Note 2379 — BOOK IX. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF FISHES.

From σκιὰ, the Greek for “shadow;” which name, as Cuvier says, has been translated by the moderns by the word “ombre,” or “umbra.” But this name has been given at the present day to so many fish of various kinds, from the “ombra” of the Italians and the “maigre” of the French, the Sciæna umbra of the naturalists, the ombrine or Sciæna cirrhosa of Linnæus, to the ombre of Auvergne, the Salmo thymallus of Linnæus, and the ombre chevalier, the Salmo umbra of Linnæus, that this synonyme does not aid us in discovering its identity. Aristotle says nothing relative to his sciæna, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 19, except that it has stones in the head, a thing that is common to this with many other fish. Pliny, in copying this passage, preserves the Greek name; but Ovid, Columella, and Ausonius give it the name of “umbra;” the one, however, described by the first two is a sea-fish, while that of Ausonius is a fresh-water fish. Varro, who cites the name of umbra among those given to fish, adds that the species which bears it owes its name to its peculiar colour; and as Ovid calls it “liveus,” or “livid,” it may be presumed to have been of a dark colour. It is very possible, then, that it may have been the corvus marinus, or sea-crow, the Sciæna nigra of Linnæus.