De sollertia animalium

There are many examples of cunning, but I shall dismiss foxes and wolves[*](Cf. Pindar, Pythians, ii. 84; Oppian, Cynegetica, iii. 266.) and the tricks of crane and daw (for they are obvious), and shall take for my witness Thales,[*](Omitted in Diels-Kranz, Frag. der Vorsok., not without reason. Cf. Aelian, De Natura Animal. vii. 42.) the most ancient of the Wise Men,[*](See the Septem Sapientium Convivium (Mor. 146 b ff.).) not the least of whose claims to admiration, they say, was his getting the better of a mule by a trick. For one of the mules that were used to carry salt, on entering a river, accidentally stumbled and, since the salt melted away, it was free of its burden when it got up. It recognized the cause of this and

bore it in mind. The result was that every time it crossed the river, it would deliberately lower itself and wet the bags, crouching and bending first to one side, then to the other. When Thales heard of this, he gave orders to fill the bags with wool and sponges instead of salt and to drive the mule laden in this manner. So when it played its customary trick and soaked its burden with water, it came to know that its cunning was unprofitable and thereafter was so attentive and cautious in crossing the river that the water never touched the slightest portion of its burden even by accident.

Partridges[*](Cf. 992 b infra; Mor. 494 e and the references there; add Pliny, Nat. Hist. x. 103; Philo, 35 (p. 117) (probably referring to partridges, though the Latin version reads palumbae); Antigonus, Hist. Mirab. 39; Aelian, De Natura Animal. iii. 16; xi. 38; Aristotle, Historia Animal. 613 b 31.) exhibit another piece of cunning, combined with affection for their young. They teach their fledglings, who are not yet able to fly, to lie on their backs when they are pursued and to keep above them as a screen some piece of turf or rubbish. The mothers meanwhile lure the hunters in another direction and divert attention to themselves, fluttering along at their feet and rising only briefly until, by making it seem that they are on the point of being captured, they draw them far away from their young.

When hares[*](Cf. Aelian, De Natura Animal. xiii. 11; vi. 47.) return for repose, they put to sleep their leverets in quite different places, often as much as a hundred feet apart, so that, if man or dog comes near, they shall not all be simultaneously in danger.

The hares themselves run to and fro and leave tracks in many places, but last of all with a great leap they leave their traces far behind, and so to bed.

The she-bear, just prior to the state called hibernation,[*](Cf. Aelian, De Natura Animal. vi. 3; Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 126 f.; Mair on Oppian, Cyn. iii. 173 (L.C.L.).) before she becomes quite torpid and heavy and finds it difficult to move, cleans out her Iair and, when about to enter, approaches it as lightly and inconspicuously as possible, treading on tiptoe, then turns around and backs into the den.[*](These precautions seem to have been successful (though Cf. the implications of Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 128), since Aristotle (Historia Animal. viii. 17, 600 b 6 f.) says that either no one (or very few) has ever caught a pregnant bear. Cf. Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 95 and Amm. Marc. xxii. 15. 22, of the hippopotamus entering a field backwards.)

Hinds are inclined to bear their young beside a public road where carnivorous animals do not come[*](Aristotle (Historia Animal. ix. 5, 611 a 17) notes that highways were shunned by wild animals because they feared men. Cf. also Antigonus, Hist. Mirab. 35 and Mair on Oppian, Cyn. ii. 207 (L.C.L.).); and stags, when they observe that they have grown heavy by reason of their fat and surplus flesh, vanish and preserve themselves by hiding when they do not trust to their heels.[*](Cf. Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 113; [Aristotle], De Mir. Ausc. 5; Historia Animal. 611 a 23.)

The way in which hedgehogs defend and guard themselves has occasioned the proverb[*](See Shorey on Plato, Republic, 423 e (L.C.L.); Leutsch and Schneidewin, Paroemiographi Graeci, i, p. 147, Zenobius, v. 68; attributed by Zenobius to Archilochus (Diehl, Anthologia Lyrica, i, p. 241, frag. 103; Edmonds, Elegy and Iambus, ii, p. 174, frag. 118) and to Homer. Zenobius also quotes five lines from Ion, of which the last two are Plutarch’s next quotation.):

The fox knows many tricks, but the hedgehog one big one;

for when the fox approaches, as Ion[*](Nauck, Trag. Graec. Frag. p. 739; frag. 38, verses 4 f. (see the preceding note).) says, it,

1. Curling its spiny body in a coil,
2. Lies still, impregnable to touch or bite.

But the provision that the hedgehog makes for its young is even more ingenious. When autumn comes, it creeps under the vines and with its paws shakes down to the ground grapes from the bunches and, having rolled about in them, gets up with them attached to its quills. Once when I was a child I saw one, like a creeping or walking bunch of grapes Then it goes down into its hole and delivers the load to its young for them to enjoy and draw rations from. Their lair has two openings, one facing the south, the other the north; when they perceive that the wind will change, like good skippers who shift sail, they block up the entrance which lies to the wind and open the other.[*](Cf. 979 a infra; Aristotle, Historia Animal. ix. 6 (612 b 4 ff.); Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 133; Cf. viii. 138, of squirrels. On animals who predict the weather see Pliny, Nat. Hist. xviii. 361-364.) And a man in Cyzicus[*](Aristotle (loc. cit.) says Byzantium (and see infra, 979 b).) observing this acquired a reputation for being able to predict unaided which way the wind would blow.