Abstract
I AM very much desirous of being informed by you, or some of your readers, what animal is meant by “Scolopendra Cetacea,” which, according to Johnston, has only been described by Ælian: “Scolopendrae vim et naturam, … quoddam etiam maximame cêtos marinum earn esse audivi, quam de mari tempestatibus in litus expulsam nemo foret tarn audax, quin aspicere horreret. Ii verò qui res maritimas percallent, eas inquiunt toto capitespectari eminentes è mari: et narium pilos magna excelsitate apparere, et ejus caudam similiter atque locustae latam perspici: reliquum etiam corpus aliquando in superficie aequoris spectari, idque conferri posse cum triremi instae magnitudinis, atque permultis pedibus utrinque ordine sitis, tanquam ex scalmis appensis, natare. Addunt harum rerum periti ac fide digni, ipsos etiam fluetus ea natante leviter subsonare.” (“De Natura Animalium,” lib. xiii. cap. 23.) In Gesner's “Historia Animalium,” lib. iv., Francfort, 1604, p. 838, a figure is given of this animal said to have been seen in India.
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MINAKATA, K. The Centipede-Whale. Nature 56, 445 (1897). https://doi.org/10.1038/056445a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/056445a0
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