all; for some copulate and produce eggs at all seasons, as we may say, as the domestic fowl and the pigeon, for the domestic fowl lays eggs all the year round, except two months at the winter solstice. Some of the finest birds will lay sixty eggs before they want to sit, though these are not so fruitful as the more common kinds. The Adrianic fowls are very small, but they lay every day; but they are cruel, and often kill their chickens. Their colour is variegated. Some of the domestic birds lay twice a-day, and some have been known to lay so many eggs that they died very soon.
2. The domestic fowls, as I said, lay continually; but the pigeon, dove, trygon, and œnas lay twice a-year; and the pigeon ten times. The greatest number of birds lay in the spring; and some of them produce many young, and this in two ways; some producing their young often, as the pigeon; others producing many at a time, as the domestic fowl. All birds with crooked claws, except the cenchris,[189] lay but few eggs.
This bird lays the most of any of its class; for it has been observed to produce four, and it even produces more. Some birds lay their eggs in nests; but those that do not fly, as partridges and quails, do not make nests, but lay their eggs on the ground and cover them over with rubbish. The lark and tetrix[190] do the same.
[189] Falco tinnunculus.
[190] Tetrao tetrix or Otis tetrix.
3. These birds make their nests in a place sheltered from the wind.
That which the Beotians call ærops[191] is the only bird that makes its nests in caverns in the earth. The cichlæ[192] make nests of mud like swallows in the tops of trees; but they place them in order close to each other, so that from their proximity they look like a chain of nests. Among the birds which make solitary nests, the hoopoe makes no real nest, but lays its eggs in the stumps of hollow trees, without building at all. The coccyx[193] lays its eggs in houses and holes in rocks. The tetrix, which the Athenians call "urax," makes no nest on the ground or in trees, but in herbaceous plants.
[191] Merops apiaster.
[192] Turdus, thrush.
[193] Cuculus canorus.
CHAPTER II.
1. The eggs of all birds are alike and have a hard shell, if they are sometimes lay soft eggs. Birds' eggs are two-coloured, externally white, internally yellow. The eggs of birds inhabiting the sides of streams and lakes differ from those living on dry land, for in the eggs of aquatic birds the yolk bears a much larger proportion to the white.
2. The colours of eggs vary in different kinds of birds. Some have white eggs, as pigeons, partridges; some yellow, as those inhabiting streams; others are spotted, as those of the meleagris[194] and phasianus;[195] the eggs of the cenchris are red like vermilion. In the egg itself there is a difference; for one end is pointed, the other round. The round end is produced first. The large, sharp eggs are males; those which are round and circular at the sharp end are females.
[194] Numida Meleagris.
[195] Phasianus colchicus.
3. They are matured by incubation. Some are hatched spontaneously in the earth, as in Egypt, being buried in dung; and they say that in Syracuse a drunkard placed eggs beneath his mat, and drank without ceasing until the eggs were hatched; and eggs placed in warm vessels have been matured and hatched spontaneously.
4. The seminal fluid of all birds is white, like that of other animals; and when they copulate the female receives the male semen near the diaphragm. The egg at first appears small and white, afterwards red and bloody; as it grows it becomes quite ochreous and yellow; when it becomes larger a distinction is made, and the internal part becomes yellow, the external white; and when it is perfected it is set at liberty, and excluded just at the period when it is changing from soft to hard. So that during exclusion it is not hardened; but as soon as it is excluded it thickens and becomes hard, unless it is diseased. And eggs have been known to be excluded in the state in which all eggs are at a certain period of their growth; for they were entirely yellow, as the young bird is afterwards. Such have also been observed in the domestic fowl beneath the diaphragm, where the eggs of the hen are placed, entirely yellow, and as large as eggs usually are. This has been considered ominous.
5. They are mistaken who say that the hypenemia (barren eggs) are the remains of former acts of sexual intercourse; for young birds, as fowls and geese, have been frequently observed to lay such eggs without any sexual intercourse. Barren eggs are smaller, not so sweet, and more fluid than fertile eggs, and they are more numerous. If they are placed under a bird, the fluid part never thickens, but both the yolk and the white remain in their original state. Many birds produce these eggs, as the domestic fowl, partridge, pigeon, peafowl, goose, and chenalopex.[196] [196] Œnas tadorna.
6. Eggs are hatched more readily in summer than in winter; for in the summer the domestic fowl will hatch in eighteen days, but in winter sometimes in not less than twenty-five days. Some birds also are more adapted for incubation than others. A thunder-storm during the season of incubation will destroy the eggs. What are called cynosura and uria (addled eggs) are more frequently produced in the summer. The hypenemia[197] are by some persons called zephyria, because they say that birds receive these winds in the spring. They do the same thing if they are touched with the hand. The hypenemia become fertile; and eggs that are produced by sexual intercourse are changed to another kind, if the hen which contains either hypenemia or fertile eggs has sexual intercourse with another bird before the eggs begin to change from yellow to white, and the hypenemia become fertile, and the fertile eggs produce birds of the nature of the second male.
[197] Eggs formed without sexual intercourse.
7. But if the change from yellow to white has already taken place, neither the barren nor the fertile eggs are altered, so as to change to the nature of the second male. And if the sexual intercourse should be discontinued while the eggs are small, those which existed previously undergo no change, but if the act is repeated, a rapid increase in size takes place. The nature of the white and yolk of the egg is different, not only in colour, but in other properties, for the yolk coagulates with cold, while the white remains fluid, but the white coagulates with heat, which the yolk does not, but remains soft, if it is not burnt; and it becomes consistent and dry by boiling rather than roasting.
8. The white and yolk are separated from each other by a membrane.
The chalazæ at the extremities of the yolk have nothing to do with generation, as some persons suppose. These spots are two, one below and one above. If many whites and yolks of eggs are taken out, and mixed together in a vessel, and cooked with a slow and moderate heat, the yolks will all collect in the middle, and the whites will surround them. Young domestic fowls begin to lay eggs at the beginning of the spring; they lay more than those which are older, but those of the young birds are smaller, and if birds are not permitted to incubate, they are destroyed and become sick.
9. After copulation birds ruffle and shake themselves, and often cover themselves with chaff, and this also they do when they have laid.
Pigeons draw up their tail, geese go and bathe. The pregnancy and conception of barren eggs is quick in most birds, as in the partridge, on account of the violence of their sexual desires; for if the hen stands in the way of the breath of the male, she conceives, and immediately becomes of no use for fowling; for the partridge appears to have a very distinct smell. The production of the egg after copulation, and the production of the young by incubation, do not occupy the same length of time in all birds, but varies according to their size.
The egg of the domestic fowl is perfected in ten days after sexual intercourse, and that of the pigeon in a shorter time. Pigeons are able to retain their eggs even in the act of parturition. If they are disturbed by anything occurring in the neighbourhood of their nest, or a feather be plucked out, or if anything else troubles or disturbs them, they retain the egg they were about to lay.
10. This is peculiar to pigeons, and so is the following: for they kiss each other when the male is about to mount, or else they will not endure it. The older bird first gives a kiss, but afterwards he mounts without kissing, but younger birds always kiss before copulation.
This also is peculiar to these birds. The females kiss and mount upon each other like the males, when there is no male present. They do not project anything into each other, but produce more eggs than those which produce fertile ones; from these eggs nothing is hatched, but they are all barren.
CHAPTER III.
1. The production of the bird from the egg is alike in them all, but the period of completion varies, as I observed before. In domestic fowls the first sign of alteration takes place after three days and nights. This period is longer in larger birds, and shorter in small birds. During this period the upper part of the yolk advances to the small extremity of the egg, which is the beginning of the egg. This is the part from which the chicken is excluded, and the heart is visible like a red spot in the white of the egg.
2. This spot palpitates and moves as though it were endued with life.
From this, as it increases, two involved sanguineous passages like veins lead to each of the surrounding tunics; and a membrane which has sanguineous passages encloses the white at this period, and separates it from the venous passages. A short time afterwards the body is distinguished, at first very small and white, but the head is distinct, and in this the eyes are the most enlarged. And this continues for some time, for afterwards the eyes are reduced in size and approach each other, but the lower part of the body has not at first any proportion to the upper part.
3. One of the passages from the heart extends into a circle around the embryo, and the other to the yolk, as if it were an umbilical cord.
The origin of the young bird is in the white, its nutriment is derived from the yolk through the umbilical cord. On the tenth day, the whole of the young bird and all its parts are distinct, but its head is still larger than the rest of the body, and the eyes are larger than the rest of the head. They have no sense of sight. If the eyes are taken out at this period, they are larger than beans, and black; when the skin is taken from them, they are seen to contain a white and cold fluid, very brilliant in appearance, but without any hard substance. This is the manner of the development of the eyes and head.
4. At the same period the viscera are visible, but the stomach, and intestines, and the veins from the heart still appear to extend towards the navel. From the navel a vein appears to extend upon the membrane which encloses the yolk, and the yolk itself is at this period fluid, and more abundant than in its natural state. The other extends to the membrane which encloses the whole membrane containing the embryo, and the membrane of the yolk and the fluid between them, and when the young birds have grown a little more, part of the yolk goes to one end, and part to the other, and between them is the fluid white; but the white is still below the lower part of the yolk, where it was at first, but at the tenth day the white disappears, for it has become small, viscid, thick, and rather yellow.
5. This is the position of all the parts: the first and last part adjoining the shell is the membrane of the egg, not the membrane of the shell, but beneath this. This contains the fluid white; within this is the young bird, and a membrane surrounding it, and separating it from the fluid; beneath the embryo is the yolk, to which one of the veins extends, and the other to the white which encloses it. A membrane containing a fluid resembling sanies encloses the whole, and then another membrane which surrounds the embryo itself, as I observed, and separates it from the fluid. Below this the yolk, enclosed in another membrane, which is reached by the umbilical cord from the heart, and the great vein, so that the embryo does not appear to be in either of the fluids.
6. About the twentieth day, if the hatching has been delayed beyond this period, the young bird is able to chirp when moved externally, and if the shell is taken off, by this time also it is downy. The head is placed over the right leg upon the side, and the wing is over the head.
At this period the chorion-like membrane is visible, which is united with the lowest membrane of the shell, to which one of the umbilical cords passes, and the young bird is complete. The other chorion-like membrane is also visible, enclosing the yolk. To this the other umbilical cord extends. Both of these cords are attached to the heart and the great vein. At the same period the cord which is attached to one chorion falls off, and is separated from the animal, but the one which passes to the yolk remains suspended from the young bird by a thin bowel, and a considerable portion of the yolk is contained in the young bird, and some of it is found in the stomach.
7. At this period also they eject an excrementitious matter into the external chorion, and contain it in the stomach. The external excrement is white, the internal yellow. At last the yolk, which has been continually wasting and advancing, is entirely taken up and enclosed in the young bird. So that portions of it may be observed in the intestines of birds if they are dissected on the tenth day after exclusion from the egg. But it is set at liberty from the navel, nor does any communication remain, but the whole is separated. About the before-mentioned period the young bird sleeps, but it stirs itself, and looks up, and chirps when it is touched, and the heart swells up with the navel, as if the embryo were breathing. This is the manner of the development of the chick in the egg.
8. Birds also produce some barren eggs, as well as those from sexual intercourse, but they produce nothing after incubation. This is particularly observed in pigeons. Double eggs have two yolks; in some a thin division of white prevents the yolks from mixing together; others have not this division, but touch each other. There are some hens which always lay double eggs, and in these the peculiarities of the yolks have been observed; for a certain bird having laid eighteen eggs, hatched two chickens from each of them, except those that were addled; all the rest were productive, except that one of the twin chickens was large and the other small in each. The last, however, was monstrous.
CHAPTER IV.
1. All the pigeon tribe, as the phatta and trygon, generally produce two eggs; the trygon and the phatta are those which generally lay three. The pigeon lays, as I said, at every season; the trygon and the phatta in the spring, and not more than twice. The second brood are hatched when the first has been destroyed, for many birds destroy them. It sometimes lays three, as I have said, but it never brings out more than two young ones, and sometimes only one, the remaining egg is always addled. Very few birds begin to lay before they are a year old; but when they have once begun to lay, they all, as we may say, naturally contain eggs to the end of their life, though it is not easy to see them in some birds, from their small size.
2. The pigeon usually produces one male and one female, and of these the male is often hatched first; and having laid an egg one day, she omits many days and then lays another. The male sits during a portion of the day, and the female during the night. The first young one is hatched and able to fly within twenty days, and the egg is billed on the day before it is hatched; both the old birds keep the young ones warm for some time, as they do the eggs. During the time of bringing up their young the female is fiercer than the male: this is also the case in other animals. They produce young ten times in a year, and sometimes eleven times; those in Egypt even twelve times. The cock and hen birds copulate within the year, for they do this at the end of six months.
3. And some say that the phatta and trygon are matured when three months old, and they consider their great numbers as a proof of this.
The female contains her eggs fourteen days, and then sits upon them fourteen more; in fourteen days after this the young ones fly so well that it is difficult to catch them. The phatta lives, as they say, forty years; the partridge more than sixteen years. The pigeon, after having brought out her young, lays again in thirty days.
CHAPTER V.
1. The vulture builds its nest in inaccessible rocks, wherefore its nest and young ones are rarely seen. For this reason Herodorus, the father of Bryson the sophist, says that vultures come from another part of the earth, which is invisible to us, giving as a reason for his opinion, that they are seen in great numbers suddenly following the path of an army. But difficult as it is to observe them, their nests have been seen. The vulture produces two eggs. No other carnivorous bird has been observed to produce young more than once a year; but the swallow more frequently produces young twice a year than the carnivorous birds. If a person pierces the eyes of young swallows they recover, and are able to see afterwards.
CHAPTER VI.
1. The eagle produces three eggs, of which two only are hatched. This is also related in the poems of Musæus. The bird which lays three eggs, hatches two, and brings up but one. This frequently happens; but three young have been seen in the nest. When the young begin to grow, one of them is turned out by the parent, because she dislikes the trouble of feeding it. At this period it is said to be without food, so that it does not capture the young of wild creatures, for a few days the talons are turned back, and the feathers become white, so that it then becomes cruel to its young. The phene[198] receives and brings up the ejected young one.
[198] Vultur cinereus, ossifragus, osprey.
2. The eagle incubates for thirty days; this is the usual period of incubation for large birds, as the goose and the bustard. Moderately sized birds usually sit twenty days, as the ictinus[199] and hierax.[200] The ictinus usually produces two young ones, and sometimes three; the Ætolian kite, as it is called, sometimes produces four. The raven produces not only two, but, as they say, many eggs, which she sits upon for about twenty days. She also turns out some of her young ones. Many other birds do the same thing; and generally those which produce several turn out one.
[199] Kite.
[200] Hawk.
3. All kinds of eagles do not behave in the same way to their young; but the pygargus is cruel; and the black eagles are careful for the food of their young; but all birds with crooked talons as soon as their young can fly well beat them and drive them from the nest. And most birds of other classes, as I have before observed, do the same thing; and when they have brought them up, they take no more notice of them, except the crow. This bird cares for its young a long while, for as it flies past them it gives them food after they are able to fly.
CHAPTER VII.
1. The cuckoo is said by some persons to be a changed hawk, because the hawk which it resembles disappears when the cuckoo comes, and indeed very few hawks of any sort can be seen during the period in which the cuckoo is singing except for a few days. The cuckoo is seen for a short time in the summer, and disappears in winter. But the hawk has crooked talons, which the cuckoo has not, nor does it resemble the hawk in the form of its head, but in both these respects is more like the pigeon than the hawk, which it resembles in nothing but its colour; the markings, however, upon the hawk are like lines, while the cuckoo is spotted.
2. Its size and manner of flight is like that of the smallest kind of hawk, which generally disappears during the season in which the cuckoo is seen. But they have both been seen at the same time, and the cuckoo was being devoured by the hawk, though this is never done by birds of the same kind. They say that no one has ever seen the young of the cuckoo. It does, however, lay eggs, but it makes no nest; but sometimes it lays its eggs in the nests of small birds, and devours their eggs, especially in the nests of the pigeon, when it has eaten their eggs.
Sometimes it lays two, but usually only one egg; it lays also in the nest of the hypolais,[201] which hatches and brings it up. At this season it is particularly fat and sweet-fleshed; the flesh also of young hawks is very sweet and fat. There is also a kind of them which builds a nest in precipitous cliffs.
[201] Sylvia curucca, hedge sparrow.
CHAPTER VIII.
1. In many birds the male alternates with the female in the duty of incubation, as we observed in speaking of pigeons, and takes her place while she is obliged to procure food for herself. In geese the female alone sits upon the eggs, and having once begun, she never leaves them during the whole process of incubation. The nests of all water birds are situated in marshy and grassy places, by which means they can keep quiet and still have food within their reach, so that they do not starve all the while. The females alone, among the crows, sit on the eggs, which they never leave; but the males bring them food and feed them.
2. The females of the pigeons begin to sit at twilight, and remain on the nest the whole night, till dawn; and the male the rest of the time.
Partridges make two nests of eggs, upon one of which the male sits, on the other the female; and each of them hatches and brings up its own: and the male has sexual intercourse with its young as soon as they are hatched.
CHAPTER IX.
1. The peacock lives about twenty-five years, and produces young generally at three years old; by which time also they have obtained their variegated plumage: and it hatches in thirty days, or rather more. It only produces young once a-year, laying twelve eggs, or not quite so many. It lays its eggs at intervals of two or three days, and not regularly. At first they lay only eight. The pea-fowl also lays barren eggs: they copulate in the spring, and lay their eggs immediately afterwards.
2. This bird sheds its feathers when the leaves of the trees begin to fall, and begins to acquire them again with the first budding in the spring. Those who rear these birds place the eggs for incubation beneath domestic fowls; because the peacock flies at, and torments the hen when she is sitting; for which reason some of the wild birds make their escape from the males before they begin to lay and sit. They place only two eggs under domestic fowls, for these are all that they can hatch and bring out; and they take care to put food before them, that they may not get up and desert their incubation.
3. Birds at the season of sexual intercourse have large testicles. In the more lascivious they are always more evident, as the domestic cock and the partridge. In those that are not always lascivious, they are less. This is the manner of the gestation and reproduction of birds.
CHAPTER X.
1. It has been already observed that fish are not always oviparous, for the selache are always viviparous. All the rest are oviparous. The selache are viviparous, having first of all produced ova internally; and these they bring up in themselves, except the batrachus. Fish have also, as I observed before, very different uteri in different kinds: for in the oviparous genera the uterus is double, and situated low down. In the selache the uterus is more like that of birds. There is this difference, however, that the ova are not placed near the diaphragm, but in an intermediate position near the spine; and when they have grown they change their place from this part. The ovum in all fish is not of two, but of one colour; and it is more white than yellow, both in its early stages, and after the formation of the embryo.
2. The development of the ovum is different in fish and in birds, in that it has not the umbilical cord which passes to the membrane of the shell; but only the passage which leads to the yolk in the eggs of birds. The rest of the development of the ovum is alike in birds and fish; for it takes place at the extremity, and the veins have their origin in a similar manner in the heart; and the head, and eyes, and upper parts of the body are larger than the rest. As the young fish increases, the ovum continues to diminish, and at last it disappears, and is absorbed, like the yolk in the eggs of birds. The umbilical cord is attached a little below the abdomen. At first the cord is long, but it becomes less as the fish grows, and at last is small, and finally absorbed, like that of birds.
3. The embryo and the ovum are enclosed in a common membrane, and beneath this there is another membrane, in which the embryo alone is enclosed. Between these membranes there is a fluid substance. The nutriment contained in the stomach of the young fish is similar to that in the young birds, partly white, and partly yellow. The form of the uterus must be learned from dissection. This organ is different in different fish, as in the galeode by themselves, and the flat fish by themselves: for in some the ova are attached near the spine to the centre of the uterus, as I observed before, as in scylia.[202] They descend when they begin to increase, when the uterus is double, and are attached to the diaphragm, as in other fish: the ova descend into each division.
[202] Dog-fish. Squalus stellaris.
4. The uterus of these fish, and of the other galeode, has a small appendage attached to the diaphragm like a white nipple, which is not present unless they are pregnant. The scylia and the batis have a shell-like substance, which contains the fluid of the ovum. In form the shell resembles the tongue of a wind instrument, and hair-like passages are attached to the shells. The young of the scylia, which some persons call nebria galei, are born when the shell falls off and bursts. The young of the batis when they are brought forth are excluded by the rupture of the shell. In the acantheas[203] galeos the ova are attached to the diaphragm above the nipples; and when the ovum descends, the young is attached to it after it is set free. The reproduction of the alopex is in the same manner.
[203] Squalus Acanthias.
5. Most galei which are called smooth have the ova placed between the divisions of the uterus, like those of the scylia; and as they surround it, they descend into each division of the uterus, and they are produced, attached to the uterus by an umbilical cord; so that when the ova are taken out, they appear similar to the embryo of quadrupeds. And the long umbilical cord is attached to the lower part of the uterus, each part, as it were, attached to an acetabulum; and to the middle of the embryo near the liver. And when it is dissected, the food is like an egg, though the ovum be no longer there. There is a chorion, and peculiar membranes surrounding each of the embryos, as in quadrupeds.
6. The head of the embryo when it is just produced, is upwards; but as it grows and reaches maturity, it is placed downwards. The males are placed on the left, and the females on the right, or there are males and females together on the same side. The embryo, when dissected, resembles that of quadrupeds, in having its viscera such as it has, as the liver, large, and full of blood. In all the selache the ova are placed high up, near the diaphragm; many larger, and many smaller: and the embryos are placed below, wherefore it is probable that such fish produce their young, and copulate frequently during the same month, for they do not produce all their young at once, but frequently, and for a long while; but those that are in the lower part of the uterus are matured and brought to perfection.
7. The other galei both emit and receive their young into themselves, and so do the rhine and the narca; and a large narca has been observed to contain eighty young in herself. The acanthias is the only one of the galei which does not admit its young into itself, on account of their thorns. Among the flat fish the trygon and batos do not admit their young, on account of the roughness of the tail. Neither does the batrachus admit its young, on account of the size of their heads, and their thorns; and this is the only one that is not viviparous, as I previously observed. These are their mutual differences, and the manner of the development of their ova.
8. At the season of sexual intercourse, the seminal ducts of the male are full of fluid, so that a white matter escapes when they are pressed. These passages are divided, and originate in the diaphragm and the large vein: at the same season the passages of the male are conspicuous, and may be compared with the uterus of the female. When it is not the season of sexual intercourse, they are less conspicuous, from not being in use. In some fish, and sometimes, they are not visible at all, as it was remarked of the testicles of birds. The seminal and uterine passages are different in other respects also, and because those of the male are attached to the loins, those of the female are easily moved, and enclosed in a thin membrane. The nature of the passages of the male may be seen in works on anatomy.
9. The selachea become pregnant again while with young, and the period of gestation is six months. Among the galei, the asterias produces young the oftenest; for it produces twice in a month: it begins to copulate in the month of September. All the other galei except the scylia produce twice in the year; the scylia but once. Some of them have their young in the spring. The rhine produces its first brood in the spring, and its last in the autumn, near the winter season, and the setting of the Pleiades. The second fry are the most numerous. The narca produces its young in the autumn. The selache descend from the ocean and deep water to the shore, to produce their young, both for the sake of the warmth, and care of their offspring.
10. No other fish but the rhine and the batos have ever been observed to unite with others not of their own kind, but there is a fish called the rhinobatus, which has the head and upper part of the rhine, and the lower part like the batus, as it were made up of both. The galei and the galeoeides, as the alopex, dog-fish, and the flat fish, as the narce batos, leiobatos and trygon, are in this manner ovoviparous.
CHAPTER XI.
1. The dolphin, whale, and other cetacea which have a blow-hole but no gills, are viviparous, and so are the pristis and the bos. For none of these have an ovum, but a proper fœtus, from which, when perfected, an animal is developed, as in man and the viviparous quadrupeds. The dolphin usually produces one, and sometimes two young ones. The whale generally and usually produces two and sometimes one. The phocæna is similar to the dolphin, for it is like a small dolphin. It is produced in the Pontus. In some respects the phocæna differs from the dolphin, for its size is smaller, it is wider in the back, and its colour is blue. Many persons say that the phocæna is a kind of dolphin.
2. All these creatures which have a blow-hole, breathe and inhale air; and the dolphin has been observed while asleep with the muzzle above the water, and it snores in its sleep. The dolphin and phocæna give milk and suckle their young. They also receive their young into themselves. The growth of the young dolphins is rapid, for they attain their full size in ten years. The female is pregnant for ten months.
The dolphin produces her young in the summer-time, and at no other season. They seem also to disappear for thirty days during the season of the dog-star. The young follow their dam for a long while, and it is an animal much attached to its offspring. It lives many years; for some have been known to live twenty-five or thirty years; for fishermen have marked them by cutting their tails and then giving them their liberty.
In this way their age was known.
3. The seal is amphibious, for it does not inhale water, but breathes and sleeps. It produces its young on land, but near the shore, in the manner of animals with feet; but it lives the greater part of its time, and obtains its food in the sea, wherefore it is to be considered among aquatic animals. It is properly viviparous, and produces a living creature, and a chorion, and it brings forth the other membranes like a sheep. It produces one or two, never more than three young ones. It has also mammæ, so that it suckles its young like quadrupeds. It produces its young like the human subject, at all seasons of the year, but especially with the earliest goats.
4. When the young are twelve days old, it leads them to the water several times in the day, in order to habituate them by degrees. It drags its hinder parts along, and does not walk, for it cannot erect itself upon its feet, but it contracts and draws itself together. It is fleshy and soft, and its bones are cartilaginous. It is difficult to kill the seal by violence, unless it is struck upon the temple, for its body is fleshy. It has a voice like an ox. The pudendum of the female is like that of the batis, in all other animals of the class the pudendum resembles that of the human female. This is the manner of the development and nature of the young of aquatic animals which are either internally or externally viviparous.
CHAPTER XII.
1. The oviparous fish have a divided uterus placed on the lower part of the body, as I observed before. All that have scales are viviparous, as the labrax, cestreus, cephalus, etelis,[204] and those called white fish, and all smooth fish except the eel. Their ova resemble sand. This appearance is owing to their uterus being quite full of ova, so that small fish appear to have only two ova; for the small size and thinness of the uterus renders it invisible in these creatures. I have before treated of the sexual intercourse of fish. The sexes are distinct in almost all fish, though there is some doubt about the erythrinus[205] and the channa, for all these are found to be pregnant.
[204] Perhaps the Sea-bream, Sparus.
[205] Perhaps Perca marina.
2. Ova are found in those fish which have sexual intercourse, though they possess them without intercourse. This is observable in some kinds of river fish; for the phoxini[206] appear to be pregnant as soon as they are born, and when they are quite small. They emit the ova in a stream; and, as I observed before, the males devour great numbers of them, and others perish in the water. Those are preserved which they deposit in their appropriate situations. For, if all were preserved, the numbers that would be found would be immense. Not all those that are preserved are fertile, but only those on which the seminal fluid of the male has been sprinkled. When the female produces her ova, the male follows, and scatters his semen upon them. Young fish are produced from those ova which are thus sprinkled. The remainder turn out as chance may direct.