598-600. ‘Qui niger ex albo conspergitur orbiculato,’ T. #bro#, eyebrow:
OWScand. brá: see Björkman 231. Mätzner sees in the whale’s brow an
expression for whalebone: Pliny says ‘ora ballaenae habent in frontibus,
ideoque summa aqua natantes in sublime nimbos efflant,’ N. H. ix. 6, 16.
The explanation is not convincing. Such comparisons are generally made
with familiar objects, so ‘colblake,’ 153/75; ‘And worth al black sum
ani cole,’ CM 22489; ‘Al blak so cole-brond,’ King Alisaunder 6260.
Perhaps, so brond of cole: the scribe is given to leaving out the end of
his words, and the rhyme cole : al is no worse than fel : al, 190/465.
In other Bestiaries the panther is of many colours.