Aristotle's History of Animals: In Ten Books — John Shaqi
Aristotle's History of Animals: In Ten BooksAristotle
PhilosophyPhilosophy
Aristotle's History of Animals: In Ten Books
Aristotle
Zoology -- Pre-Linnaean works
11. But man partakes of both qualities. Those which have a common
employment are called social, but that is not the case with all
gregarious animals. Man, and the bee, the wasp, and the ant, and the
stork belong to this class. Some of these obey a leader, others are
anarchical; the stork and the bee are of the former class, the ant and
many others belong to the latter. Some animals, both in the gregarious
and solitary class, are limited to one locality, others are migratory.
There are also carnivorous animals, herbivorous, omnivorous, and
others which eat peculiar food, as the bee and the spider; the former
eats only honey and a few other sweet things, while spiders prey upon
flies and there are other animals which feed entirely on fish. Some
animals hunt for their food, and some make a store, which others do
not. There are also animals which make habitations for themselves, and
others which do not. The mole, the mouse, the ant, and the bee, make
habitations, but many kinds both of insects and quadrupeds make no
dwelling.
12. With regard to situation, some are troglodite, as lizards and
serpents, others, as the horse and dog, live upon the surface of the
earth. Some kinds of animals burrow in the ground, others do not; some
animals are nocturnal, as the owl and the bat, others use the hours of
daylight. There are tame animals and wild animals. Man and the mule
are always tame, the leopard and the wolf are invariably wild, and
others, as the elephant, are easily tamed. We may, however, view them
in another way, for all the genera that have been tamed are found wild
also, as horses, oxen, swine, sheep, goats, and dogs.
13. Some animals utter a loud cry, some are silent, and others have a
voice, which in some cases may be expressed by a word, in others it
cannot. There are also noisy animals and silent animals, musical and
unmusical kinds, but they are mostly noisy about the breeding season.
Some, as the dove, frequent fields, others, as the hoopoe, live on
the mountains; some attach themselves to man, as the pigeon. Some are
lascivious, as the partridge and domestic fowl, and others are chaste,
as the raven, which rarely cohabits.
14. Again, there are classes of animals furnished with weapons of
offence, others with weapons of defence; in the former I include those
which are capable of inflicting an injury, or of defending themselves
when they are attacked; in the latter those which are provided with
some natural protection against injury.
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