The Boys' and Girls' Pliny Being parts of Pliny's "Natural History" edited for boys and girls, with an Introduction

Thebaic stone, which is sprinkled all over with spots like gold, is found in Africa, adjacent to Egypt; being peculiarly adapted, from its natural properties, for the manufactur...

In the ninetieth Olympiad lived Aglaophon, Cephisodorus, Erillus, and Evenor, the father of Parrhasius, one of the greatest of painters, and of whom we shall have to speak when...

The varieties of fish which we shall now mention are those which have no blood: they are of three kinds--first, those which are known as "soft;" next, those which have thin crus...

This treatise on Natural History, a novel work in Roman literature, which I have just completed, I have taken the liberty to dedicate to you, most gracious Emperor, an appellati...

There are certain tribes of the Scythians, and, indeed, many other nations, which feed upon human flesh. This fact itself might, perhaps, appear incredible, did we not recollect...

The very highest position among all valuables belongs to the pearl. It is principally the Indian Ocean that sends them to us. Across many a sea, and over many a lengthened tract...

The instincts of birds are no less varied in relation to their food. The "Caprimulgus," or goat-milker, is the name of a bird, which is to all appearance a large blackbird; it t...

An almost innumerable multitude of artists have been rendered famous by their statues and figures of smaller size. Before all others is Phidias, the Athenian,[218] who executed...

But after some time the artists everywhere applied themselves to representations of the gods. I find that the first bronze image, which was made at Rome, was that of Ceres; and...

The swiftest not only of the sea-animals, but of all animals whatever, is the dolphin.[128] He is more rapid in his movements than a bird, more swift than the flight of an arrow...

Next comes the earth, on which alone of all parts of nature we have bestowed the name that implies maternal veneration. It is appropriated to man as the heavens are to God. She...

The elephant is the largest of all the land animals, and in intelligence approaches the nearest to man. He understands the language of his country, obeys commands, and remembers...

The most remarkable instance, I think, of vigor of mind in any man ever born, was that of Cæsar, the Dictator. I am not at present alluding to his valor and courage, nor yet his...

The art of sculpture is of much more ancient origin than those of painting and of statuary in bronze. Phidias himself worked in marble, and there is a Venus of his at Rome, a wo...

Taprobana,[34] under the name of the "land of the Antipodes," was long looked upon as another world: the age and the arms of Alexander the Great were the first to give satisfact...

King Alexander had a very remarkable horse which was called Bucephalus, either on account of the fierceness of its aspect, or because it had the figure of a bull's head marked o...

Of all the birds with which we are acquainted, the eagle is looked upon as the most noble, and the most remarkable for its strength. There are six different kinds; the one calle...

The manner in which bees carry on their work is as follows. In the day time a guard is stationed at the entrance of the hive, like the sentries in a camp. At night they take the...

The salamander, an animal like a lizard in shape, and with a body starred all over, never comes out except during heavy showers, and disappears the moment it becomes fine. This...

We have no certain knowledge as to the commencement of the art of painting. The Egyptians assert that it was invented among themselves, six thousand years before it passed into...

And yet pearls may be looked upon as pretty nearly a possession of everlasting duration--they descend from a man to his heir, and they are alienated from one to another just lik...

It was formerly a very difficult matter to catch the lion, and it was mostly done by means of pit-falls. In the reign, however, of the Emperor Claudius, accident disclosed a met...

I consider it, therefore, an indication of human weakness to inquire into the figure and form of God. For whatever God be, if there be any God distinct from the world, and where...

The next crime committed against the welfare of mankind was on the part of him who was the first to coin a denarius of gold, a crime the author of which is equally unknown. The...

Remarkable as is the present state of the world, and of the countries, nations, seas, islands, and cities which it contains, the nature of the animated beings which exist upon i...

Of the vultures, the black ones are the strongest. No person has yet found a vulture's nest: so that some have thought, though erroneously, that these birds come from the opposi...

The Nile produces the crocodile, a destructive quadruped, and equally dangerous on land and in the water. This is the only land animal that does not enjoy the use of its tongue,...

I think that I ought here to make some further mention of Aristotle, seeing that upon these subjects, I intend, in a great measure, to make him my guide. Alexander the Great, fi...

Among the animals that are domesticated with mankind have occurred many circumstances that deserve to be known. Among these animals are more particularly those faithful friends...

I cannot conclude what I have to say about art and artists without some reference to painting, an art which was formerly illustrious, when it was held in esteem both by kings an...

The integuments of the aquatic animals are many in number. Some are covered with a hide and hair, as the sea-calf and hippopotamus, for instance; others again, with a hide only,...

We must, in the next place, give an account of the ores of bronze, an alloy which, in respect of utility, is next in value; indeed the Corinthian bronze comes before silver, not...

Among so many different pursuits, and so great a variety of works and objects, who can select the palm of glory for transcendent genius? Unless perchance we should agree in opin...

At the present day, the first place in point of delicacy is given to the scarus, the only fish that is said to ruminate, and to feed on grass and not on other fish. It is mostly...

We shall now speak of the second class of birds employed in augury, which is divided into two kinds; those which give omens by their note, and those which afford presages by the...

The caprice of the human mind is marvellously exemplified in the varying fashions of silver plate; the work of no individual manufactory being for any long time in vogue. At one...

In a similar manner also, the blackbird, the thrush, and the starling take their departure to neighboring countries; but they do not lose their feathers, nor conceal themselves,...

In Italy also it is believed that there is a noxious influence in the eye of a wolf; it is supposed that it will instantly take away the voice of a man, if it is the first to se...

The world,[9] and whatever that be which we otherwise call the heavens, by the vault of which all things are enclosed, we must conceive to be a Deity, to be eternal, without bou...

As to boldness of design, the examples are innumerable; for we had statues of colossal bulk, equal to towers in size. Such, for instance, is the Apollo in the Capitol, which was...

We have now given an account of the animals which we call terrestrial, and which live as it were in a sort of society with man. Among the remaining ones, it is well known that t...

We are now about to speak of metals, of actual wealth, the standard of comparative value, objects for which we diligently search, within the earth, in numerous ways. In one plac...

But among them all, the first rank, and our special admiration, ought, in justice, to be accorded to bees, which alone, of all the insects, appear to have been created for the b...

The worst crime against mankind was committed by him who was the first to put a ring upon his fingers. All the stories told about Prometheus, I look upon as utterly fabulous, al...

At Rome, and in our municipal towns, we still see many pediments of temples, wonderful for their workmanship, artistic merit and long duration, more deserving of our respect tha...

I am by no means unaware that I may be justly accused of ingratitude and indolence, if I describe briefly and in a cursory manner the land which is at once the foster-child and...

Belonging to the genus of birds known as the "vitiparræ," there is one whose nest is formed of dried moss,[177] and is in shape so exactly like a ball, that it is impossible to...

Following the proper order of things, we have now arrived at the culminating point of the wonders manifested to us by the operations of Nature. For what is there more unruly tha...

The pigeon will never desert its nest, unless it is either widower or widow. They manifest a great degree of affection for their offspring. When the female is sitting, the male...

We find it stated, that the oxen of India are of the height of camels, and that the extremities of their horns are four feet apart. In our part of the world the most valuable ox...

We must now make some mention of those artists who acquired fame by the pencil in an inferior style of painting. Among these was Piræicus, inferior to few of the painters in ski...

The first person who formed artificial oyster-beds was Sergius Orata, who established them at Baiæ, in the time of Lucius Crassus, the orator, just before the Marsic War. This w...

It is by no means an absurdity to append to the silk-worm an account of the spider--a creature worthy of our special admiration. The _phalangium_ is of small size, with body spo...

The song of the nightingale is to be heard, without intermission, for fifteen days and nights, continuously, when the foliage is thickening, as it bursts from the bud; a bird wh...

The deer, although the mildest of all animals, has still its own feelings of malignancy; when hard pressed by the hounds it flies of its own accord for refuge to man. The deer e...

Let a man employ himself, forsooth, in the enquiry whether there has been only one Hercules, how many Bacchuses there have been, and all the other questions which are buried dee...

Locusts lay their eggs in large masses, in the autumn, in holes which they form in the ground. These eggs remain underground throughout the winter, and in the ensuing year, at t...

There is a famous combat mentioned of a Roman with an elephant, when Hannibal compelled our prisoners to fight against each other. The one who had survived all the others he pla...

The statements which Ovid has made as to the instincts of fish, in the work[152] of his known as the "Treatise on Fishes," appear to me truly marvellous. The scarus, for instanc...

Having spoken of the emigration of these birds over sea and land, I cannot allow myself to defer mentioning some other birds of smaller size, which have the same natural instinc...

The crow, among other kinds of food, feeds upon nuts. If these prove too hard for his beak to break, the crow flies to a great height, and then lets them fall again and again up...

We shall now proceed to a description of insects, a subject replete with endless difficulties. Insects are numerous, and form many species, and their mode of life is like that o...

On painting we have now said enough, and more than enough; but it will be only proper to append some accounts of the plastic art. Butades, a potter of Sicyon, was the first who...

Many authors deny that insects breathe, upon the ground that in their viscera there is no respiratory organ[188] to be found. They assert that insects have the same kind of life...

The cubs of bears when first born are shapeless masses of white flesh, a little larger than mice; their claws alone being prominent. The mother then licks them gradually into pr...

The Indian Sea produces turtles of such vast size, that with the shell of a single animal they are able to roof a habitable cottage; and among the islands of the Red Sea, the na...

The ancients had no number whereby to express a larger sum than one hundred thousand; and at the present day, we reckon by multiples of that number, as, for instance, ten times...

The Greeks name these stars _comets_, we name them Crinitæ, as if shaggy with bloody locks, and surrounded with bristles like hair. Some of them have a mane hanging down from th...

For my own part, I am strongly of opinion that there is sense existing in those bodies which have the nature of neither animals nor vegetables, but a third which partakes of the...

It would not be right to omit what is said about the fish called anthias, and which I find is looked upon as true by most writers. I have already mentioned the Chelidoniæ, certa...

In the far North, beyond the Riphæan[20] mountains, is the region known by the name of Pterophoros,[21] because of the perpetual fall of snow there, the flakes of which resemble...

Many thanks do we owe to the sheep, both for appeasing the gods, and for giving us the use of its fleece. As oxen cultivate the fields which yield food for man, so to sheep are...

Mentioning the flight of the pigeon leads me to consider that of other birds. All other animals have one determinate mode of progression, which in every kind is always the same;...

Next to copper comes the metal known as iron, at the same time the most useful and the most fatal instrument in the hand of mankind. For by the aid of iron we lay open the groun...

At the games of Pompey the rhinoceros, an animal which has a single horn projecting from the nose, was also exhibited; it has been frequently seen since then. This is a natural-...

Let us now pass on to the murex and other kinds of shell-fish, which have a stronger shell, and in which Nature, in her sportive mood, has displayed a great variety--so many are...

In Northern Gaul the fish called muræna has on the right jaw seven spots, which bear a resemblance to the constellation of the Great Dipper, and are of a gold color, shining as...

The palm has been awarded to oysters at our tables as a most exquisite dish. Oysters love fresh water and spots where numerous rivers discharge themselves into the sea. Generall...

Vast numbers of sharks infest the seas in the vicinity of the sponges, to the great peril of those who dive for them. These persons say that a sort of dense cloud gradually thic...

Varro informs us, as an eye-witness, that in the temple of Sancus, the wool was still preserved on the distaff and spindle of Tanaquil,[120] who was also called Caia Cæcilia; an...

It is generally supposed among us that only the very finest silver admits of being laminated, and so converted into mirrors. Pure silver was formerly used for the purpose, but,...

In the same degree that people in our part of the world set a value upon the pearls of India do the people of India prize coral: it being the prevailing taste in each nation res...

The people of Delos were the first to cram poultry, and to originate that abominable mania for devouring fattened birds, larded with the grease of their own bodies. I find in th...

Æthiopia and India, more especially, produce birds of diversified plumage, and such as quite surpass all description. In the front rank of these is the phoenix,[165] that famous...

The balæna penetrates even to our seas. It is said that they are not to be seen in the ocean of Gades before the winter solstice, and that at periodical seasons they retire and...

In India they are caught by the keeper guiding one of the tame elephants towards a wild one which he has found alone or has separated from the herd; upon which he beats it, and...

The panther and the tiger are nearly the only animals that are remarkable for a skin distinguished by the variety of its spots; whereas others have them of a single color, appro...

We come next to speak of silver ore, another egregious folly of mankind. Silver is never found but in shafts sunk deep in the ground, there being no indications on the surface t...

Ants work in common, like bees; but while the latter make their food, the former only store it away. If a person compares the burdens which the ants carry with the size of their...

The form of the nest built by the halcyon reminds me also of the instinctive cleverness displayed by other birds; and, in no respect is the ingenuity of birds more deserving of...

Aristotle says that the elephant lives to the age of two hundred years, and in some instances the extraordinary age of three hundred years has been attained. The elephant is in...

Up to the present time it has not been ascertained from what place the storks come, or whither they go when they leave us. There can be no doubt but that, like the cranes, they...

A deputation of persons from Olisipo (Lisbon) that had been sent for the purpose, brought word to the Emperor Tiberius that a triton[127] had been both seen and heard in a certa...

It cannot be denied, that fire proceeding from the stars which are above the clouds, may fall on them, as we frequently observe on serene evenings, and that the air is agitated...

There are some small birds which have hooked talons; the woodpecker, for example, surnamed "of Mars," of considerable importance in the auspices. To this kind belong the birds w...

Another class of insects spring from a grub of larger size, with two horns of very peculiar appearance. The larva becomes a caterpillar, after which it assumes the state in whic...

The goose also keeps a vigilant guard; a fact which is well attested by the defence of the Capitol, at a moment when, by the silence of the dogs, the commonwealth had been betra...

It was considered a very great thing for Philippides to run one thousand one hundred and sixty stadia, the distance between Athens and Lacedæmon, in two days, until Amystis, the...

There are still some wonderful kinds of fishes which we find mentioned by Theophrastus: he says, that when the waters subside, which have been admitted for the purposes of irrig...

In Egypt an ox is even worshipped as a deity; they call it Apis. It is distinguished by a conspicuous white spot on the right side, in the form of a crescent. There is a knot al...

Among the Hesperian Æthiopians is the fountain of Nigris, by many, supposed to be the head of the Nile. Near this fountain, there is found a wild beast, which is called the cato...

Nature has bestowed upon many animals the faculty of observing the heavens, and of presaging the winds, rains, and tempests, each in its own peculiar way. It would be an endless...

Africa is almost the only country that does not produce the stag, but it produces the chameleon, which, however, is much more commonly met with in India. Its figure and size are...

The tracts over which the cranes travel must be immense, if we only consider that they come all the way from the Eastern Sea. These birds agree by common consent at what moment...

Varro, speaking of persons remarkable for their strength, gives us an account of Tributanus, a celebrated gladiator, and skilled in the use of the Samnite arms;[69] he was a man...

Camels are found feeding in herds in the East. Of these there are two different kinds, the Bactrian and the Arabian; the former kind having two humps on the back, the latter onl...

This bird is a little larger than a sparrow, and the greater part of its body is of an azure blue color, with a slight intermixture of white and purple in some of the larger fea...

Opposite to the west coast of Europe is the island called Britannia, so celebrated in the records of Greece[25] and of our own country. It is situate to the north-west, and, wit...

Wasps build their nests of mud in lofty places, and make wax: hornets, on the other hand, build in holes or in the hollows of trees. With these two kinds the cells are also hexa...

Hedgehogs also lay up food for the winter; rolling themselves on apples as they lie on the ground, they pierce some with their quills, and then take up another in the mouth, and...

The different kinds of apes, which approach the nearest to the human figure, are distinguished from each other by the tail. Their shrewdness is quite wonderful. It is said that,...

From the midst of the sands, according to the story, this mountain[33] raises its head to the heavens; rugged and craggy on the side which looks toward the shores of the ocean t...

The flesh of the wild boar is much esteemed. Cato the Censor, in his orations, strongly declaimed against the use of the brawn of the wild boar. The animal used to be divided in...

The swallow, the only bird that is carnivorous among those which have not hooked talons, takes its departure also during the winter months; but it goes only to neighboring count...

Some of these animals have no horns; but where there are horns, the age of the animal is denoted by the number of knots on them. In Cilicia, and in the vicinity of the Syrtes, t...

The history of birds follows next, the very largest of which, and indeed almost approaching to the nature of quadrupeds, is the ostrich of Africa or Æthiopia. This bird exceeds...

Hipparchus, who can never be sufficiently commended, as one who more especially proved the relation of the stars to man, and that our souls are a portion of heaven, discovered a...

I have seen, during the night-watches of the soldiers, a luminous appearance, like a star, attached to the javelins on the ramparts. They also settle on the yard-arms and other...

The neck of the hyæna with the mane, runs continuously into the back-bone, so that the animal cannot bend this part without turning round the whole body. Many wonderful things a...

The stadium is equal to one hundred and twenty-five of our Roman paces, or six hundred and twenty-five feet. Posidonius supposes that there is a space of not less than forty sta...