2. About fifty days afterwards the young polypi burst the eggs and escape, like phalangia, in great numbers. The particular shape of each limb is not distinct, though the general form is plain. Many of them perish from their small size and debility. Some have been observed so small that they could not be distinguished, unless they were touched, when they were seen to move.
3. The sepia also deposits eggs, which resemble large, black, myrtle seeds. They are united together like a bunch of fruit, and are enclosed in a substance which prevents them from separating readily. The male emits his ink upon them, a mucous fluid, which causes their slippery appearance. The ova increase in this way; and when first produced they are white, but when they have touched the ink they become large and black. When the young sepia, which is entirely formed of the internal white of the ovum, is produced, it makes its way out by the rupture of the membrane of the ovum.
4. The ovum which the female first produces is like hail, and to this the young sepia is attached by the head, as birds are attached to the abdomen. The nature of the umbilical attachment has never been observed, except that as the sepia increases the white always becomes less, and at last entirely disappears, like the yolk of the eggs of birds.
5. The eyes are at first very large in these as in other animals, as in the diagram. The ovum is seen at A, the eyes at B and C, and the embryo sepia itself at D. The female contains ova during the spring. The ova are produced in fifteen days; and when the ova are produced they remain for fifteen days longer like the small seeds of grapes, and when these are ruptured the young sepias escape from the inside. If a person divides them before they have reached maturity, the young sepias emit their fœces and vary in colour, and turn from white to red from alarm.
6. The crustaceans incubate upon their ova, which are placed beneath them; but the polypus and sepia and such like incubate upon their ova wherever they may be deposited, and especially the sepia, for the female has often been observed with her abdomen upon the ground, but the female polypus has been observed sometimes placed upon her ova, and sometimes upon her mouth, holding with her tentacula over the hole in which the ova were deposited. The sepia deposits her ova upon the ground among fuci and reeds, or upon any thing thrown in the water, as wood, branches, or stones; and the fishermen are careful to place branches of trees in the water. Upon these they deposit their long and united ova like branches of fruit.
7. The ova are deposited and produced by repeated exertion, as if the parturition were accompanied with pain. The teuthis oviposits in the sea. The ova, like those of the sepia, are united together. Both the teuthus and sepia are short-lived, for very few of them survive a year.
The same is the case with the polypus. Each egg produces one small sepia, and so also in the teuthis. The male teuthus differs from the female; for if the hair (branchia) are drawn aside, the female will be seen to have two red substances like mammæ, which the male does not possess. The sepia also has the same sexual distinction, and is more variegated than the female, as I observed before.
CHAPTER XVII.
1. It has already been observed that the male insects are less than the female, and that the male mounts upon the female; and the manner of their sexual intercourse has been described, and the difficulty of separating them. Most of them produce their young very soon after sexual intercourse. All the kinds except some psychæ (butterflies and moths) produce worms. These produce a hard substance, like the seed of the cnecus,[168] which is fluid within. From the worm an animal is produced, but not from a portion of it, as if it were an ovum, but the whole grows and becomes an articulated animal.
[168] Cantharus tinctorius, a plant of the thistle kind. L. and S.
2. Some of them are produced from similar animals, as phalangia and spiders from phalangia and spiders, and attelabi,[169] locusts, and grasshoppers. Others do not originate in animals of the same species, but their production is spontaneous, for some of them spring from the dew which falls upon plants. The origin of these is naturally in the spring, though they often appear in the winter, if fine weather and south winds occur for any length of time. Some originate in rotten mud and dung; and others in the fresh wood of plants or in dry wood; others among the hair of animals, or in their flesh, or excrements, whether ejected, or still existing in the body, as those which are called helminthes.
[169] The larva of some species.
3. There are three kinds of these, the flat worms, the round worms, and those which are called ascarides. From these creatures nothing is produced; but the broad worm is attached to the intestine, and produces something like the seed of the colocynth, and this is used by physicians as a proof of the presence of the worm.
4. Butterflies are produced from caterpillars; and these originate in the leaves of green plants, especially the rhaphahus, which some persons call crambe. At first they are smaller than millet, afterwards they grow into little worms, in three days they become small caterpillars, afterwards they grow and become motionless, and change their form. In this state the creature is called chrysalis. It has a hard covering, but moves when it is touched. They are united to something by weblike processes, and have no mouth nor any other visible organ. After a short time the covering is burst, and a winged animal escapes, which is called a butterfly.
5. At first, while in the caterpillar state, they take food and evacuate fœces, but in the chrysalis state they do neither. The same is the case with all other creatures which originate in worms, and those which produce worms after sexual intercourse, or even without this process; for the offspring of bees, anthrenæ, and wasps, while they are young worms, consume food and evacuate excrement, but when from worms they receive their conformation they are called nymphæ, and neither feed nor evacuate, but remain quiet in their covering until they are grown. They then make their escape by cutting through a place where the cell is fastened on.
6. The penia[170] and hypera[171] also are produced from a kind of campe (caterpillar) which make a wave as they walk, and as they advance bend the hinder extremity up to that which has preceded. The creature produced always derives its colour from the campe in which it originates. A certain great worm, which has as it were horns, and differs from others, at its first metamorphosis produces a campe, afterwards a bombylius, and lastly a necydalus. It passes through all these forms in six months. From this animal some women unroll and separate the bombycina (cocoons), and afterwards weave them. It is said that this was first woven in the island of Cos by Pamphila, the daughter of Plateos.
[170] Some species of larva.
[171] Geometra.
7. From the worms in dry wood the insects called carabi are produced in the same manner; for at first they are immoveable worms, and afterwards the carabi are produced by the rupture of their case. The crambides originate in the plant called crambe, and these also have wings, and the prasocurides from the plant called prasum (onion). The œstri are produced from the little flat creatures that are found on the surface of rivers. Wherefore also they congregate in the greatest numbers around the waters where such animals are found. The kind of pygolampis which has no wings originates in a small, black, hairy caterpillar.
These undergo another change, and turn into the winged creatures called bostrychi.
8. The empides originate in ascarides, and the ascarides originate in the mud of wells and running waters which flow over an earthy bottom.
At first the decaying mud acquires a white colour, which afterwards becomes black, and finally red. When this takes place, very small red creatures are seen growing in it like fuci. At first these move about in a mass, afterwards their connection is ruptured, the creatures called ascarides are borne about in the water, after a few days they stand erect in the water without motion and of a hard texture, and subsequently the case is broken and the empis sits upon it until either the sun or the wind enables it to move, then it flies away.
9. The commencement of life in all other worms, and in all creatures produced from worms, originates in the influence of the sun and wind.
The ascarides are produced in greater numbers, and more quickly, where the various matters are mixed together, as in the works conducted in the Megarian territory, for putrefaction thus takes place more readily.
The autumnal season also is favourable to their increase, for there is less moisture at that time of the year. The crotones[172] originate in the agrostis, the melolonthæ from the worms which originate in the dung of oxen and asses.
[172] Ticks. Acarus ricinus.
10. The canthari which roll up dung, hide themselves in it during the winter, and produce worms, which afterwards become canthari; and from the worms which inhabit the osprea,[173] winged creatures, like those already mentioned, derive their existence. Flies originate in dung which has been set apart, and those who are employed in this work strive to separate the remainder which is mixed together, for they say that the dung is thus brought to putrefaction.
[173] Vetches, leguminous plants.
11. The origin of these worms is very small; for first of all a redness is perceived, and motion commences, as if they were united together.
The worm then again becomes still, afterwards it moves, and then again is immoveable. From this the worm is completed, and motion recommences under the action of the sun and wind. The myops is produced in wood.
The orsodacnæ[174] from the metamorphosis of worms, which originate on the stalks of the crambe. The cantharis from worms which dwell on the fig tree, apium (pear tree), and pitch tree, for there are worms on all these, and on the cynacantha.[175] They assemble round strong smelling things because they originate from them.
[174] Chrysomela oleracea.
[175] Perhaps the dog rose, or sweet briar.
12. The conops springs from a worm which originates in the thick part of vinegar; for there seem also to be worms in things which are the farthest from putrefaction, as in snow which has laid for some time: for after having laid, it becomes red, wherefore, also, the worms are such and hairy. Those in the snow in Media are large and white, and furnished with but little power of motion. In Cyprus, when the manufacturers of the stone called chalcitis burn it for many days in the fire, a winged creature, something larger than a great fly, is seen walking and leaping in the fire.
13. The worms perish when they are taken out of the snow, and so do these creatures when taken from the fire. And the salamander shews that it is possible for some animal substances to exist in the fire, for they say that fire is extinguished when this animal walks over it.
14. In the river Hypanis in the Cimmerian Bosphorus, about the summer solstice, capsules larger than grape-seed are floated down the river: when these are ruptured, a four-footed, winged creature makes its escape, which lives and flies about till the evening. As the sun descends, it becomes emaciated, and is dead by sunset, having lived but one day; for which cause it is called ephemerum. Most animals which spring from caterpillars or worms, are first of all enclosed in a web, and this is their nature.
15. The wasps which are called ichneumons, which are smaller than the others, kill the phalangia, and carry them to a wall, or some other place with a hole in it; and when they have covered them over with mud, they oviposit there, and the ichneumon wasps are produced from them.
Many of the coleoptera, and other small and anonymous creatures make little holes in tombs or walls, and there deposit their worms.
16. The period of reproduction, from its commencement to its conclusion, is generally completed in three or four weeks. In the worms and worm-like creatures, three weeks are usually sufficient, and four weeks are usually enough for those which are oviparous. In one week from their sexual intercourse, the growth of the ovum is completed. In the remaining three weeks, those that produce by generation, hatch and bring forth their ova, as in the spiders, and such like creatures. The metamorphoses generally occupy three or four days, like the crisis of diseases. This is the mode of generation in insects.
17. They die from the shrivelling of their limbs, as large animals do of old age. Those which are furnished with wings have these organs drawn together in autumn. The myopes die from an effusion of water in their eyes.
CHAPTER XVIII.
1. All persons are not agreed as to the generation of bees, for some say that they neither produce young, nor have sexual intercourse; but that they bring their young from other sources; and some say that they collect them from the flowers of the calyntrus,[176] and others from the flower of the calamus.[177] Others again, say that they are found in the flowers of the olive, and produce this proof, that the swarms are most abundant when the olives are fertile. Other persons affirm that they collect the young of the drones from any of the substances we have named, but that the rulers (queens) produce the young of the bees.
[176] Honeysuckle.
[177] Reed.
2. There are two kinds of rulers, the best of these is red, the other black and variegated: their size is double that of the working bees; the part of the body beneath the cincture is more than half of the whole length: by some they are called the mother bees, as if they were the parents of the rest; and they argue, that unless the ruler is present, drones only are produced, and no bees. Others affirm that they have sexual intercourse, and that the drones are males, and the bees females.
3. The other bees originate in the cells of the comb, but the rulers are produced in the lower part of the comb, six or seven of them separated, opposite to the rest of the progeny. The bees have a sting, which the drones have not: the kings and rulers have a sting which they do not make use of, and some persons suppose that they have none.
CHAPTER XIX.
1. There are several kinds of bees, the best are small, round, and variegated: another kind is large, like the anthrene: a third kind is called phor; this is black, and has a broad abdomen: the drone is the fourth, and is the largest of all; it has no sting, and is incapable of work, for which reason people often wrap something round their hives, so that the bees can enter, but the drones, being larger, cannot.
2. There are two kinds of rulers among bees, as I observed before. In every hive there are several rulers, and not a single one, for the hive perishes if there are not rulers enough (not that they thus become anarchical, but, as they say, because they are required for breeding the bees); if there are too many rulers they perish, for thus they become distracted.
3. If the spring is late, and drought and rusts are about, the progeny is small. When the weather is dry, they make honey. When it is damp, their progeny multiplies; for which reason, the olives and the swarms of bees multiply at the same time. They begin by making comb, in which they place the progeny, which is deposited with their mouths, as those say who affirm that they collect it from external sources. Afterwards they gather the honey which is to be their food, during the summer and the autumn; that which is gathered in the autumn is the best.
4. Wax is made from flowers. They bring the material of wax from the droppings of trees, but the honey falls from the air, principally about the rising of the stars, and when the rainbow rests upon the earth.
Generally no honey is produced before the rising of the Pleiades. We argue that wax is made, as I said, from flowers, but that the bees do not make honey, but simply collect that which falls; for those who keep bees find the cells filled with honey in the course of one or two days.
In the autumn there are flowers enough, but the bees make no honey, if that which they have produced is taken away. But if one supply was taken away, and they were in want of food, they would make more if they procured it from flowers.
5. The honey becomes thick by ripening, for at first it is like water, and continues liquid for some days, wherefore it never becomes thick if it is taken away during that time. It requires twenty days to make it consistent; this is very plain from the taste of it, for it differs both in sweetness and solidity. The bee carries honey from every plant which has cup-shaped flowers, and from all those which contain a sweet principle, but does not injure the fruit; it takes up and carries away the sweet taste of plants with its tongue-like organ.
6. The honey-comb is pressed when the wild figs begin to appear; and they produce the best grubs when they can produce honey. The bees carry the wax and bee-bread upon their legs, but the honey is disgorged into the cells. After the progeny is deposited in the cells, they incubate like birds. In the wax cells the little worm is placed at the side; afterwards it rises of itself to be fed. It is united to the comb in such a manner as to be held by it. The progeny both of the bees and drones from which the little worms are produced, is white. As they grow they become bees and drones. The progeny of the king-bees is rather red, and about the consistency of thick honey. In bulk it is as large as the creature which is produced from it. The progeny of the king-bee is not a worm, but comes forth a perfect bee, as they say; and, when the progeny is produced in the comb, honey is found in that which is opposite.
7. After the grub is covered up, it has wings and feet; and when it has acquired wings, it bursts through the membrane, and flies away.
It evacuates an excrementitious matter while it is a worm, but not afterwards, until it is perfected, as I observed before. If a person cuts off the head of the grub before its wings are acquired, the other bees devour it; if a person having cut off the wings of a drone lets it go, the bees will eat off the wings of the other drones.
8. The bee will live for six years, some have lived for seven, and if a swarm lasts nine or ten years, it is considered to have done well. In Pontus there are very white bees, which make honey twice every month.
In Therniscyra, near the river Thermodon, are found bees which make cells in the earth, and in hives with a very small quantity of wax, but their honey is thick. The cells are smooth and homogeneous. They only do this in the winter, and not all the year round; for there is a great deal of ivy in the place, which flowers at this season of the year, and from this they carry away the honey. From the higher regions of Amisus a kind of white honey is procured, which the bees form upon the trees without wax. The same is also found in another place in Pontus.
There are also bees which form triple cells in the earth; these form honey, but never have grubs. All such as these, however, are not cells, neither are they formed by every kind of bee.
CHAPTER XX.
1. The anthrenæ[178] and wasps form cells for their progeny when they have no rulers, but are wandering about in search of them, the anthrenæ upon some high place, the wasps in holes. But when they have the rulers they form their cells underground. All their cells are hexagonal, like those of bees; they are not formed of wax, but of a web-like membrane, made of the bark of trees. The cells of the anthrenæ are far more elegant than those of wasps. Upon the side of their cells they place their progeny, in the manner of the bees, like a drop of liquid united to the wall of the cell. The progeny in all the cells is not alike, but in some they are so large as to be almost ready for flight, in others are nymphæ, in others grubs.
[178] Hornet, Apis terrestris.
2. The only excrementitious matter is found in the cells of the grubs, as in the case of bees. As long as they are nymphæ they remain motionless, and the cell is sealed over, and on the other side of the cell which contains their progeny, there is a drop of honey in the combs of the anthrenæ. The grubs of these creatures are produced in the autumn, not in the spring, but they evidently grow most rapidly at the full moon. The progeny and the grubs are not united to the bottom, but to the side of the cell.
CHAPTER XXI.
1. Some of the bombycia[179] form an angular cell of mud, which they attach to a stone or something else, and smear with a kind of transparent substance; this is so very thick and hard, that it can scarcely be broken with the blow of a spear. In this they deposit their ova, and the white maggots are contained in a black membrane; and wax is formed in the mud without any membrane, this wax is much more yellow than that of bees.
[179] Apis cementaria.
2. The ants also have sexual intercourse, and produce maggots which they do not attach to anything. As these grow, they change from small round things to long articulated beings. The season for their production is in the spring.
3. The land-scorpions also bring forth many egg-like maggots, upon which they incubate. When the young ones are perfect, they drive out and destroy their parents like spiders, for they are frequently eleven in number.
CHAPTER XXII.
1. The arachnia copulate in the manner already described, and produce maggots which at first are small. After their metamorphosis they become spiders, not from a part but from the whole of the maggot, for they are round from the first. When the female has produced her ova, she incubates upon them, in three days they acquire limbs. All of them produce their young in a web, which is thin and small in some species, but compact in others. Some are enclosed entirely in a round receptacle, and others are only partially covered by the web. All the young spiders are not produced at once, but as soon as they are hatched they leap out and shoot forth a web. If they are bruised they are found to contain a thick white fluid like that of maggots.
2. The field-spiders first of all deposit their ova in a web, of which one half is attached to themselves, and the other external, they incubate upon this, and produce their young alive. The phalangia deposit their ova in a thick basket which they weave, upon this they incubate. The smooth kinds produce a small number, the phalangia a great many. When they are grown, they surround their parent in a circle, kill and throw her out. They often seize the male in the same way if they can catch him, for he assists the female in incubation.
Sometimes there are as many as three hundred round a single phalangium.
The little spiders become full-grown in about four weeks.
CHAPTER XXIII.
1. Locusts copulate in the same manner as all other insects, the smaller mounting upon the larger, for the male is the smaller. They oviposit by fixing the organ which is attached to their tail (the ovipositor) in the ground. The males do not possess this organ. Many of them deposit their ova in one spot, so as to make it appear like a honey-comb. As soon as they have deposited their ova, egg-like maggots are formed, which are covered with a thin coating of earth like a membrane, and in this they are matured.
2. The young are so soft as to collapse if they are only touched. They are not produced on the surface, but a little below the surface of the soil; and as soon as they are matured, they escape from the coat of soil in which they are enclosed as small black locusts. Their skin is subsequently ruptured, and they then attain their full size. They produce their young at the end of summer, and then die.
3. For as soon as they have deposited their ova, small worms make their appearance on their necks, the males also perish at the same time: they come out of the earth in the spring. Locusts never shew themselves in mountainous countries, nor in poor land, but in plains, and broken soil, for they deposit their ova in fissures. The ova remain in the soil during the winter, and in the summer the locusts are produced from the germs of the preceding year.
4. The young of the attelabi are produced in the same manner, and the parents die after having deposited their ova. Their ova are destroyed by the rains of the autumn, if the weather is wet; but if that season is dry, many attelabi are produced, because they are not equally destroyed; for their destruction appears to be irregular, and to take place by accident.
CHAPTER XXIV.
1. There are two kinds of grasshoppers: some are small. These are the first to appear, the last to perish. Others, which chirp, are large: these appear last, and disappear first. There is another difference between the small and large kind. Those which chirp have a division in the middle of the body: those which do not chirp have none. The large ones, which chirp, are called achetæ; the small are called tettigonia.
Such of these as are divided, sing a little.
2. Grasshoppers do not appear where there are no trees, for which reason they are unknown in the open country of Cyrene, but are abundant near the city, and especially among olive trees, for these do not give much shade, and grasshoppers are not produced in the cold, nor in very shady groves. Both the large and small ones have sexual intercourse with their own kind, copulating with each other on their backs. The male inserts his organ into the female, in the same manner as other insects. The female has a divided pudendum. The female individual is the one which receives the male.
3. They deposit their ova in fields, piercing the soil with the organ at the extremity of their body, like the attelabi; for the attelabi also oviposit in the fields, for which reason they are common in Cyrene. They oviposit also in the reeds which are used to support the vines; these they pierce: and so they do in the stems of the scilla. The young ones are washed into the earth, and are common in rainy weather. The maggot, when it is grown in the earth, becomes a tettigometra: these are sweetest before they have ruptured their covering.
4. And when the season arrives for their appearance, about the solstice, they come forth by night, and immediately burst their envelope, and the tettigometra becomes a grasshopper. They immediately become black and hard, acquire their full size, and begin to chirp.
In both kinds the males chirp; the others, which do not chirp, are females. When first produced the males are the sweetest: after the sexual intercourse, the females are sweetest, for they contain white ova.
5. If a noise is made as they fly along, they emit a fluid like water, which the agriculturists describe as if they emitted both a liquid and solid excrement, and that they feed on dew; and if any one approaches them with a bent finger, which is gradually straightened, they will remain more quiet than if it is put out straight at once, and will climb up upon the finger; for, from the dimness of their sight, they climb upon it as if it were a moving leaf.
CHAPTER XXV.
1. Those insects which are not carnivorous, but live upon the juices of living flesh, as lice, fleas, and bugs, produce nits from sexual intercourse; from these nits nothing else is formed. Of these insects the fleas originate in very small portions of corrupted matter, for they are always collected together where there is any dry dung.
Bugs[180] proceed from the moisture which collects on the bodies of animals: lice from the flesh of other creatures; for before they appear, they exist in little pimples which do not contain matter: and if these are pricked, the lice[181] escape from them. Some persons have been afflicted with a disease arising from excessive moisture in the body, of which people have died, as they say that Alcmon the poet, and Pherecydes of Syria did.
[180] Cinex lectularius.
[181] Perhaps Acarus Scabiei, Itch insect.
2. And in some diseases lice are very common. There is a kind of lice, which they call wild, and are harder than the common sort, which are difficult to eradicate from the body. The heads of children are most subject to be infested with lice, and men the least so, for women are more liable to them than men. Those that have lice in the head are less subject to headache. Many other animals are infested with lice: for both birds have them, and those which are called phasiani, unless they dust themselves, are destroyed by them. And so are all those creatures which have feathers with a hollow stem, and those which have hair, except the ass, which has neither lice nor ticks. Oxen have both; sheep and goats have ticks, but no lice; hogs are infested with large, hard lice, and dogs with those which are called cynoraïstæ. All lice originate in the animals that are infested with them. All creatures that have lice, and wash themselves, are more liable to them when they change the water in which they bathe.
3. In the sea is a kind of lice[182] growing on fish; but these do not originate in the fish, but in the mud. Their appearance is that of wood-lice with many feet, except that they have a wide tail. There is one species of marine lice which occur everywhere, and especially infest the trigla. All these creatures are furnished with many legs, are exsanguineous, and insects. The œstrus[183] of the thynnus occurs near the fins: in shape it is like a scorpion, and as large as a spider. In the sea between Cyrene and Egypt, there is a fish called the phtheira, which accompanies the dolphin; it is the fattest of all fish, because it enjoys an abundance of the food which the dolphin hunts for.
[182] Perhaps Oniscus Ceti, or Isora.
[183] Perhaps Lernœa branchialis.
CHAPTER XXVI.
1. There are also other minute animals, as I observed before, some of which occur in wool,[184] and in woollen goods; as the moths, which are produced in the greatest abundance when the wool is dusty, and especially if a spider is enclosed with them, for this creature is thirsty, and dries up any fluid which may be present. This worm also occurs in garments. There is one which occurs in old honeycombs, like the creature which inhabits dry wood: this appears to be the least of all creatures, it is called acari, it is white and small. Others also are found in books,[185] some of which are like those which occur in garments: others are like scorpions;[186] they have no tails, and are very small. And on the whole, they occur in everything, so to say, which from being dry, becomes moist, or being moist, becomes dry, if it has any life in it.
[184] Tinea pellionella, or T. sarcitella.
[185] Dumestes Pellio, and D. lardarius.
[186] Phalangium cancroides.
2. There is a little worm which is called xylophthorus,[187] which is no less extraordinary than these animals; for its variegated head is projected beyond its case, and its feet are at the extremity, as in other worms. The rest of the body is contained in a case made of a substance like spider's web, and a dry material on the outside of this; so that it appears to walk about with this attached to it. These creatures are attached to their case, and as a snail to its shell, so the whole of the case is joined to the worm, and it does not fall out of it, but is drawn out of it, as if they were joined together. If a person pulls off the case, the creature dies, and becomes as helpless as a snail without its shell. As time advances, this grub becomes a chrysalis, like a caterpillar, and lies without motion: but the nature of the winged creature that is produced has never been ascertained.
[187] Tinea graminella, Tinea lichenella, Tinea Xylophorus, or perhaps larva of Phryganea.
3. The wild figs upon the fig-trees contain a creature called psen;[188] this is at first a little worm, and afterwards having ruptured the case, the psen flies out, and leaves it behind. It then pierces the unripe figs, and causes them not to fall off, wherefore gardeners place wild fruit near the cultivated kinds, and plant the wild and cultivated plants near each other.
[188] Cynips Psenes.
CHAPTER XXVII.
1. The sexual intercourse of sanguineous and oviparous quadrupeds takes place in the spring. They do not, however, all copulate at the same season; but some in the spring, others in the summer or autumn, as the season is appropriate for bringing up the young of each species. The tortoise produces hard, two-coloured eggs, like those of birds. Having deposited her eggs, she buries them, and makes a beaten place above them. When this is done, she sits upon them. The eggs are hatched the following year. The emys goes out of the water to deposit her eggs, and digs a hole like a cask, in which she places her eggs and leaves them.
Having left them alone for less than thirty days, she digs them up again and hatches them and leads them at once to the water. The marine turtles deposit their eggs in the earth like domestic birds, and cover them up with earth and sit upon them during the night. They produce a great many eggs, as many as an hundred.
2. The saurians and both the land and river crocodiles produce their eggs upon the land. Those of the lizards are hatched spontaneously in the earth; for the lizard does not live a whole year, for it is said to live only six months. The river crocodile produces as many as sixty eggs, which are white. She sits upon them for sixty days, for they live a long while. A very large animal is produced from these small eggs; for the egg is not larger than that of a goose, and the young is in proportion, but when full grown the creature measures seventeen cubits.
Some persons say that it grows as long as it lives.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
Among serpents the viper is externally viviparous, but first of all internally oviparous. The ovum, like that of fish, is of one colour and soft skinned. The young are produced in the upper part. They are not enclosed in a shelly covering, neither are the ova of fish. The little vipers are produced in a membrane, which they rupture on the third day, and sometimes they make their escape by eating their way through the mother. They are produced one by one in the course of a day, and their number often exceeds twenty. Other serpents are externally oviparous, but their ova are joined together like women's necklaces.
When the female deposits her eggs in the soil, she incubates upon them.
These also are hatched in the second year. This is the manner of the production of serpents, insects, and of oviparous quadrupeds.
BOOK THE SIXTH.
CHAPTER I.
1. The above describes the manner of reproduction in serpents, insects, and oviparous quadrupeds. All birds are oviparous, but the season of sexual intercourse and of bringing out their young is not the same in