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1 This refers to what will be found stated in this Chapter, that stags conceal their horns, when they fall off, that they may not be used in medicine.—B.
2 This is mentioned by Aristotle, Plutarch, and Ælian, but it must be considered as very doubtful.—B.
3 See B. xviii. c. 74.
4 It seems that Pliny here attributes the blackening of the mouths of the stags to their turning up the earth with their muzzles; Aristotle, however, refers it to a constitutional cause, arising from their violent sexual excitement; Hist. Anim. B. vi. c. 29.—B.
5 Or seseli, probably hart-wort. See B. xx. c. 87, and B. xxv. c. 52.
6 We learn from Hardouin, that there has been much discussion respecting the plants or other substances which the female is supposed to eat after parturition. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. ix. c. 6, asserts that it eats the chorion, the membrane in which the fœtus has been enveloped, and afterwards the herb seselis. To make the account of Pliny agree with that of Aristotle, some of the commentators have even supposed, that chorion here means the name of a plant, and they have proposed to substitute the word chorion for aros in the text.—B. Aros is probably the present "Arum maculatum," or wake-robin. See p. 307, N. 78.
7 Aristotle, Plutarch, and Xenophon speak of the influence of music on these animals.—B.
8 Aristotle, ubi supra, mentions this respecting their ears; the same takes place, to a certain extent, with all animals that have large external auricles.—B.
9 Aristotle, ubi supra, Ælian, ubi supra, and B. iii. c. 17, and Theophrastus, in a fragment on the Envious among Animals, agree in stating that one of the horns of the stag is never found, although they differ respecting the individual horn, whether the right one or the left. Aristotle says that it is the left, while Theophrastus and Ælian agree with the statement of Pliny.—B.
10 Cuvier says, that no antlers are added after the eighth year.—B.
11 This, as well as most of the statements respecting the growth of the horns, is mentioned by Aristotle, ubi supra, but it is quite unfounded.—B.
12 This story of the white hind of Sertorius, is given in detail by Aulus Gellius, B. xv. c. 22, who tells us that it was given to him by a native of Lusitania, upon which Sertorius pretended that it had been sent from Diana, who, through it, held converse with him, and instructed him how to act. Plutarch, Frontinus, and Valerius Maximus, also relate the story.
13 This story, which is obviously incorrect, is mentioned by Ælian, Anim. Nat. B. ii. c. 9; and is again referred to in B. xxviii. c. 42.—B.
14 Graguinus, Hist. Franc. B. ix. c. 3, relates a still more wonderful anecdote of a similar nature; but, as Buffon remarks, such tales are without foundation, the life of the stag not being more than thirty or forty years. Cuvier, also, says that its life does not exceed thirty-six or forty years.—B.
15 The real nature of the tragelaphus of Pliny, and the hippelaphus, or horse-stag of Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. ii. c. 1, which appear to be the same animal, had long remained a disputed question among naturalists, when, as Cuvier states, the point was decided by Alphonse Duvaucel, who ascertained that it was a species of stag, which inhabited the mountains of the north of Hindostan.—B.
16 And in Arabia as well, according to Diodorus Siculus, B. ii.
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- Commentary references to this page
(1):
- W. W. How, J. Wells, A Commentary on Herodotus, 4.192
- Cross-references to this page
(1):
- Harper's, Vivarium
- Cross-references in general dictionaries to this page
(2):
- Lewis & Short, gĕnĕrōsĭtas
- Lewis & Short, insĭlĭo