Poroselene, ^[Note] 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; ^[Note] 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. ^[Note] In Italy, the bite of the shrew-mouse ^[Note] 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. ^[Note] In this island there are neither foxes, nor bears, nor, indeed, any kind of baneful animal, ^[Note] with the exception of the phalangium, a species of spider, of which I shall speak in its appropriate place. ^[Note] It is a thing still more remarkable, that in this island there are no stags, except in the district of Cydon; ^[Note] the same is the case with the wild boar, the woodcock, ^[Note] and the hedgehog. In Africa, there are neither wild boars, stags, deer, nor bears.