The account which Mucianus gives of a similar mode of fishing in the Iasian Gulf differs from the preceding one, in the fact that there the dolphins make their appearance of their own accord, and do not require to be called: they receive their share from the hands of the people, each boat having its own particular associate among the dolphins; and this, although the fishing is carried on at night-time by the light[1] of torches. If the latter is the meaning, Pliny probably intends to speak only of what some of them are able to do: otherwise it is hard to see of what utility the nets were in the operation.

Dolphins, also, form among themselves[2] a sort of general community. One of them having been captured by a king of Caria and chained up in the harbour, great multitudes of dolphins assembled at the spot, and with signs of sorrow which could not be misunderstood, appealed to the sympathies of the people, until at last the king ordered it to be released. The young dolphins, also, are always attended[3] by a larger one, who acts as a guardian to them; and before now, they have been seen[4] carrying off the body of one which had died, that it might not be devoured by the sea-monsters.