38. _Musio_ is so called because it is a foe to mice (_muribus_). Common people call it cat (_catus_) because it catches [mice]. Others say, because it sees (_catat_). For it has such sharp sight that it overcomes the darkness of the night by the brightness of its eyes.
1. _Mus_ (mouse) is a tiny animal; it has a Greek name;[333] but any word that is derived from it becomes Latin. Others say _mures_ are so named because they are born from the _humor_ (moisture) of the earth. For _mus_ is equivalent to _terra_, and from the word comes _humus_ too. The liver of these creatures grows at the full moon, just as certain things that belong to the sea grow, which grow smaller again when the moon lessens.
3. _Mustella_ (weasel) is so called, being, as it were, _mus longus_ (long mouse); for _telum_ (missile) is so called from its length. This creature, somewhat wily in its disposition, moves and changes its nest in the house when it is nursing its young. It chases snakes and mice. And there are two sorts of weasels. For one is a creature of the woods, and is of a different size, which the Greeks call ἴκτιδες. The other wanders about in houses. Now they have an erroneous idea who say that the weasel conceives in its mouth, and gives birth through its ear.[334]
[334] A notion found in the _Physiologus_.
4. In Sardinia is a very tiny creature, spider-shaped, which is called _solifuga_, because it shuns the daylight. It is very common in silver mines, secretly creeping along, and it poisons those who unknowingly sit down on it.
8. _Grillus_ (cricket or grasshopper) has its name from the sound of its voice. This creature walks backward, tunnels the earth, makes a loud sound at night. The ant goes hunting it, having itself lowered by a hair into its hole, first blowing the dust out, that it may not hide itself, and thus it is dragged out in the embrace of the ant.
9. _Formica_ (ant) is so called because it carries morsels (_ferat micas_) of grain. Its wisdom is great. For it looks forward to the future and in summer makes ready food to be eaten in winter. At the harvest, too, it picks out wheat and refuses to touch barley. After it rains it always puts out the grain [to dry]. It is said there are ants in Ethiopia of a dog’s shape, and these dig up golden sands with their feet, and they watch them in order that no one may carry them off, and those that do seize them, they pursue till they kill.