"1. It is of speedy growth (b. v. c. 9.). 2. Keeps close in shore (b. viii. c. 13.). 3. Burrows in holes, as the lamprey and conger (b. viii. c. 15.). 4. Lives only on animal food like other cartilaginous fishes (b. viii. c. 2.)." It is therefore of Cuvier's series, _chondropterigii_, of which the sturgeon is _facile princeps_. The μέμβρας is classed by Aristotle (b. vi. c. 15.) under the general term ἀφύη, which appears to correspond well with Cuvier's genus _clupea_ (including the herring, pilchard, sprat, white-bait, &c), and was taken, Aristotle says, all the year, except from autumn to spring, which corresponds with the migrations of this genus; the shad coming in May and departing in July, the anchovy appearing from May to July, the pilchard in July, the herring in October and beginning of November, and the sprat in November. The ἀφύη, he also says, were salted for keeping. The μέμβρας was obtained in the Phaleric harbour (b. vi. c. 15.), close to the marsh and street of the same name at Athens.[6] Aristotle also represents the τρίχιαι as coming from the τρίχιδες, and the latter from the μεμβράδες; hence it is to be inferred that the fishermen called this fish at different stages of its growth by different names, in mistake. The τρίχιδες appear also to have been as abundant at Athens as sprats are with us, the latter selling sometimes at sixpence the bushel, and being used for manure, whilst Aristophanes mentions the price of five farthings (one _obolus_) the hundred of τρίχιδες (_Knights_, 662.). The ἀφύη was obtained from the Attic shores of Salamine and Marathon (_Aristot. H. A._ b. vi. c. 15.), and the supply was stopped or much diminished by war (_Knights_, 644.). The ὀρφὸς was a more valuable fish than the μέμβρας, as the refusing the latter and buying the former furnished the next stallman with the opportunity of insinuating that the purchaser was forgetful of liberty, equality, &c. (_Wasps_, 494.; _Knights_, 851.). Theodore Gaza, the Latin translator of Aristotle's _History of Animals_, renders ὀρφὸς by _cernua_. Amongst his various banquets, Homer never mentions _fish_, afterwards admitted as a delicacy of the costliest kind at Grecian and Roman feasts. [Footnote 6: Not from a fish called _Phalerica_, as stated in Scapula's lexicon.] T. J. BUCKTON. Lichfield. _Dutch Commentary on Pope_ (Vol. v., p. 27.).--The passage in Pope has nothing to do with ducks and drakes. "Verbum quo utitur Popius, monstrat, cogitâsse eum de quodam quod cadit, non quod jacitur. Sed neque est _lapis_. Cur de Hollandico loquitur? quia ut puto, latrinæ in Hollandiâ peditæ sunt aliquando super aquam, ibi abundantem, _circuli_ sunt ii, quos omne quod cadit in aquam, naturâ facit." There is the same idea, as Warburton observes, in the _Essay on Man_, ep. iv. 364. C. B.