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Historia animalium, by D'Arcy W. Thompson. Clarendon Press, 1910.

====== Aristotle: History of Animals Book 6-9 ======

===== BOOK VI =====


==== Part 1 ====


So much for the generative processes in snakes and insects, and also
in oviparous quadrupeds. Birds without exception lay eggs, but the
pairing season and the times of parturition are not alike for all.
Some birds couple and lay at almost any time in the year, as for instance
the barn-door hen and the pigeon: the former of these coupling and
laying during the entire year, with the exception of the month before
and the month after the winter solstice. Some hens, even in the high
breeds, lay a large quantity of eggs before brooding, amounting to
as many as sixty; and, by the way, the higher breeds are less prolific
than the inferior ones. The Adrian hens are small-sized, but they
lay every day; they are cross-tempered, and often kill their chickens;
they are of all colours. Some domesticated hens lay twice a day; indeed,
instances have been known where hens, after exhibiting extreme fecundity,
have died suddenly. Hens, then, lay eggs, as has been stated, at all
times indiscriminately; the pigeon, the ring-dove, the turtle-dove,
and the stock-dove lay twice a year, and the pigeon actually lays
ten times a year. The great majority of birds lay during the spring-time.
Some birds are prolific, and prolific in either of two ways-either
by laying often, as the pigeon, or by laying many eggs at a sitting,
as the barn-door hen. All birds of prey, or birds with crooked talons,
are unprolific, except the kestrel: this bird is the most prolific
of birds of prey; as many as four eggs have been observed in the nest,
and occasionally it lays even more.

Birds in general lay their eggs in nests, but such as are disqualified
for flight, as the partridge and the quail, do not lay them in nests
but on the ground, and cover them over with loose material. The same
is the case with the lark and the tetrix. These birds hatch in sheltered
places; but the bird called merops in Boeotia, alone of all birds,
burrows into holes in the ground and hatches there.

Thrushes, like swallows, build nests of clay, on high trees, and build
them in rows all close together, so that from their continuity the
structure resembles a necklace of nests. Of all birds that hatch for
themselves the hoopoe is the only one that builds no nest whatever;
it gets into the hollow of the trunk of a tree, and lays its eggs
there without making any sort of nest. The circus builds either under
a dwelling-roof or on cliffs. The tetrix, called ourax in Athens,
builds neither on the ground nor on trees, but on low-lying shrubs.

==== Part 2 ====


The egg in the case of all birds alike is hard-shelled, if it be the
produce of copulation and be laid by a healthy hen-for some hens lay
soft eggs. The interior of the egg is of two colours, and the white
part is outside and the yellow part within.

The eggs of birds that frequent rivers and marshes differ from those
of birds that live on dry land; that is to say, the eggs of waterbirds
have comparatively more of the yellow or yolk and less of the white.
Eggs vary in colour according to their kind. Some eggs are white,
as those of the pigeon and of the partridge; others are yellowish,
as the eggs of marsh birds; in some cases the eggs are mottled, as
the eggs of the guinea-fowl and the pheasant; while the eggs of the
kestrel are red, like vermilion.

Eggs are not symmetrically shaped at both ends: in other words, one
end is comparatively sharp, and the other end is comparatively blunt;
and it is the latter end that protrudes first at the time of laying.
Long and pointed eggs are female; those that are round, or more rounded
at the narrow end, are male. Eggs are hatched by the incubation of
the mother-bird. In some cases, as in Egypt, they are hatched spontaneously
in the ground, by being buried in dung heaps. A story is told of a
toper in Syracuse, how he used to put eggs into the ground under his
rush-mat and to keep on drinking until he hatched them. Instances
have occurred of eggs being deposited in warm vessels and getting
hatched spontaneously.

The sperm of birds, as of animals in general, is white. After the
female has submitted to the male, she draws up the sperm to underneath
her midriff. At first it is little in size and white in colour; by
and by it is red, the colour of blood; as it grows, it becomes pale
and yellow all over. When at length it is getting ripe for hatching,
it is subject to differentiation of substance, and the yolk gathers
together within and the white settles round it on the outside. When
the full time is come, the egg detaches itself and protrudes, changing
from soft to hard with such temporal exactitude that, whereas it is
not hard during the process of protrusion, it hardens immediately
after the process is completed: that is if there be no concomitant
pathological circumstances. Cases have occurred where substances resembling
the egg at a critical point of its growth-that is, when it is yellow
all over, as the yolk is subsequently-have been found in the cock
when cut open, underneath his midriff, just where the hen has her
eggs; and these are entirely yellow in appearance and of the same
size as ordinary eggs. Such phenomena are regarded as unnatural and
portentous.

Such as affirm that wind-eggs are the residua of eggs previously begotten
from copulation are mistaken in this assertion, for we have cases
well authenticated where chickens of the common hen and goose have
laid wind-eggs without ever having been subjected to copulation. Wind-eggs
are smaller, less palatable, and more liquid than true eggs, and are
produced in greater numbers. When they are put under the mother bird,
the liquid contents never coagulate, but both the yellow and the white
remain as they were. Wind-eggs are laid by a number of birds: as for
instance by the common hen, the hen partridge, the hen pigeon, the
peahen, the goose, and the vulpanser. Eggs are hatched under brooding
hens more rapidly in summer than in winter; that is to say, hens hatch
in eighteen days in summer, but occasionally in winter take as many
as twenty-five. And by the way for brooding purposes some birds make
better mothers than others. If it thunders while a hen-bird is brooding,
the eggs get addled. Wind-eggs that are called by some cynosura and
uria are produced chiefly in summer. Wind-eggs are called by some
zephyr-eggs, because at spring-time hen-birds are observed to inhale
the breezes; they do the same if they be stroked in a peculiar way
by hand. Wind-eggs can turn into fertile eggs, and eggs due to previous
copulation can change breed, if before the change of the yellow to
the white the hen that contains wind-eggs, or eggs begotten of copulation
be trodden by another cock-bird. Under these circumstances the wind-eggs
turn into fertile eggs, and the previously impregnated eggs follow
the breed of the impregnator; but if the latter impregnation takes
place during the change of the yellow to the white, then no change
in the egg takes place: the wind-egg does not become a true egg, and
the true egg does not take on the breed of the latter impregnator.
If when the egg-substance is small copulation be intermitted, the
previously existing egg-substance exhibits no increase; but if the
hen be again submitted to the male the increase in size proceeds with
rapidity.

The yolk and the white are diverse not only in colour but also in
properties. Thus, the yolk congeals under the influence of cold, whereas
the white instead of congealing is inclined rather to liquefy. Again,
the white stiffens under the influence of fire, whereas the yolk does
not stiffen; but, unless it be burnt through and through, it remains
soft, and in point of fact is inclined to set or to harden more from
the boiling than from the roasting of the egg. The yolk and the white
are separated by a membrane from one another. The so-called 'hail-stones',
or treadles, that are found at the extremity of the yellow in no way
contribute towards generation, as some erroneously suppose: they are
two in number, one below and the other above. If you take out of the
shells a number of yolks and a number of whites and pour them into
a sauce pan and boil them slowly over a low fire, the yolks will gather
into the centre and the whites will set all around them.

Young hens are the first to lay, and they do so at the beginning of
spring and lay more eggs than the older hens, but the eggs of the
younger hens are comparatively small. As a general rule, if hens get
no brooding they pine and sicken. After copulation hens shiver and
shake themselves, and often kick rubbish about all round them-and
this, by the way, they do sometimes after laying-whereas pigeons trail
their rumps on the ground, and geese dive under the water. Conception
of the true egg and conformation of the wind-egg take place rapidly
with most birds; as for instance with the hen-partridge when in heat.
The fact is that, when she stands to windward and within scent of
the male, she conceives, and becomes useless for decoy purposes: for,
by the way, the partridge appears to have a very acute sense of smell.

The generation of the egg after copulation and the generation of the
chick from the subsequent hatching of the egg are not brought about
within equal periods for all birds, but differ as to time according
to the size of the parent-birds. The egg of the common hen after copulation
sets and matures in ten days a general rule; the egg of the pigeon
in a somewhat lesser period. Pigeons have the faculty of holding back
the egg at the very moment of parturition; if a hen pigeon be put
about by any one, for instance if it be disturbed on its nest, or
have a feather plucked out, or sustain any other annoyance or disturbance,
then even though she had made up her mind to lay she can keep the
egg back in abeyance. A singular phenomenon is observed in pigeons
with regard to pairing: that is, they kiss one another just when the
male is on the point of mounting the female, and without this preliminary
the male would decline to perform his function. With the older males
the preliminary kiss is only given to begin with, and subsequently
sequently he mounts without previously kissing; with younger males
the preliminary is never omitted. Another singularity in these birds
is that the hens tread one another when a cock is not forthcoming,
after kissing one another just as takes place in the normal pairing.
Though they do not impregnate one another they lay more eggs under
these than under ordinary circumstances; no chicks, however, result
therefrom, but all such eggs are wind-eggs.

==== Part 3 ====


Generation from the egg proceeds in an identical manner with all birds,
but the full periods from conception to birth differ, as has been
said. With the common hen after three days and three nights there
is the first indication of the embryo; with larger birds the interval
being longer, with smaller birds shorter. Meanwhile the yolk comes
into being, rising towards the sharp end, where the primal element
of the egg is situated, and where the egg gets hatched; and the heart
appears, like a speck of blood, in the white of the egg. This point
beats and moves as though endowed with life, and from it two vein-ducts
with blood in them trend in a convoluted course (as the egg substance
goes on growing, towards each of the two circumjacent integuments);
and a membrane carrying bloody fibres now envelops the yolk, leading
off from the vein-ducts. A little afterwards the body is differentiated,
at first very small and white. The head is clearly distinguished,
and in it the eyes, swollen out to a great extent. This condition
of the eyes lat on for a good while, as it is only by degrees that
they diminish in size and collapse. At the outset the under portion
of the body appears insignificant in comparison with the upper portion.
Of the two ducts that lead from the heart, the one proceeds towards
the circumjacent integument, and the other, like a navel-string, towards
the yolk. The life-element of the chick is in the white of the egg,
and the nutriment comes through the navel-string out of the yolk.

When the egg is now ten days old the chick and all its parts are distinctly
visible. The head is still larger than the rest of its body, and the
eyes larger than the head, but still devoid of vision. The eyes, if
removed about this time, are found to be larger than beans, and black;
if the cuticle be peeled off them there is a white and cold liquid
inside, quite glittering in the sunlight, but there is no hard substance
whatsoever. Such is the condition of the head and eyes. At this time
also the larger internal organs are visible, as also the stomach and
the arrangement of the viscera; and veins that seem to proceed from
the heart are now close to the navel. From the navel there stretch
a pair of veins; one towards the membrane that envelops the yolk (and,
by the way, the yolk is now liquid, or more so than is normal), and
the other towards that membrane which envelops collectively the membrane
wherein the chick lies, the membrane of the yolk, and the intervening
liquid. (For, as the chick grows, little by little one part of the
yolk goes upward, and another part downward, and the white liquid
is between them; and the white of the egg is underneath the lower
part of the yolk, as it was at the outset.) On the tenth day the white
is at the extreme outer surface, reduced in amount, glutinous, firm
in substance, and sallow in colour.

The disposition of the several constituent parts is as follows. First
and outermost comes the membrane of the egg, not that of the shell,
but underneath it. Inside this membrane is a white liquid; then comes
the chick, and a membrane round about it, separating it off so as
to keep the chick free from the liquid; next after the chick comes
the yolk, into which one of the two veins was described as leading,
the other one leading into the enveloping white substance. (A membrane
with a liquid resembling serum envelops the entire structure. Then
comes another membrane right round the embryo, as has been described,
separating it off against the liquid. Underneath this comes the yolk,
enveloped in another membrane (into which yolk proceeds the navel-string
that leads from the heart and the big vein), so as to keep the embryo
free of both liquids.)

About the twentieth day, if you open the egg and touch the chick,
it moves inside and chirps; and it is already coming to be covered
with down, when, after the twentieth day is ast, the chick begins
to break the shell. The head is situated over the right leg close
to the flank, and the wing is placed over the head; and about this
time is plain to be seen the membrane resembling an after-birth that
comes next after the outermost membrane of the shell, into which membrane
the one of the navel-strings was described as leading (and, by the
way, the chick in its entirety is now within it), and so also is the
other membrane resembling an after-birth, namely that surrounding
the yolk, into which the second navel-string was described as leading;
and both of them were described as being connected with the heart
and the big vein. At this conjuncture the navel-string that leads
to the outer afterbirth collapses and becomes detached from the chick,
and the membrane that leads into the yolk is fastened on to the thin
gut of the creature, and by this time a considerable amount of the
yolk is inside the chick and a yellow sediment is in its stomach.
About this time it discharges residuum in the direction of the outer
after-birth, and has residuum inside its stomach; and the outer residuum
is white (and there comes a white substance inside). By and by the
yolk, diminishing gradually in size, at length becomes entirely used
up and comprehended within the chick (so that, ten days after hatching,
if you cut open the chick, a small remnant of the yolk is still left
in connexion with the gut), but it is detached from the navel, and
there is nothing in the interval between, but it has been used up
entirely. During the period above referred to the chick sleeps, wakes
up, makes a move and looks up and Chirps; and the heart and the navel
together palpitate as though the creature were respiring. So much
as to generation from the egg in the case of birds.

Birds lay some eggs that are unfruitful, even eggs that are the result
of copulation, and no life comes from such eggs by incubation; and
this phenomenon is observed especially with pigeons.

Twin eggs have two yolks. In some twin eggs a thin partition of white
intervenes to prevent the yolks mixing with each other, but some twin
eggs are unprovided with such partition, and the yokes run into one
another. There are some hens that lay nothing but twin eggs, and in
their case the phenomenon regarding the yolks has been observed. For
instance, a hen has been known to lay eighteen eggs, and to hatch
twins out of them all, except those that were wind-eggs; the rest
were fertile (though, by the way, one of the twins is always bigger
than the other), but the eighteenth was abnormal or monstrous.

==== Part 4 ====


Birds of the pigeon kind, such as the ringdove and the turtle-dove,
lay two eggs at a time; that is to say, they do so as a general rule,
and they never lay more than three. The pigeon, as has been said,
lays at all seasons; the ring-dove and the turtle-dove lay in the
springtime, and they never lay more than twice in the same season.
The hen-bird lays the second pair of eggs when the first pair happens
to have been destroyed, for many of the hen-pigeons destroy the first
brood. The hen-pigeon, as has been said, occasionally lays three eggs,
but it never rears more than two chicks, and sometimes rears only
one; and the odd one is always a wind-egg.

Very few birds propagate within their first year. All birds, after
once they have begun laying, keep on having eggs, though in the case
of some birds it is difficult to detect the fact from the minute size
of the creature.

The pigeon, as a rule, lays a male and a female egg, and generally
lays the male egg first; after laying it allows a day's interval to
ensue and then lays the second egg. The male takes its turn of sitting
during the daytime; the female sits during the night. The first-laid
egg is hatched and brought to birth within twenty days; and the mother
bird pecks a hole in the egg the day before she hatches it out. The
two parent birds brood for some time over the chicks in the way in
which they brooded previously over the eggs. In all connected with
the rearing of the young the female parent is more cross-tempered
than the male, as is the case with most animals after parturition.
The hens lay as many as ten times in the year; occasional instances
have been known of their laying eleven times, and in Egypt they actually
lay twelve times. The pigeon, male and female, couples within the
year; in fact, it couples when only six months old. Some assert that
ringdoves and turtle-doves pair and procreate when only three months
old, and instance their superabundant numbers by way of proof of the
assertion. The hen-pigeon carries her eggs fourteen days; for as many
more days the parent birds hatch the eggs; by the end of another fourteen
days the chicks are so far capable of flight as to be overtaken with
difficulty. (The ring-dove, according to all accounts, lives up to
forty years. The partridge lives over sixteen., After one brood the
pigeon is ready for another within thirty days.)

==== Part 5 ====


The vulture builds its nest on inaccessible cliffs; for which reason
its nest and young are rarely seen. And therefore Herodorus, father
of Bryson the Sophist, declares that vultures belong to some foreign
country unknown to us, stating as a proof of the assertion that no
one has ever seen a vulture's nest, and also that vultures in great
numbers make a sudden appearance in the rear of armies. However, difficult
as it is to get a sight of it, a vulture's nest has been seen. The
vulture lays two eggs.

(Carnivorous birds in general are observed to lay but once a year.
The swallow is the only carnivorous bird that builds a nest twice.
If you prick out the eyes of swallow chicks while they are yet young,
the birds will get well again and will see by and by.)

==== Part 6 ====


The eagle lays three eggs and hatches two of them, as it is said in
the verses ascribed to Musaeus:

That lays three, hatches two, and cares for one.

This is the case in most instances, though occasionally a brood of
three has been observed. As the young ones grow, the mother becomes
wearied with feeding them and extrudes one of the pair from the nest.
At the same time the bird is said to abstain from food, to avoid harrying
the young of wild animals. That is to say, its wings blanch, and for
some days its talons get turned awry. It is in consequence about this
time cross-tempered to its own young. The phene is said to rear the
young one that has been expelled the nest. The eagle broods for about
thirty days.

The hatching period is about the same for the larger birds, such as
the goose and the great bustard; for the middle-sized birds it extends
over about twenty days, as in the case of the kite and the hawk. The
kite in general lays two eggs, but occasionally rears three young
ones. The so-called aegolius at times rears four. It is not true that,
as some aver, the raven lays only two eggs; it lays a larger number.
It broods for about twenty days and then extrudes its young. Other
birds perform the same operation; at all events mother birds that
lay several eggs often extrude one of their young.

Birds of the eagle species are not alike in the treatment of their
young. The white-tailed eagle is cross, the black eagle is affectionate
in the feeding of the young; though, by the way, all birds of prey,
when their brood is rather forward in being able to fly, beat and
extrude them from the nest. The majority of birds other than birds
of prey, as has been said, also act in this manner, and after feeding
their young take no further care of them; but the crow is an exception.
This bird for a considerable time takes charge of her young; for,
even when her young can fly, she flies alongside of them and supplies
them with food.

==== Part 7 ====


The cuckoo is said by some to be a hawk transformed, because at the
time of the cuckoo's coming, the hawk, which it resembles, is never
seen; and indeed it is only for a few days that you will see hawks
about when the cuckoo's note sounds early in the season. The cuckoo
appears only for a short time in summer, and in winter disappears.
The hawk has crooked talons, which the cuckoo has not; neither with
regard to the head does the cuckoo resemble the hawk. In point of
fact, both as regards the head and the claws it more resembles the
pigeon. However, in colour and in colour alone it does resemble the
hawk, only that the markings of the hawk are striped, and of the cuckoo
mottled. And, by the way, in size and flight it resembles the smallest
of the hawk tribe, which bird disappears as a rule about the time
of the appearance of the cuckoo, though the two have been seen simultaneously.
The cuckoo has been seen to be preyed on by the hawk; and this never
happens between birds of the same species. They say no one has ever
seen the young of the cuckoo. The bird eggs, but does not build a
nest. Sometimes it lays its eggs in the nest of a smaller bird after
first devouring the eggs of this bird; it lays by preference in the
nest of the ringdove, after first devouring the eggs of the pigeon.
(It occasionally lays two, but usually one.) It lays also in the nest
of the hypolais, and the hypolais hatches and rears the brood. It
is about this time that the bird becomes fat and palatable. (The young
of hawks also get palatable and fat. One species builds a nest in
the wilderness and on sheer and inaccessible cliffs.)

==== Part 8 ====


With most birds, as has been said of the pigeon, the hatching is carried
on by the male and the female in turns: with some birds, however,
the male only sits long enough to allow the female to provide herself
with food. In the goose tribe the female alone incubates, and after
once sitting on the eggs she continues brooding until they are hatched.

The nests of all marsh-birds are built in districts fenny and well
supplied with grass; consequently, the mother-bird while sitting quiet
on her eggs can provide herself with food without having to submit
to absolute fasting.

With the crow also the female alone broods, and broods throughout
the whole period; the male bird supports the female, bringing her
food and feeding her. The female of the ring-dove begins to brood
in the afternoon and broods through the entire night until breakfast-time
of the following day; the male broods during the rest of the time.
Partridges build a nest in two compartments; the male broods on the
one and the female on the other. After hatching, each of the parent
birds rears its brood. But the male, when he first takes his young
out of the nest, treads them.

==== Part 9 ====


Peafowl live for about twenty-five years, breed about the third year,
and at the same time take on their spangled plumage. They hatch their
eggs within thirty days or rather more. The peahen lays but once a
year, and lays twelve eggs, or may be a slightly lesser number: she
does not lay all the eggs there and then one after the other, but
at intervals of two or three days. Such as lay for the first time
lay about eight eggs. The peahen lays wind-eggs. They pair in the
spring; and laying begins immediately after pairing. The bird moults
when the earliest trees are shedding their leaves, and recovers its
plumage when the same trees are recovering their foliage. People that
rear peafowl put the eggs under the barn-door hen, owing to the fact
that when the peahen is brooding over them the peacock attacks her
and tries to trample on them; owing to this circumstance some birds
of wild varieties run away from the males and lay their eggs and brood
in solitude. Only two eggs are put under a barn-door hen, for she
could not brood over and hatch a large number. They take every precaution,
by supplying her with food, to prevent her going off the eggs and
discontinuing the brooding.

With male birds about pairing time the testicles are obviously larger
than at other times, and this is conspicuously the case with the more
salacious birds, such as the barn-door cock and the cock partridge;
the peculiarity is less conspicuous in such birds as are intermittent
in regard to pairing.

==== Part 10 ====


So much for the conception and generation of birds.
It has been previously stated that fishes are not all oviparous. Fishes
of the cartilaginous genus are viviparous; the rest are oviparous.
And cartilaginous fishes are first oviparous internally and subsequently
viviparous; they rear the embryos internally, the batrachus or fishing-frog
being an exception.

Fishes also, as was above stated, are provided with wombs, and wombs
of diverse kinds. The oviparous genera have wombs bifurcate in shape
and low down in position; the cartilaginous genus have wombs shaped
like those of O birds. The womb, however, in the cartilaginous fishes
differs in this respect from the womb of birds, that with some cartilaginous
fishes the eggs do not settle close to the diaphragm but middle-ways
along the backbone, and as they grow they shift their position.

The egg with all fishes is not of two colours within but is of even
hue; and the colour is nearer to white than to yellow, and that both
when the young is inside it and previously as well.

Development from the egg in fishes differs from that in birds in this
respect, that it does not exhibit that one of the two navel-strings
that leads off to the membrane that lies close under the shell, while
it does exhibit that one of the two that in the case of birds leads
off to the yolk. In a general way the rest of the development from
the egg onwards is identical in birds and fishes. That is to say,
development takes place at the upper part of the egg, and the veins
extend in like manner, at first from the heart; and at first the head,
the eyes, and the upper parts are largest; and as the creature grows
the egg-substance decreases and eventually disappears, and becomes
absorbed within the embryo, just as takes place with the yolk in birds.

The navel-string is attached a little way below the aperture of the
belly. When the creatures are young the navel-string is long, but
as they grow it diminishes in size; at length it gets small and becomes
incorporated, as was described in the case of birds. The embryo and
the egg are enveloped by a common membrane, and just under this is
another membrane that envelops the embryo by itself; and in between
the two membranes is a liquid. The food inside the stomach of the
little fishes resembles that inside the stomach of young chicks, and
is partly white and partly yellow.

As regards the shape of the womb, the reader is referred to my treatise
on Anatomy. The womb, however, is diverse in diverse fishes, as for
instance in the sharks as compared one with another or as compared
with the skate. That is to say, in some sharks the eggs adhere in
the middle of the womb round about the backbone, as has been stated,
and this is the case with the dog-fish; as the eggs grow they shift
their place; and since the womb is bifurcate and adheres to the midriff,
as in the rest of similar creatures, the eggs pass into one or other
of the two compartments. This womb and the womb of the other sharks
exhibit, as you go a little way off from the midriff, something resembling
white breasts, which never make their appearance unless there be conception.

Dog-fish and skate have a kind of egg-shell, in the which is found
an egg-like liquid. The shape of the egg-shell resembles the tongue
of a bagpipe, and hair-like ducts are attached to the shell. With
the dog-fish which is called by some the 'dappled shark', the young
are born when the shell-formation breaks in pieces and falls out;
with the ray, after it has laid the egg the shell-formation breaks
up and the young move out. The spiny dog-fish has its close to the
midriff above the breast like formations; when the egg descends, as
soon as it gets detached the young is born. The mode of generation
is the same in the case of the fox-shark.

The so-called smooth shark has its eggs in betwixt the wombs like
the dog-fish; these eggs shift into each of the two horns of the womb
and descend, and the young develop with the navel-string attached
to the womb, so that, as the egg-substance gets used up, the embryo
is sustained to all appearance just as in the case of quadrupeds.
The navel-string is long and adheres to the under part of the womb
(each navel-string being attached as it were by a sucker), and also
to the centre of the embryo in the place where the liver is situated.
If the embryo be cut open, even though it has the egg-substance no
longer, the food inside is egg-like in appearance. Each embryo, as
in the case of quadrupeds, is provided with a chorion and separate
membranes. When young the embryo has its head upwards, but downwards
when it gets strong and is completed in form. Males are generated
on the left-hand side of the womb, and females on the right-hand side,
and males and females on the same side together. If the embryo be
cut open, then, as with quadrupeds, such internal organs as it is
furnished with, as for instance the liver, are found to be large and
supplied with blood.

All cartilaginous fishes have at one and the same time eggs above
close to the midriff (some larger, some smaller), in considerable
numbers, and also embryos lower down. And this circumstance leads
many to suppose that fishes of this species pair and bear young every
month, inasmuch as they do not produce all their young at once, but
now and again and over a lengthened period. But such eggs as have
come down below within the womb are simultaneously ripened and completed
in growth.

Dog-fish in general can extrude and take in again their young, as
can also the angel-fish and the electric ray-and, by the way, a large
electric ray has been seen with about eighty embryos inside it-but
the spiny dogfish is an exception to the rule, being prevented by
the spine of the young fish from so doing. Of the flat cartilaginous
fish, the trygon and the ray cannot extrude and take in again in consequence
of the roughness of the tails of the young. The batrachus or fishing-frog
also is unable to take in its young owing to the size of the head
and the prickles; and, by the way, as was previously remarked, it
is the only one of these fishes that is not viviparous.

So much for the varieties of the cartilaginous species and for their
modes of generation from the egg.

==== Part 11 ====


At the breeding season the sperm-ducts of the male are filled with
sperm, so much so that if they be squeezed the sperm flows out spontaneously
as a white fluid; the ducts are bifurcate, and start from the midriff
and the great vein. About this period the sperm-ducts of the male
are quite distinct (from the womb of the female) but at any other
than the actual breeding time their distinctness is not obvious to
a non-expert. The fact is that in certain fishes at certain times
these organs are imperceptible, as was stated regarding the testicles
of birds.

Among other distinctions observed between the thoric ducts and the
womb-ducts is the circumstance that the thoric ducts are attached
to the loins, while the womb-ducts move about freely and are attached
by a thin membrane. The particulars regarding the thoric ducts may
be studied by a reference to the diagrams in my treatise on Anatomy.

Cartilaginous fishes are capable of superfoetation, and their period
of gestation is six months at the longest. The so-called starry dogfish
bears young the most frequently; in other words it bears twice a month.
The breeding season is in the month of Maemacterion. The dog-fish
as a general rule bear twice in the year, with the exception of the
little dog-fish, which bears only once a year. Some of them bring
forth in the springtime. The rhine, or angel-fish, bears its first
brood in the springtime, and its second in the autumn, about the winter
setting of the Pleiads; the second brood is the stronger of the two.
The electric ray brings forth in the late autumn.

Cartilaginous fishes come out from the main seas and deep waters towards
the shore and there bring forth their young, and they do so for the
sake of warmth and by way of protection for their young.

Observations would lead to the general rule that no one variety of
fish pairs with another variety. The angel-fish, however, and the
batus or skate appear to pair with one another; for there is a fish
called the rhinobatus, with the head and front parts of the skate
and the after parts of the rhine or angel-fish, just as though it
were made up of both fishes together.

Sharks then and their congeners, as the fox-shark and the dog-fish,
and the flat fishes, such as the electric ray, the ray, the smooth
skate, and the trygon, are first oviparous and then viviparous in
the way above mentioned, (as are also the saw-fish and the ox-ray.)

==== Part 12 ====


The dolphin, the whale, and all the rest of the Cetacea, all, that
is to say, that are provided with a blow-hole instead of gills, are
viviparous. That is to say, no one of all these fishes is ever seen
to be supplied with eggs, but directly with an embryo from whose differentiation
comes the fish, just as in the case of mankind and the viviparous
quadrupeds.

The dolphin bears one at a time generally, but occasionally two. The
whale bears one or at the most two, generally two. The porpoise in
this respect resembles the dolphin, and, by the way, it is in form
like a little dolphin, and is found in the Euxine; it differs, however,
from the dolphin as being less in size and broader in the back; its
colour is leaden-black. Many people are of opinion that the porpoise
is a variety of the dolphin.

All creatures that have a blow-hole respire and inspire, for they
are provided with lungs. The dolphin has been seen asleep with his
nose above water, and when asleep he snores.

The dolphin and the porpoise are provided with milk, and suckle their
young. They also take their young, when small, inside them. The young
of the dolphin grow rapidly, being full grown at ten years of age.
Its period of gestation is ten months. It brings forth its young summer,
and never at any other season; (and, singularly enough, under the
Dogstar it disappears for about thirty days). Its young accompany
it for a considerable period; and, in fact, the creature is remarkable
for the strength of its parental affection. It lives for many years;
some are known to have lived for more than twenty-five, and some for
thirty years; the fact is fishermen nick their tails sometimes and
set them adrift again, and by this expedient their ages are ascertained.

The seal is an amphibious animal: that is to say, it cannot take in
water, but breathes and sleeps and brings forth on dry land-only close
to the shore-as being an animal furnished with feet; it spends, however,
the greater part of its time in the sea and derives its food from
it, so that it must be classed in the category of marine animals.
It is viviparous by immediate conception and brings forth its young
alive, and exhibits an after-birth and all else just like a ewe. It
bears one or two at a time, and three at the most. It has two teats,
and suckles its young like a quadruped. Like the human species it
brings forth at all seasons of the year, but especially at the time
when the earliest kids are forthcoming. It conducts its young ones,
when they are about twelve days old, over and over again during the
day down to the sea, accustoming them by slow degrees to the water.
It slips down steep places instead of walking, from the fact that
it cannot steady itself by its feet. It can contract and draw itself
in, for it is fleshy and soft and its bones are gristly. Owing to
the flabbiness of its body it is difficult to kill a seal by a blow,
unless you strike it on the temple. It looks like a cow. The female
in regard to its genital organs resembles the female of the ray; in
all other respects it resembles the female of the human species.

So much for the phenomena of generation and of parturition in animals
that live in water and are viviparous either internally or externally.

==== Part 13 ====


Oviparous fishes have their womb bifurcate and placed low down, as
was said previously-and, by the way, all scaly fish are oviparous,
as the basse, the mullet, the grey mullet, and the etelis, and all
the so-called white-fish, and all the smooth or slippery fish except
the eel-and their roe is of a crumbling or granular substance. This
appearance is due to the fact that the whole womb of such fishes is
full of eggs, so that in little fishes there seem to be only a couple
of eggs there; for in small fishes the womb is indistinguishable,
from its diminutive size and thin contexture. The pairing of fishes
has been discussed previously.

Fishes for the most part are divided into males and females, but one
is puzzled to account for the erythrinus and the channa, for specimens
of these species are never caught except in a condition of pregnancy.

With such fish as pair, eggs are the result of copulation, but such
fish have them also without copulation; and this is shown in the case
of some river-fish, for the minnow has eggs when quite small,-almost,
one may say, as soon as it is born. These fishes shed their eggs little
by little, and, as is stated, the males swallow the greater part of
them, and some portion of them goes to waste in the water; but such
of the eggs as the female deposits on the spawning beds are saved.
If all the eggs were preserved, each species would be infinite in
number. The greater number of these eggs so deposited are not productive,
but only those over which the male sheds the milt or sperm; for when
the female has laid her eggs, the male follows and sheds its sperm
over them, and from all the eggs so besprinkled young fishes proceed,
while the rest are left to their fate.

The same phenomenon is observed in the case of molluscs also; for
in the case of the cuttlefish or sepia, after the female has deposited
her eggs, the male besprinkles them. It is highly probable that a
similar phenomenon takes place in regard to molluscs in general, though
up to the present time the phenomenon has been observed only in the
case of the cuttlefish.

Fishes deposit their eggs close in to shore, the goby close to stones;
and, by the way, the spawn of the goby is flat and crumbly. Fish in
general so deposit their eggs; for the water close in to shore is
warm and is better supplied with food than the outer sea, and serves
as a protection to the spawn against the voracity of the larger fish.
And it is for this reason that in the Euxine most fishes spawn near
the mouth of the river Thermodon, because the locality is sheltered,
genial, and supplied with fresh water.

Oviparous fish as a rule spawn only once a year. The little phycis
or black goby is an exception, as it spawns twice; the male of the
black goby differs from the female as being blacker and having larger
scales.

Fishes then in general produce their young by copulation, and lay
their eggs; but the pipefish, as some call it, when the time of parturition
arrives, bursts in two, and the eggs escape out. For the fish has
a diaphysis or cloven growth under the belly and abdomen (like the
blind snakes), and, after it has spawned by the splitting of this
diaphysis, the sides of the split grow together again.

Development from the egg takes place similarly with fishes that are
oviparous internally and with fishes that are oviparous externally;
that is to say, the embryo comes at the upper end of the egg and is
enveloped in a membrane, and the eyes, large and spherical, are the
first organs visible. From this circumstance it is plain that the
assertion is untenable which is made by some writers, to wit, that
the young of oviparous fishes are generated like the grubs of worms;
for the opposite phenomena are observed in the case of these grubs,
in that their lower extremities are the larger at the outset, and
that the eyes and the head appear later on. After the egg has been
used up, the young fishes are like tadpoles in shape, and at first,
without taking any nutriment, they grow by sustenance derived from
the juice oozing from the egg; by and by, they are nourished up to
full growth by the river-waters.

When the Euxine is 'purged' a substance called phycus is carried into
the Hellespont, and this substance is of a pale yellow colour. Some
writers aver that it is the flower of the phycus, from which rouge
is made; it comes at the beginning of summer. Oysters and the small
fish of these localities feed on this substance, and some of the inhabitants
of these maritime districts say that the purple murex derives its
peculiar colour from it.

==== Part 14 ====


Marsh-fishes and river-fishes conceive at the age of five months as
a general rule, and deposit their spawn towards the close of the year
without exception. And with these fishes, like as with the marine
fishes, the female does not void all her eggs at one time, nor the
male his sperm; but they are at all times more or less provided, the
female with eggs, and the male with sperm. The-carp spawns as the
seasons come round, five or six times, and follows in spawning the
rising of the greater constellations. The chalcis spawns three times,
and the other fishes once only in the year. They all spawn in pools
left by the overflowing of rivers, and near to reedy places in marshes;
as for instance the phoxinus or minnow and the perch.

The glanis or sheat-fish and the perch deposit their spawn in one
continuous string, like the frog; so continuous, in fact, is the convoluted
spawn of the perch that, by reason of its smoothness, the fishermen
in the marshes can unwind it off the reeds like threads off a reel.
The larger individuals of the sheat-fish spawn in deep waters, some
in water of a fathom's depth, the smaller in shallower water, generally
close to the roots of the willow or of some other tree, or close to
reeds or to moss. At times these fishes intertwine with one another,
a big with a little one, and bring into juxtaposition the ducts-which
some writers designate as navels-at the point where they emit the
generative products and discharge the egg in the case of the female
and the milt in the case of the male. Such eggs as are besprinkled
with the milt grow, in a day or thereabouts, whiter and larger, and
in a little while afterwards the fish's eyes become visible for these
organs in all fishes, as for that matter in all other animals, are
early conspicuous and seem disproportionately big. But such eggs as
the milt fails to touch remain, as with marine fishes, useless and
infertile. From the fertile eggs, as the little fish grow, a kind
of sheath detaches itself; this is a membrane that envelops the egg
and the young fish. When the milt has mingled with the eggs, the resulting
product becomes very sticky or viscous, and adheres to the roots of
trees or wherever it may have been laid. The male keeps on guard at
the principal spawning-place, and the female after spawning goes away.

In the case of the sheat-fish the growth from the egg is exceptionally
slow, and, in consequence, the male has to keep watch for forty or
fifty days to prevent the-spawn being devoured by such little fishes
as chance to come by. Next in point of slowness is the generation
of the carp. As with fishes in general, so even with these, the spawn
thus protected disappears and gets lost rapidly.

In the case of some of the smaller fishes when they are only three
days old young fishes are generated. Eggs touched by the male sperm
take on increase both the same day and also later. The egg of the
sheat-fish is as big as a vetch-seed; the egg of the carp and of the
carp-species as big as a millet-seed.

These fishes then spawn and generate in the way here described. The
chalcis, however, spawns in deep water in dense shoals of fish; and
the so-called tilon spawns near to beaches in sheltered spots in shoals
likewise. The carp, the baleros, and fishes in general push eagerly
into the shallows for the purpose of spawning, and very often thirteen
or fourteen males are seen following a single female. When the female
deposits her spawn and departs, the males follow on and shed the milt.
The greater portion of the spawn gets wasted; because, owing to the
fact that the female moves about while spawning, the spawn scatters,
or so much of it as is caught in the stream and does not get entangled
with some rubbish. For, with the exception of the sheatfish, no fish
keeps on guard; unless, by the way, it be the carp, which is said
to remain on guard, if it so happen that its spawn lies in a solid
mass.

All male fishes are supplied with milt, excepting the eel: with the
eel, the male is devoid of milt, and the female of spawn. The mullet
goes up from the sea to marshes and rivers; the eels, on the contrary,
make their way down from the marshes and rivers to the sea.

==== Part 15 ====


The great majority of fish, then, as has been stated, proceed from
eggs. However, there are some fish that proceed from mud and sand,
even of those kinds that proceed also from pairing and the egg. This
occurs in ponds here and there, and especially in a pond in the neighbourhood
of Cnidos. This pond, it is said, at one time ran dry about the rising
of the Dogstar, and the mud had all dried up; at the first fall of
the rains there was a show of water in the pond, and on the first
appearance of the water shoals of tiny fish were found in the pond.
The fish in question was a kind of mullet, one which does not proceed
from normal pairing, about the size of a small sprat, and not one
of these fishes was provided with either spawn or milt. There are
found also in Asia Minor, in rivers not communicating with the sea,
little fishes like whitebait, differing from the small fry found near
Cnidos but found under similar circumstances. Some writers actually
aver that mullet all grow spontaneously. In this assertion they are
mistaken, for the female of the fish is found provided with spawn,
and the male with milt. However, there is a species of mullet that
grows spontaneously out of mud and sand.

From the facts above enumerated it is quite proved that certain fishes
come spontaneously into existence, not being derived from eggs or
from copulation. Such fish as are neither oviparous nor viviparous
arise all from one of two sources, from mud, or from sand and from
decayed matter that rises thence as a scum; for instance, the so-called
froth of the small fry comes out of sandy ground. This fry is incapable
of growth and of propagating its kind; after living for a while it
dies away and another creature takes its place, and so, with short
intervals excepted, it may be said to last the whole year through.
At all events, it lasts from the autumn rising of Arcturus up to the
spring-time. As a proof that these fish occasionally come out of the
ground we have the fact that in cold weather they are not caught,
and that they are caught in warm weather, obviously coming up out
of the ground to catch the heat; also, when the fishermen use dredges
and the ground is scraped up fairly often, the fishes appear in larger
numbers and of superior quality. All other small fry are inferior
in quality owing to rapidity of growth. The fry are found in sheltered
and marshy districts, when after a spell of fine weather the ground
is getting warmer, as, for instance, in the neighbourhood of Athens,
at Salamis and near the tomb of Themistocles and at Marathon; for
in these districts the froth is found. It appears, then, in such districts
and during such weather, and occasionally appears after a heavy fall
of rain in the froth that is thrown up by the falling rain, from which
circumstance the substance derives its specific name. Foam is occasionally
brought in on the surface of the sea in fair weather. (And in this,
where it has formed on the surface, the so-called froth collects,
as grubs swarm in manure; for which-reason this fry is often brought
in from the open sea. The fish is at its best in quality and quantity
in moist warm weather.)

The ordinary fry is the normal issue of parent fishes: the so-called
gudgeon-fry of small insignificant gudgeon-like fish that burrow under
the ground. From the Phaleric fry comes the membras, from the membras
the trichis, from the trichis the trichias, and from one particular
sort of fry, to wit from that found in the harbour of Athens, comes
what is called the encrasicholus, or anchovy. There is another fry,
derived from the maenis and the mullet.

The unfertile fry is watery and keeps only a short time, as has been
stated, for at last only head and eyes are left. However, the fishermen
of late have hit upon a method of transporting it to a distance, as
when salted it keeps for a considerable time.

==== Part 16 ====


Eels are not the issue of pairing, neither are they oviparous; nor
was an eel ever found supplied with either milt or spawn, nor are
they when cut open found to have within them passages for spawn or
for eggs. In point of fact, this entire species of blooded animals
proceeds neither from pair nor from the egg.

There can be no doubt that the case is so. For in some standing pools,
after the water has been drained off and the mud has been dredged
away, the eels appear again after a fall of rain. In time of drought
they do not appear even in stagnant ponds, for the simple reason that
their existence and sustenance is derived from rain-water.

There is no doubt, then, that they proceed neither from pairing nor
from an egg. Some writers, however, are of opinion that they generate
their kind, because in some eels little worms are found, from which
they suppose that eels are derived. But this opinion is not founded
on fact. Eels are derived from the so-called 'earth's guts' that grow
spontaneously in mud and in humid ground; in fact, eels have at times
been seen to emerge out of such earthworms, and on other occasions
have been rendered visible when the earthworms were laid open by either
scraping or cutting. Such earthworms are found both in the sea and
in rivers, especially where there is decayed matter: in the sea in
places where sea-weed abounds, and in rivers and marshes near to the
edge; for it is near to the water's edge that sun-heat has its chief
power and produces putrefaction. So much for the generation of the
eel.

==== Part 17 ====


Fish do not all bring forth their young at the same season nor all
in like manner, neither is the period of gestation for all of the
same duration.

Before pairing the males and females gather together in shoals; at
the time for copulation and parturition they pair off. With some fishes
the time of gestation is not longer than thirty days, with others
it is a lesser period; but with all it extends over a number of days
divisible by seven. The longest period of gestation is that of the
species which some call a marinus.

The sargue conceives during the month of Poseideon (or December),
and carries its spawn for thirty days; and the species of mullet named
by some the chelon, and the myxon, go with spawn at the same period
and over the same length of time.

All fish suffer greatly during the period of gestation, and are in
consequence very apt to be thrown up on shore at this time. In some
cases they are driven frantic with pain and throw themselves on land.
At all events they are throughout this time continually in motion
until parturition is over (this being especially true of the mullet),
and after parturition they are in repose. With many fish the time
for parturition terminates on the appearance of grubs within the belly;
for small living grubs get generated there and eat up the spawn.

With shoal fishes parturition takes place in the spring, and indeed,
with most fishes, about the time of the spring equinox; with others
it is at different times, in summer with some, and with others about
the autumn equinox.

The first of shoal fishes to spawn is the atherine, and it spawns
close to land; the last is the cephalus: and this is inferred from
the fact that the brood of the atherine appears first of all and the
brood of the cephalus last. The mullet also spawns early. The saupe
spawns usually at the beginning of summer, but occasionally in the
autumn. The aulopias, which some call the anthias, spawns in the summer.
Next in order of spawning comes the chrysophrys or gilthead, the basse,
the mormyrus, and in general such fish as are nicknamed 'runners'.
Latest in order of the shoal fish come the red mullet and the coracine;
these spawn in autumn. The red mullet spawns on mud, and consequently,
as the mud continues cold for a long while, spawns late in the year.
The coracine carries its spawn for a long time; but, as it lives usually
on rocky ground, it goes to a distance and spawns in places abounding
in seaweed, at a period later than the red mullet. The maenis spawns
about the winter solstice. Of the others, such as are pelagic spawn
for the most part in summer; which fact is proved by their not being
caught by fishermen during this period.

Of ordinary fishes the most prolific is the sprat; of cartilaginous
fishes, the fishing-frog. Specimens, however, of the fishing-frog
are rare from the facility with which the young are destroyed, as
the female lays her spawn all in a lump close in to shore. As a rule,
cartilaginous fish are less prolific than other fish owing to their
being viviparous; and their young by reason of their size have a better
chance of escaping destruction.

The so-called needle-fish (or pipe-fish) is late in spawning, and
the greater portion of them are burst asunder by the eggs before spawning;
and the eggs are not so many in number as large in size. The young
fish cluster round the parent like so many young spiders, for the
fish spawns on to herself; and, if any one touch the young, they swim
away. The atherine spawns by rubbing its belly against the sand.

Tunny fish also burst asunder by reason of their fat. They live for
two years; and the fishermen infer this age from the circumstance
that once when there was a failure of the young tunny fish for a year
there was a failure of the full-grown tunny the next summer. They
are of opinion that the tunny is a fish a year older than the pelamyd.
The tunny and the mackerel pair about the close of the month of Elaphebolion,
and spawn about the commencement of the month of Hecatombaeon; they
deposit their spawn in a sort of bag. The growth of the young tunny
is rapid. After the females have spawned in the Euxine, there comes
from the egg what some call scordylae, but what the Byzantines nickname
the 'auxids' or 'growers', from their growing to a considerable size
in a few days; these fish go out of the Pontus in autumn along with
the young tunnies, and enter Pontus in the spring as pelamyds. Fishes
as a rule take on growth with rapidity, but this is peculiarly the
case with all species of fish found in the Pontus; the growth, for
instance, of the amia-tunny is quite visible from day to day.

To resume, we must bear in mind that the same fish in the same localities
have not the same season for pairing, for conception, for parturition,
or for favouring weather. The coracine, for instance, in some places
spawns about wheat-harvest. The statements here given pretend only
to give the results of general observation.

The conger also spawns, but the fact is not equally obvious in all
localities, nor is the spawn plainly visible owing to the fat of the
fish; for the spawn is lanky in shape as it is with serpents. However,
if it be put on the fire it shows its nature; for the fat evaporates
and melts, while the eggs dance about and explode with a crack. Further,
if you touch the substances and rub them with your fingers, the fat
feels smooth and the egg rough. Some congers are provided with fat
but not with any spawn, others are unprovided with fat but have egg-spawn
as here described.

==== Part 18 ====


We have, then, treated pretty fully of the animals that fly in the
air or swim in the water, and of such of those that walk on dry land
as are oviparous, to wit of their pairing, conception, and the like
phenomena; it now remains to treat of the same phenomena in connexion
with viviparous land animals and with man.

The statements made in regard to the pairing of the sexes apply partly
to the particular kinds of animal and partly to all in general. It
is common to all animals to be most excited by the desire of one sex
for the other and by the pleasure derived from copulation. The female
is most cross-tempered just after parturition, the male during the
time of pairing; for instance, stallions at this period bite one another,
throw their riders, and chase them. Wild boars, though usually enfeebled
at this time as the result of copulation, are now unusually fierce,
and fight with one another in an extraordinary way, clothing themselves
with defensive armour, or in other words deliberately thickening their
hide by rubbing against trees or by coating themselves repeatedly
all over with mud and then drying themselves in the sun. They drive
one another away from the swine pastures, and fight with such fury
that very often both combatants succumb. The case is similar with
bulls, rams, and he-goats; for, though at ordinary times they herd
together, at breeding time they hold aloof from and quarrel with one
another. The male camel also is cross-tempered at pairing time if
either a man or a camel comes near him; as for a horse, a camel is
ready to fight him at any time. It is the same with wild animals.
The bear, the wolf, and the lion are all at this time ferocious towards
such as come in their way, but the males of these animals are less
given to fight with one another from the fact that they are at no
time gregarious. The she-bear is fierce after cubbing, and the bitch
after pupping.

Male elephants get savage about pairing time, and for this reason
it is stated that men who have charge of elephants in India never
allow the males to have intercourse with the females; on the ground
that the males go wild at this time and turn topsy-turvy the dwellings
of their keepers, lightly constructed as they are, and commit all
kinds of havoc. They also state that abundancy of food has a tendency
to tame the males. They further introduce other elephants amongst
the wild ones, and punish and break them in by setting on the new-comers
to chastise the others.

Animals that pair frequently and not at a single specific season,
as for instance animals domesticated by man, such as swine and dogs,
are found to indulge in such freaks to a lesser degree owing to the
frequency of their sexual intercourse.

Of female animals the mare is the most sexually wanton, and next in
order comes the cow. In fact, the mare is said to go a-horsing; and
the term derived from the habits of this one animal serves as a term
of abuse applicable to such females of the human species as are unbridled
in the way of sexual appetite. This is the common phenomenon as observed
in the sow when she is said to go a-boaring. The mare is said also
about this time to get wind-impregnated if not impregnated by the
stallion, and for this reason in Crete they never remove the stallion
from the mares; for when the mare gets into this condition she runs
away from all other horses. The mares under these circumstances fly
invariably either northwards or southwards, and never towards either
east or west. When this complaint is on them they allow no one to
approach, until either they are exhausted with fatigue or have reached
the sea. Under either of these circumstances they discharge a certain
substance 'hippomanes', the title given to a growth on a new-born
foal; this resembles the sow-virus, and is in great request amongst
women who deal in drugs and potions. About horsing time the mares
huddle closer together, are continually switching their tails, their
neigh is abnormal in sound, and from the sexual organ there flows
a liquid resembling genital sperm, but much thinner than the sperm
of the male. It is this substance that some call hippomanes, instead
of the growth found on the foal; they say it is extremely difficult
to get as it oozes out only in small drops at a time. Mares also,
when in heat, discharge urine frequently, and frisk with one another.
Such are the phenomena connected with the horse.

Cows go a-bulling; and so completely are they under the influence
of the sexual excitement that the herdsmen have no control over them
and cannot catch hold of them in the fields. Mares and kine alike,
when in heat, indicate the fact by the upraising of their genital
organs, and by continually voiding urine. Further, kine mount the
bulls, follow them about; and keep standing beside them. The younger
females both with horses and oxen are the first to get in heat; and
their sexual appetites are all the keener if the weather warm and
their bodily condition be healthy. Mares, when clipt of their coat,
have the sexual feeling checked, and assume a downcast drooping appearance.
The stallion recognizes by the scent the mares that form his company,
even though they have been together only a few days before breeding
time: if they get mixed up with other mares, the stallion bites and
drives away the interlopers. He feeds apart, accompanied by his own
troop of mares. Each stallion has assigned to him about thirty mares
or even somewhat more; when a strange stallion approaches, he huddles
his mares into a close ring, runs round them, then advances to the
encounter of the newcomer; if one of the mares make a movement, he
bites her and drives her back. The bull in breeding time begins to
graze with the cows, and fights with other bulls (having hitherto
grazed with them), which is termed by graziers 'herd-spurning'. Often
in Epirus a bull disappears for three months together. In a general
way one may state that of male animals either none or few herd with
their respective females before breeding time; but they keep separate
after reaching maturity, and the two sexes feed apart. Sows, when
they are moved by sexual desire, or are, as it is called, a-boaring,
will attack even human beings.

With bitches the same sexual condition is termed 'getting into heat'.
The sexual organ rises at this time, and there is a moisture about
the parts. Mares drip with a white liquid at this season.

Female animals are subject to menstrual discharges, but never in such-abundance
as is the female of the human species. With ewes and she-goats there
are signs of menstruation in breeding time, just before the for submitting
to the male; after copulation also the signs are manifest, and then
cease for an interval until the period of parturition arrives; the
process then supervenes, and it is by this supervention that the shepherd
knows that such and such an ewe is about to bring forth. After parturition
comes copious menstruation, not at first much tinged with blood, but
deeply dyed with it by and by. With the cow, the she ass, and the
mare, the discharge is more copious actually, owing to their greater
bulk, but proportionally to the greater bulk it is far less copious.
The cow, for instance, when in heat, exhibits a small discharge to
the extent of a quarter of a pint of liquid or a little less; and
the time when this discharge takes place is the best time for her
to be covered by the bull. Of all quadrupeds the mare is the most
easily delivered of its young, exhibits the least amount of discharge
after parturition, and emits the least amount of blood; that is to
say, of all animals in proportion to size. With kine and mares menstruation
usually manifests itself at intervals of two, four, and six months;
but, unless one be constantly attending to and thoroughly acquainted
with such animals, it is difficult to verify the circumstance, and
the result is that many people are under the belief that the process
never takes place with these animals at all.

With mules menstruation never takes place, but the urine of the female
is thicker than the urine of the male. As a general rule the discharge
from the bladder in the case of quadrupeds is thicker than it is in
the human species, and this discharge with ewes and she-goats is thicker
than with rams and he-goats; but the urine of the jackass is thicker
than the urine of the she-ass, and the urine of the bull is more pungent
than the urine of the cow. After parturition the urine of all quadrupeds
becomes thicker, especially with such animals as exhibit comparatively
slight discharges. At breeding time the milk become purulent, but
after parturition it becomes wholesome. During pregnancy ewes and
she-goats get fatter and eat more; as is also the case with cows,
and, indeed, with the females of all quadrupeds.

In general the sexual appetites of animals are keenest in spring-time;
the time of pairing, however, is not the same for all, but is adapted
so as to ensure the rearing of the young at a convenient season.

Domesticated swine carry their young for four months, and bring forth
a litter of twenty at the utmost; and, by the way, if the litter be
exceedingly numerous they cannot rear all the young. As the sow grows
old she continues to bear, but grows indifferent to the boar; she
conceives after a single copulation, but they have to put the boar
to her repeatedly owing to her dropping after intercourse what is
called the sow-virus. This incident befalls all sows, but some of
them discharge the genital sperm as well. During conception any one
of the litter that gets injured or dwarfed is called an afterpig or
scut: such injury may occur at any part of the womb. After littering
the mother offers the foremost teat to the first-born. When the sow
is in heat, she must not at once be put to the boar, but only after
she lets her lugs drop, for otherwise she is apt to get into heat
again; if she be put to the boar when in full condition of heat, one
copulation, as has been said, is sufficient. It is as well to supply
the boar at the period of copulation with barley, and the sow at the
time of parturition with boiled barley. Some swine give fine litters
only at the beginning, with others the litters improve as the mothers
grow in age and size. It is said that a sow, if she have one of her
eyes knocked out, is almost sure to die soon afterwards. Swine for
the most part live for fifteen years, but some fall little short of
the twenty.

==== Part 19 ====


Ewes conceive after three or four copulations with the ram. If rain
falls after intercourse, the ram impregnates the ewe again; and it
is the same with the she-goat. The ewe bears usually two lambs, sometimes
three or four. Both ewe and she-goat carry their young for five months;
consequently wherever a district is sunny and the animals are used
to comfort and well fed, they bear twice in the year. The goat lives
for eight years and the sheep for ten, but in most cases not so long;
the bell-wether, however, lives to fifteen years. In every flock they
train one of the rams for bell-wether. When he is called on by name
by the shepherd, he takes the lead of the flock: and to this duty
the creature is trained from its earliest years. Sheep in Ethiopia
live for twelve or thirteen years, goats for ten or eleven. In the
case of the sheep and the goat the two sexes have intercourse all
their lives long.

Twins with sheep and goats may be due to richness of pasturage, or
to the fact that either the ram or the he-goat is a twin-begetter
or that the ewe or the she-goat is a twin-bearer. Of these animals
some give birth to males and others to females; and the difference
in this respect depends on the waters they drink and also on the sires.
And if they submit to the male when north winds are blowing, they
are apt to bear males; if when south winds are blowing, females. Such
as bear females may get to bear males, due regard being paid to their
looking northwards when put to the male. Ewes accustomed to be put
to the ram early will refuse him if he attempt to mount them late.
Lambs are born white and black according as white or black veins are
under the ram's tongue; the lambs are white if the veins are white,
and black if the veins are black, and white and black if the veins
are white and black; and red if the veins are red. The females that
drink salted waters are the first to take the male; the water should
be salted before and after parturition, and again in the springtime.
With goats the shepherds appoint no bell-wether, as the animal is
not capable of repose but frisky and apt to ramble. If at the appointed
season the elders of the flock are eager for intercourse, the shepherds
say that it bodes well for the flock; if the younger ones, that the
flock is going to be bad.

==== Part 20 ====


Of dogs there are several breeds. Of these the Laconian hound of either
sex is fit for breeding purposes when eight months old: at about the
same age some dogs lift the leg when voiding urine. The bitch conceives
with one lining; this is clearly seen in the case where a dog contrives
to line a bitch by stealth, as they impregnate after mounting only
once. The Laconian bitch carries her young the sixth part of a year
or sixty days: or more by one, two, or three, or less by one; the
pups are blind for twelve days after birth. After pupping, the bitch
gets in heat again in six months, but not before. Some bitches carry
their young for the fifth part of the year or for seventy-two days;
and their pups are blind for fourteen days. Other bitches carry their
young for a quarter of a year or for three whole months; and the whelps
of these are blind for seventeen days. The bitch appears go in heat
for the same length of time. Menstruation continues for seven days,
and a swelling of the genital organ occurs simultaneously; it is not
during this period that the bitch is disposed to submit to the dog,
but in the seven days that follow. The bitch as a rule goes in heat
for fourteen days, but occasionally for sixteen. The birth-discharge
occurs simultaneously with the delivery of the whelps, and the substance
of it is thick and mucous. (The falling-off in bulk on the part of
the mother is not so great as might have been inferred from the size
of her frame.) The bitch is usually supplied with milk five days before
parturition; some seven days previously, some four; and the milk is
serviceable immediately after birth. The Laconian bitch is supplied
with milk thirty days after lining. The milk at first is thickish,
but gets thinner by degrees; with the bitch the milk is thicker than
with the female of any other animal excepting the sow and the hare.
When the bitch arrives at full growth an indication is given of her
capacity for the male; that is to say, just as occurs in the female
of the human species, a swelling takes place in the teats of the breasts,
and the breasts take on gristle. This incident, however, it is difficult
for any but an expert to detect, as the part that gives the indication
is inconsiderable. The preceding statements relate to the female,
and not one of them to the male. The male as a rule lifts his leg
to void urine when six months old; some at a later period, when eight
months old, some before they reach six months. In a general way one
may put it that they do so when they are out of puppyhood. The bitch
squats down when she voids urine; it is a rare exception that she
lifts the leg to do so. The bitch bears twelve pups at the most, but
usually five or six; occasionally a bitch will bear one only. The
bitch of the Laconian breed generally bears eight. The two sexes have
intercourse with each other at all periods of life. A very remarkable
phenomenon is observed in the case of the Laconian hound: in other
words, he is found to be more vigorous in commerce with the female
after being hard-worked than when allowed to live idle.

The dog of the Laconian breed lives ten years, and the bitch twelve.
The bitch of other breeds usually lives for fourteen or fifteen years,
but some live to twenty; and for this reason certain critics consider
that Homer did well in representing the dog of Ulysses as having died
in his twentieth year. With the Laconian hound, owing to the hardships
to which the male is put, he is less long-lived than the female; with
other breeds the distinction as to longevity is not very apparent,
though as a general rule the male is the longer-lived.

The dog sheds no teeth except the so-called 'canines'; these a dog
of either sex sheds when four months old. As they shed these only,
many people are in doubt as to the fact, and some people, owing to
their shedding but two and its being hard to hit upon the time when
they do so, fancy that the animal sheds no teeth at all; others, after
observing the shedding of two, come to the conclusion that the creature
sheds the rest in due turn. Men discern the age of a dog by inspection
of its teeth; with young dogs the teeth are white and sharp pointed,
with old dogs black and blunted.

==== Part 21 ====


The bull impregnates the cow at a single mount, and mounts with such
vigour as to weigh down the cow; if his effort be unsuccessful, the
cow must be allowed an interval of twenty days before being again
submitted. Bulls of mature age decline to mount the same cow several
times on one day, except, by the way, at considerable intervals. Young
bulls by reason of their vigour are enabled to mount the same cow
several times in one day, and a good many cows besides. The bull is
the least salacious of male animals.... The victor among the bulls
is the one that mounts the females; when he gets exhausted by his
amorous efforts, his beaten antagonist sets on him and very often
gets the better of the conflict. The bull and the cow are about a
year old when it is possible for them to have commerce with chance
of offspring: as a rule, however, they are about twenty months old,
but it is universally allowed that they are capable in this respect
at the age of two years. The cow goes with calf for nine months, and
she calves in the tenth month; some maintain that they go in calf
for ten months, to the very day. A calf delivered before the times
here specified is an abortion and never lives, however little premature
its birth may have been, as its hooves are weak and imperfect. The
cow as a rule bears but one calf, very seldom two; she submits to
the bull and bears as long as she lives.

Cows live for about fifteen years, and the bulls too, if they have
been castrated; but some live for twenty years or even more, if their
bodily constitutions be sound. The herdsmen tame the castrated bulls,
and give them an office in the herd analogous to the office of the
bell-wether in a flock; and these bulls live to an exceptionally advanced
age, owing to their exemption from hardship and to their browsing
on pasture of good quality. The bull is in fullest vigour when five
years old, which leads the critics to commend Homer for applying to
the bull the epithets of 'five-year-old', or 'of nine seasons', which
epithets are alike in meaning. The ox sheds his teeth at the age of
two years, not all together but just as the horse sheds his. When
the animal suffers from podagra it does not shed the hoof, but is
subject to a painful swelling in the feet. The milk of the cow is
serviceable after parturition, and before parturition there is no
milk at all. The milk that first presents itself becomes as hard as
stone when it clots; this result ensues unless it be previously diluted
with water. Oxen younger than a year old do not copulate unless under
circumstances of an unnatural and portentous kind: instances have
been recorded of copulation in both sexes at the age of four months.
Kine in general begin to submit to the male about the month of Thargelion
or of Scirophorion; some, however, are capable of conception right
on to the autumn. When kine in large numbers receive the bull and
conceive, it is looked upon as prognostic of rain and stormy weather.
Kine herd together like mares, but in lesser degree.

==== Part 22 ====


In the case of horses, the stallion and the mare are first fitted
for breeding purposes when two years old. Instances, however, of such
early maturity are rare, and their young are exceptionally small and
weak; the ordinary age for sexual maturity is three years, and from
that age to twenty the two sexes go on improving in the quality of
their offspring. The mare carries her foal for eleven months, and
casts it in the twelfth. It is not a fixed number of days that the
stallion takes to impregnate the mare; it may be one, two, three,
or more. An ass in covering will impregnate more expeditiously than
a stallion. The act of intercourse with horses is not laborious as
it is with oxen. In both sexes the horse is the most salacious of
animals next after the human species. The breeding faculties of the
younger horses may be stimulated beyond their years if they be supplied
with good feeding in abundance. The mare as a rule bears only one
foal; occasionally she has two, but never more. A mare has been known
to cast two mules; but such a circumstance was regarded as unnatural
and portentous.

The horse then is first fitted for breeding purposes at the age of
two and a half years, but achieves full sexual maturity when it has
ceased to shed teeth, except it be naturally infertile; it must be
added, however, that some horses have been known to impregnate the
mare while the teeth were in process of shedding.

The horse has forty teeth. It sheds its first set of four, two from
the upper jaw and two from the lower, when two and a half years old.
After a year's interval, it sheds another set of four in like manner,
and another set of four after yet another year's interval; after arriving
at the age of four years and six months it sheds no more. An instance
has occurred where a horse shed all his teeth at once, and another
instance of a horse shedding all his teeth with his last set of four;
but such instances are very rare. It consequently happens that a horse
when four and a half years old is in excellent condition for breeding
purposes.

The older horses, whether of the male or female, are the more generatively
productive. Horses will cover mares from which they have been foaled
and mares which they have begotten; and, indeed, a troop of horses
is only considered perfect when such promiscuity of intercourse occurs.
Scythians use pregnant mares for riding when the embryo has turned
rather soon in the womb, and they assert that thereby the mothers
have all the easier delivery. Quadrupeds as a rule lie down for parturition,
and in consequence the young of them all come out of the womb sideways.
The mare, however, when the time for parturition arrives, stands erect
and in that posture casts its foal.

The horse in general lives for eighteen or twenty years; some horses
live for twenty-five or even thirty, and if a horse be treated with
extreme care, it may last on to the age of fifty years; a horse, however,
when it reaches thirty years is regarded as exceptionally old. The
mare lives usually for twenty-five years, though instances have occurred
of their attaining the age of forty. The male is less long-lived than
the female by reason of the sexual service he is called on to render;
and horses that are reared in a private stable live longer than such
as are reared in troops. The mare attains her full length and height
at five years old, the stallion at six; in another six years the animal
reaches its full bulk, and goes on improving until it is twenty years
old. The female, then, reaches maturity more rapidly than the male,
but in the womb the case is reversed, just as is observed in regard
to the sexes of the human species; and the same phenomenon is observed
in the case of all animals that bear several young.

The mare is said to suckle a mule-foal for six months, but not to
allow its approach for any longer on account of the pain it is put
to by the hard tugging of the young; an ordinary foal it allows to
suck for a longer period.

Horse and mule are at their best after the shedding of the teeth.
After they have shed them all, it is not easy to distinguish their
age; hence they are said to carry their mark before the shedding,
but not after. However, even after the shedding their age is pretty
well recognized by the aid of the canines; for in the case of horses
much ridden these teeth are worn away by attrition caused by the insertion
of the bit; in the case of horses not ridden the teeth are large and
detached, and in young horses they are sharp and small.

The male of the horse will breed at all seasons and during its whole
life; the mare can take the horse all its life long, but is not thus
ready to pair at all seasons unless it be held in check by a halter
or some other compulsion be brought to bear. There is no fixed time
at which intercourse of the two sexes cannot take place; and accordingly
intercourse may chance to take place at a time that may render difficult
the rearing of the future progeny. In a stable in Opus there was a
stallion that used to serve mares when forty years old: his fore legs
had to be lifted up for the operation.

Mares first take the horse in the spring-time. After a mare has foaled
she does not get impregnated at once again, but only after a considerable
interval; in fact, the foals will be all the better if the interval
extend over four or five years. It is, at all events, absolutely necessary
to allow an interval of one year, and for that period to let her lie
fallow. A mare, then, breeds at intervals; a she-ass breeds on and
on without intermission. Of mares some are absolutely sterile, others
are capable of conception but incapable of bringing the foal to full
term; it is said to be an indication of this condition in a mare,
that her foal if dissected is found to have other kidney-shaped substances
round about its kidneys, presenting the appearance of having four
kidneys.

After parturition the mare at once swallows the after-birth, and bites
off the growth, called the 'hippomanes', that is found on the forehead
of the foal. This growth is somewhat smaller than a dried fig; and
in shape is broad and round, and in colour black. If any bystander
gets possession of it before the mare, and the mare gets a smell of
it, she goes wild and frantic at the smell. And it is for this reason
that venders of drugs and simples hold the substance in high request
and include it among their stores.

If an ass cover a mare after the mare has been covered by a horse,
the ass will destroy the previously formed embryo.

(Horse-trainers do not appoint a horse as leader to a troop, as herdsmen
appoint a bull as leader to a herd, and for this reason that the horse
is not steady but quick-tempered and skittish.)

==== Part 23 ====


The ass of both sexes is capable of breeding, and sheds its first
teeth at the age of two and a half years; it sheds its second teeth
within six months, its third within another six months, and the fourth
after the like interval. These fourth teeth are termed the gnomons
or age-indicators.

A she-ass has been known to conceive when a year old, and the foal
to be reared. After intercourse with the male it will discharge the
genital sperm unless it be hindered, and for this reason it is usually
beaten after such intercourse and chased about. It casts its young
in the twelfth month. It usually bears but one foal, and that is its
natural number, occasionally however it bears twins. The ass if it
cover a mare destroys, as has been said, the embryo previously begotten
by the horse; but, after the mare has been covered by the ass, the
horse supervening will not spoil the embryo. The she-ass has milk
in the tenth month of pregnancy. Seven days after casting a foal the
she-ass submits to the male, and is almost sure to conceive if put
to the male on this particular day; the same result, however, is quite
possible later on. The she-ass will refuse to cast her foal with any
one looking on or in the daylight and just before foaling she has
to be led away into a dark place. If the she-ass has had young before
the shedding of the index-teeth, she will bear all her life through;
but if not, then she will neither conceive nor bear for the rest of
her days. The ass lives for more than thirty years, and the she-ass
lives longer than the male.

When there is a cross between a horse and a she-ass or a jackass and
a mare, there is much greater chance of a miscarriage than where the
commerce is normal. The period for gestation in the case of a cross
depends on the male, and is just what it would have been if the male
had had commerce with a female of his own kind. In regard to size,
looks, and vigour, the foal is more apt to resemble the mother than
the sire. If such hybrid connexions be continued without intermittence,
the female will soon go sterile; and for this reason trainers always
allow of intervals between breeding times. A mare will not take the
ass, nor a she ass the horse, unless the ass or she-ass shall have
been suckled by a mare; and for this reason trainers put foals of
the she-ass under mares, which foals are technically spoken of as
'mare-suckled'. These asses, thus reared, mount the mares in the open
pastures, mastering them by force as the stallions do.

==== Part 24 ====


A mule is fitted for commerce with the female after the first shedding
of its teeth, and at the age of seven will impregnate effectually;
and where connexion has taken place with a mare, a 'hinny' has been
known to be produced. After the seventh year it has no further intercourse
with the female. A female mule has been known to be impregnated, but
without the impregnation being followed up by parturition. In Syrophoenicia
she-mules submit to the mule and bear young; but the breed, though
it resembles the ordinary one, is different and specific. The hinny
or stunted mule is foaled by a mare when she has gone sick during
gestation, and corresponds to the dwarf in the human species and to
the after-pig or scut in swine; and as is the case with dwarfs, the
sexual organ of the hinny is abnormally large.

The mule lives for a number of years. There are on record cases of
mules living to the age of eighty, as did one in Athens at the time
of the building of the temple; this mule on account of its age was
let go free, but continued to assist in dragging burdens, and would
go side by side with the other draught-beasts and stimulate them to
their work; and in consequence a public decree was passed forbidding
any baker driving the creature away from his bread-tray. The she-mule
grows old more slowly than the mule. Some assert that the she-mule
menstruates by the act of voiding her urine, and that the mule owes
the prematurity of his decay to his habit of smelling at the urine.
So much for the modes of generation in connexion with these animals.

==== Part 25 ====


Breeders and trainers can distinguish between young and old quadrupeds.
If, when drawn back from the jaw, the skin at once goes back to its
place, the animal is young; if it remains long wrinkled up, the animal
is old.

==== Part 26 ====


The camel carries its young for ten months, and bears but one at a
time and never more; the young camel is removed from the mother when
a year old. The animal lives for a long period, more than fifty years.
It bears in spring-time, and gives milk until the time of the next
conception. Its flesh and milk are exceptionally palatable. The milk
is drunk mixed with water in the proportion of either two to one or
three to one.

==== Part 27 ====


The elephant of either sex is fitted for breeding before reaching
the age of twenty. The female carries her young, according to some
accounts, for two and a half years; according to others, for three
years; and the discrepancy in the assigned periods is due to the fact
that there are never human eyewitnesses to the commerce between the
sexes. The female settles down on its rear to cast its young, and
obviously suffers greatly during the process. The young one, immediately
after birth, sucks the mother, not with its trunk but with the mouth;
and can walk about and see distinctly the moment it is born.

==== Part 28 ====


The wild sow submits to the boar at the beginning of winter, and in
the spring-time retreats for parturition to a lair in some district
inaccessible to intrusion, hemmed in with sheer cliffs and chasms
and overshadowed by trees. The boar usually remains by the sow for
thirty days. The number of the litter and the period gestation is
the same as in the case of the domesticated congener. The sound of
the grunt also is similar; only that the sow grunts continually, and
the boar but seldom. Of the wild boars such as are castrated grow
to the largest size and become fiercest: to which circumstance Homer
alludes when he says:-

'He reared against him a wild castrated boar: it was not like a food-devouring
brute, but like a forest-clad promontory.'

Wild boars become castrated owing to an itch befalling them in early
life in the region of the testicles, and the castration is superinduced
by their rubbing themselves against the trunks of trees.

==== Part 29 ====


The hind, as has been stated, submits to the stag as a rule only under
compulsion, as she is unable to endure the male often owing to the
rigidity of the penis. However, they do occasionally submit to the
stag as the ewe submits ram; and when they are in heat the hinds avoid
one another. The stag is not constant to one particular hind, but
after a while quits one and mates with others. The breeding time is
after the rising of Arcturus, during the months of Boedromion and
Maimacterion. The period of gestation lasts for eight months. Conception
comes on a few days after intercourse; and a number of hinds can be
impregnated by a single male. The hind, as a rule, bears but one fawn,
although instances have been known of her casting two. Out of dread
of wild beasts she casts her young by the side of the high-road. The
young fawn grows with rapidity. Menstruation occurs at no other time
with the hind; it takes place only after parturition, and the substance
is phlegm-like.

The hind leads the fawn to her lair; this is her place of refuge,
a cave with a single inlet, inside which she shelters herself against
attack.

Fabulous stories are told concerning the longevity of the animal,
but the stories have never been verified, and the brevity of the period
of gestation and the rapidity of growth in the fawn would not lead
one to attribute extreme longevity to this creature.

In the mountain called Elaphoeis or Deer Mountain, which is in Arginussa
in Asia Minor-the place, by the way, where Alcibiades was assassinated-all
the hinds have the ear split, so that, if they stray to a distance,
they can be recognized by this mark; and the embryo actually has the
mark while yet in the womb of the mother.

The hind has four teats like the cow. After the hinds have become
pregnant, the males all segregate one by one, and in consequence of
the violence of their sexual passions they keep each one to himself,
dig a hole in the ground, and bellow from time to time; in all these
particulars they resemble the goat, and their foreheads from getting
wetted become black, as is also the case with the goat. In this way
they pass the time until the rain falls, after which time they turn
to pasture. The animal acts in this way owing to its sexual wantonness
and also to its obesity; for in summer-time it becomes so exceptionally
fat as to be unable to run: in fact at this period they can be overtaken
by the hunters that pursue them on foot in the second or third run;
and, by the way, in consequence of the heat of the weather and their
getting out of breath they always make for water in their runs. In
the rutting season, the flesh of the deer is unsavoury and rank, like
the flesh of the he-goat. In winter-time the deer becomes thin and
weak, but towards the approach of the spring he is at his best for
running. When on the run the deer keeps pausing from time to time,
and waits until his pursuer draws upon him, whereupon he starts off
again. This habit appears due to some internal pain: at all events,
the gut is so slender and weak that, if you strike the animal ever
so softly, it is apt to break asunder, though the hide of the animal
remains sound and uninjured.

==== Part 30 ====


Bears, as has been previously stated, do not copulate with the male
mounting the back of the female, but with the female lying down under
the male. The she-bear goes with young for thirty days. She brings
forth sometimes one cub, sometimes two cubs, and at most five. Of
all animals the newly born cub of the she bear is the smallest in
proportion to the size of the mother; that is to say, it is larger
than a mouse but smaller than a weasel. It is also smooth and blind,
and its legs and most of its organs are as yet inarticulate. Pairing
takes Place in the month of Elaphebolion, and parturition about the
time for retiring into winter quarters; about this time the bear and
the she-bear are at the fattest. After the she-bear has reared her
young, she comes out of her winter lair in the third month, when it
is already spring. The female porcupine, by the way, hibernates and
goes with young the same number of days as the she-bear, and in all
respects as to parturition resembles this animal. When a she-bear
is with young, it is a very hard task to catch her.

==== Part 31 ====


It has already been stated that the lion and lioness copulate rearwards,
and that these animals are opisthuretic. They do not copulate nor
bring forth at all seasons indiscriminately, but once in the year
only. The lioness brings forth in the spring, generally two cubs at
a time, and six at the very most; but sometimes only one. The story
about the lioness discharging her womb in the act of parturition is
a pure fable, and was merely invented to account for the scarcity
of the animal; for the animal is, as is well known, a rare animal,
and is not found in many countries. In fact, in the whole of Europe
it is only found in the strip between the rivers Achelous and Nessus.
The cubs of the lioness when newly born are exceedingly small, and
can scarcely walk when two months old. The Syrian lion bears cubs
five times: five cubs at the first litter, then four, then three,
then two, and lastly one; after this the lioness ceases to bear for
the rest of her days. The lioness has no mane, but this appendage
is peculiar to the lion. The lion sheds only the four so-called canines,
two in the upper jaw and two in the lower; and it sheds them when
it is six months old.

==== Part 32 ====


The hyena in colour resembles the wolf, but is more shaggy, and is
furnished with a mane running all along the spine. What is recounted
concerning its genital organs, to the effect that every hyena is furnished
with the organ both of the male and the female, is untrue. The fact
is that the sexual organ of the male hyena resembles the same organ
in the wolf and in the dog; the part resembling the female genital
organ lies underneath the tail, and does to some extent resemble the
female organ, but it is unprovided with duct or passage, and the passage
for the residuum comes underneath it. The female hyena has the part
that resembles the organ of the male, and, as in the case of the male,
has it underneath her tail, unprovided with duct or passage; and after
it the passage for the residuum, and underneath this the true female
genital organ. The female hyena has a womb, like all other female
animals of the same kind. It is an exceedingly rare circumstance to
meet with a female hyena. At least a hunter said that out of eleven
hyenas he had caught, only one was a female.

==== Part 33 ====


Hares copulate in a rearward posture, as has been stated, for the
animal is opisthuretic. They breed and bear at all seasons, superfoetate
during pregnancy, and bear young every month. They do not give birth
to their young ones all together at one time, but bring them forth
at intervals over as many days as the circumstances of each case may
require. The female is supplied with milk before parturition; and
after bearing submits immediately to the male, and is capable of conception
while suckling her young. The milk in consistency resembles sow's
milk. The young are born blind, as is the case with the greater part
Of the fissipeds or toed animals.

==== Part 34 ====


The fox mounts the vixen in copulation, and the vixen bears young
like the she-bear; in fact, her young ones are even more inarticulately
formed. Before parturition she retires to sequestered places, so that
it is a great rarity for a vixen to be caught while pregnant. After
parturition she warms her young and gets them into shape by licking
them. She bears four at most at a birth.

==== Part 35 ====


The wolf resembles the dog in regard to the time of conception and
parturition, the number of the litter, and the blindness of the newborn
young. The sexes couple at one special period, and the female brings
forth at the beginning of the summer. There is an account given of
the parturition of the she-wolf that borders on the fabulous, to the
effect that she confines her lying-in to within twelve particular
days of the year. And they give the reason for this in the form of
a myth, viz. that when they transported Leto in so many days from
the land of the Hyperboreans to the island of Delos, she assumed the
form of a she-wolf to escape the anger of Here. Whether the account
be correct or not has not yet been verified; I give it merely as it
is currently told. There is no more of truth in the current statement
that the she-wolf bears once and only once in her lifetime.

The cat and the ichneumon bear as many young as the dog, and live
on the same food; they live about six years. The cubs of the panther
are born blind like those of the wolf, and the female bears four at
the most at one birth. The particulars of conception are the same
for the thos, or civet, as for the dog; the cubs of the animal are
born blind, and the female bears two, or three, or four at a birth.
It is long in the body and low in stature; but not withstanding the
shortness of its legs it is exceptionally fleet of foot, owing to
the suppleness of its frame and its capacity for leaping.

==== Part 36 ====


There is found in Syria a so-called mule. It is not the same as the
cross between the horse and ass, but resembles it just as a wild ass
resembles the domesticated congener, and derives its name from the
resemblance. Like the wild ass, this wild mule is remarkable for its
speed. The animals of this species interbreed with one another; and
a proof of this statement may be gathered from the fact that a certain
number of them were brought into Phrygia in the time of Pharnaces,
the father of Pharnabazus, and the animal is there still. The number
originally introduced was nine, and there are three there at the present
day.

==== Part 37 ====


The phenomena of generation in regard to the mouse are the most astonishing
both for the number of the young and for the rapidity of recurrence
in the births. On one occasion a she-mouse in a state of pregnancy
was shut up by accident in a jar containing millet-seed, and after
a little while the lid of the jar was removed and upwards of one hundred
and twenty mice were found inside it.

The rate of propagation of field mice in country places, and the destruction
that they cause, are beyond all telling. In many places their number
is so incalculable that but very little of the corn-crop is left to
the farmer; and so rapid is their mode of proceeding that sometimes
a small farmer will one day observe that it is time for reaping, and
on the following morning, when he takes his reapers afield, he finds
his entire crop devoured. Their disappearance is unaccountable: in
a few days not a mouse will there be to be seen. And yet in the time
before these few days men fail to keep down their numbers by fumigating
and unearthing them, or by regularly hunting them and turning in swine
upon them; for pigs, by the way, turn up the mouse-holes by rooting
with their snouts. Foxes also hunt them, and the wild ferrets in particular
destroy them, but they make no way against the prolific qualities
of the animal and the rapidity of its breeding. When they are super-abundant,
nothing succeeds in thinning them down except the rain; but after
heavy rains they disappear rapidly.

In a certain district of Persia when a female mouse is dissected the
female embryos appear to be pregnant. Some people assert, and positively
assert, that a female mouse by licking salt can become pregnant without
the intervention of the male.

Mice in Egypt are covered with bristles like the hedgehog. There is
also a different breed of mice that walk on their two hind-legs; their
front legs are small and their hind-legs long; the breed is exceedingly
numerous. There are many other breeds of mice than are here referred
to.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

===== BOOK VII =====


==== Part 1 ====


As to Man's growth, first within his mother's womb and afterward
to old age, the course of nature, in so far as man is specially concerned,
is after the following manner. And, by the way, the difference of
male and female and of their respective organs has been dealt with
heretofore. When twice seven years old, in the most of cases, the
male begins to engender seed; and at the same time hair appears upon
the pubes, in like manner, so Alcmaeon of Croton remarks, as plants
first blossom and then seed. About the same time, the voice begins
to alter, getting harsher and more uneven, neither shrill as formerly
nor deep as afterward, nor yet of any even tone, but like an instrument
whose strings are frayed and out of tune; and it is called, by way
of by-word, the bleat of the billy-goat. Now this breaking of the
voice is the more apparent in those who are making trial of their
sexual powers; for in those who are prone to lustfulness the voice
turns into the voice of a man, but not so in the continent. For if
a lad strive diligently to hinder his voice from breaking, as some
do of those who devote themselves to music, the voice lasts a long
while unbroken and may even persist with little change. And the breasts
swell and likewise the private parts, altering in size and shape.
(And by the way, at this time of life those who try by friction to
provoke emission of seed are apt to experience pain as well as voluptuous
sensations.) At the same age in the female, the breasts swell and
the so-called catamenia commence to flow; and this fluid resembles
fresh blood. There is another discharge, a white one, by the way,
which occurs in girls even at a very early age, more especially if
their diet be largely of a fluid nature; and this malady causes arrest
of growth and loss of flesh. In the majority of cases the catamenia
are noticed by the time the breasts have grown to the height of two
fingers' breadth. In girls, too, about this time the voice changes
to a deeper note; for while in general the woman's voice is higher
than the man's, so also the voices of girls are pitched in a higher
key than the elder women's, just as the boy's are higher than the
men's; and the girls' voices are shriller than the boys', and a maid's
flute is tuned sharper than a lad's.

Girls of this age have much need of surveillance. For then in particular
they feel a natural impulse to make usage of the sexual faculties
that are developing in them; so that unless they guard against any
further impulse beyond that inevitable one which their bodily development
of itself supplies, even in the case of those who abstain altogether
from passionate indulgence, they contract habits which are apt to
continue into later life. For girls who give way to wantonness grow
more and more wanton; and the same is true of boys, unless they be
safeguarded from one temptation and another; for the passages become
dilated and set up a local flux or running, and besides this the recollection
of pleasure associated with former indulgence creates a longing for
its repetition.

Some men are congenitally impotent owing to structural defect; and
in like manner women also may suffer from congenital incapacity. Both
men and women are liable to constitutional change, growing healthier
or more sickly, or altering in the way of leanness, stoutness, and
vigour; thus, after puberty some lads who were thin before grow stout
and healthy, and the converse also happens; and the same is equally
true of girls. For when in boy or girl the body is loaded with superfluous
matter, then, when such superfluities are got rid of in the spermatic
or catamenial discharge, their bodies improve in health and condition
owing to the removal of what had acted as an impediment to health
and proper nutrition; but in such as are of opposite habit their bodies
become emaciated and out of health, for then the spermatic discharge
in the one case and the catamenial flow in the other take place at
the cost of natural healthy conditions.

Furthermore, in the case of maidens the condition of the breasts is
diverse in different individuals, for they are sometimes quite big
and sometimes little; and as a general rule their size depends on
whether or not the body was burthened in childhood with superfluous
material. For when the signs of womanhood are nigh but not come, the
more there be of moisture the more will it cause the breasts to swell,
even to the bursting point; and the result is that the breasts remain
during after-life of the bulk that they then acquired. And among men,
the breasts grow more conspicuous and more like to those of women,
both in young men and old, when the individual temperament is moist
and sleek and the reverse of sinewy, and all the more among the dark-complexioned
than the fair.

At the outset and till the age of one and twenty the spermatic discharge
is devoid of fecundity; afterwards it becomes fertile, but young men
and women produce undersized and imperfect progeny, as is the case
also with the common run of animals. Young women conceive readily,
but, having conceived, their labour in childbed is apt to be difficult.

The frame fails of reaching its full development and ages quickly
in men of intemperate lusts and in women who become mothers of many
children; for it appears to be the case that growth ceases when the
woman has given birth to three children. Women of a lascivious disposition
grow more sedate and virtuous after they have borne several children.

After the age of twenty-one women are fully ripe for child-bearing,
but men go on increasing in vigour. When the spermatic fluid is of
a thin consistency it is infertile; when granular it is fertile and
likely to produce male children, but when thin and unclotted it is
apt to produce female offspring. And it is about this time of life
that in men the beard makes its appearance.

==== Part 2 ====


The onset of the catamenia in women takes place towards the end of
the month; and on this account the wiseacres assert that the moon
is feminine, because the discharge in women and the waning of the
moon happen at one and the same time, and after the wane and the discharge
both one and the other grow whole again. (In some women the catamenia
occur regularly but sparsely every month, and more abundantly every
third month.) With those in whom the ailment lasts but a little while,
two days or three, recovery is easy; but where the duration is longer,
the ailment is more troublesome. For women are ailing during these
days; and sometimes the discharge is sudden and sometimes gradual,
but in all cases alike there is bodily distress until the attack be
over. In many cases at the commencement of the attack, when the discharge
is about to appear, there occur spasms and rumbling noises within
the womb until such time as the discharge manifests itself.

Under natural conditions it is after recovery from these symptoms
that conception takes place in women, and women in whom the signs
do not manifest themselves for the most part remain childless. But
the rule is not without exception, for some conceive in spite of the
absence of these symptoms; and these are cases in which a secretion
accumulates, not in such a way as actually to issue forth, but in
amount equal to the residuum left in the case of child-bearing women
after the normal discharge has taken place. And some conceive while
the signs are on but not afterwards, those namely in whom the womb
closes up immediately after the discharge. In some cases the menses
persist during pregnancy up to the very last; but the result in these
cases is that the offspring are poor, and either fail to survive or
grow up weakly.

In many cases, owing to excessive desire, arising either from youthful
impetuosity or from lengthened abstinence, prolapsion of the womb
takes place and the catamenia appear repeatedly, thrice in the month,
until conception occurs; and then the womb withdraws upwards again
to its proper place...

As we have remarked above, the discharge is wont to be more abundant
in women than in the females of any other animals. In creatures that
do not bring forth their young alive nothing of the sort manifests
itself, this particular superfluity being converted into bodily substance;
and by the way, in such animals the females are sometimes larger than
the males; and moreover, the material is used up sometimes for scutes
and sometimes for scales, and sometimes for the abundant covering
of feathers, whereas in the vivipara possessed of limbs it is turned
into hair and into bodily substance (for man alone among them is smooth-skinned),
and into urine, for this excretion is in the majority of such animals
thick and copious. Only in the case of women is the superfluity turned
into a discharge instead of being utilized in these other ways.

There is something similar to be remarked of men: for in proportion
to his size man emits more seminal fluid than any other animal (for
which reason man is the smoothest of animals), especially such men
as are of a moist habit and not over corpulent, and fair men in greater
degree than dark. It is likewise with women; for in the stout, great
part of the excretion goes to nourish the body. In the act of intercourse,
women of a fair complexion discharge a more plentiful secretion than
the dark; and furthermore, a watery and pungent diet conduces to this
phenomenon.

==== Part 3 ====


It is a sign of conception in women when the place is dry immediately
after intercourse. If the lips of the orifice be smooth conception
is difficult, for the matter slips off; and if they be thick it is
also difficult. But if on digital examination the lips feel somewhat
rough and adherent, and if they be likewise thin, then the chances
are in favour of conception. Accordingly, if conception be desired,
we must bring the parts into such a condition as we have just described;
but if on the contrary we want to avoid conception then we must bring
about a contrary disposition. Wherefore, since if the parts be smooth
conception is prevented, some anoint that part of the womb on which
the seed falls with oil of cedar, or with ointment of lead or with
frankincense, commingled with olive oil. If the seed remain within
for seven days then it is certain that conception has taken place;
for it is during that period that what is known as effluxion takes
place.

In most cases the menstrual discharge recurs for some time after conception
has taken place, its duration being mostly thirty days in the case
of a female and about forty days in the case of a male child. After
parturition also it is common for the discharge to be withheld for
an equal number of days, but not in all cases with equal exactitude.
After conception, and when the above-mentioned days are past, the
discharge no longer takes its natural course but finds its way to
the breasts and turns to milk. The first appearance of milk in the
breasts is scant in quantity and so to speak cobwebby or interspersed
with little threads. And when conception has taken place, there is
apt to be a sort of feeling in the region of the flanks, which in
some cases quickly swell up a little, especially in thin persons,
and also in the groin.

In the case of male children the first movement usually occurs on
the right-hand side of the womb and about the fortieth day, but if
the child be a female then on the left-hand side and about the ninetieth
day. However, we must by no means assume this to be an accurate statement
of fact, for there are many exceptions, in which the movement is manifested
on the right-hand side though a female child be coming, and on the
left-hand side though the infant be a male. And in short, these and
all suchlike phenomena are usually subject to differences that may
be summed up as differences of degree.

About this period the embryo begins to resolve into distinct parts,
it having hitherto consisted of a fleshlike substance without distinction
of parts.

What is called effluxion is a destruction of the embryo within the
first week, while abortion occurs up to the fortieth day; and the
greater number of such embryos as perish do so within the space of
these forty days.

In the case of a male embryo aborted at the fortieth day, if it be
placed in cold water it holds together in a sort of membrane, but
if it be placed in any other fluid it dissolves and disappears. If
the membrane be pulled to bits the embryo is revealed, as big as one
of the large kind of ants; and all the limbs are plain to see, including
the penis, and the eyes also, which as in other animals are of great
size. But the female embryo, if it suffer abortion during the first
three months, is as a rule found to be undifferentiated; if however
it reach the fourth month it comes to be subdivided and quickly attains
further differentiation. In short, while within the womb, the female
infant accomplishes the whole development of its parts more slowly
than the male, and more frequently than the man-child takes ten months
to come to perfection. But after birth, the females pass more quickly
than the males through youth and maturity and age; and this is especially
true of those that bear many children, as indeed I have already said.

==== Part 4 ====


When the womb has conceived the seed, straightway in the majority
of cases it closes up until seven months are fulfilled; but in the
eighth month it opens, and the embryo, if it be fertile, descends
in the eighth month. But such embryos as are not fertile but are devoid
of breath at eight months old, their mothers do not bring into the
world by parturition at eight months, neither does the embryo descend
within the womb at that period nor does the womb open. And it is a
sign that the embryo is not capable of life if it be formed without
the above-named circumstances taking place.

After conception women are prone to a feeling of heaviness in all
parts of their bodies, and for instance they experience a sensation
of darkness in front of the eyes and suffer also from headache. These
symptoms appear sooner or later, sometimes as early as the tenth day,
according as the patient be more or less burthened with superfluous
humours. Nausea also and sickness affect the most of women, and especially
such as those that we have just now mentioned, after the menstrual
discharge has ceased and before it is yet turned in the direction
of the breasts.

Moreover, some women suffer most at the beginning of their pregnancy
and some at a later period when the embryo has had time to grow; and
in some women it is a common occurrence to suffer from strangury towards
the end of their time. As a general rule women who are pregnant of
a male child escape comparatively easily and retain a comparatively
healthy look, but it is otherwise with those whose infant is a female;
for these latter look as a rule paler and suffer more pain, and in
many cases they are subject to swellings of the legs and eruptions
on the body. Nevertheless the rule is subject to exceptions.

Women in pregnancy are a prey to all sorts of longings and to rapid
changes of mood, and some folks call this the 'ivy-sickness'; and
with the mothers of female infants the longings are more acute, and
they are less contented when they have got what they desired.

In a certain few cases the patient feels unusually well during pregnancy.
The worst time of all is just when the child's hair is beginning to
grow.

In pregnant women their own natural hair is inclined to grow thin
and fall out, but on the other hand hair tends to grow on parts of
the body where it was not wont to be. As a general rule, a man-child
is more prone to movement within its mother's womb than a female child,
and it is usually born sooner. And labour in the case of female children
is apt to be protracted and sluggish, while in the case of male children
it is acute and by a long way more difficult. Women who have connexion
with their husbands shortly before childbirth are delivered all the
more quickly. Occasionally women seem to be in the pains of labour
though labour has not in fact commenced, what seemed like the commencement
of labour being really the result of the foetus turning its head.

Now all other animals bring the time of pregnancy to an end in a uniform
way; in other words, one single term of pregnancy is defined for each
of them. But in the case of mankind alone of all animals the times
are diverse; for pregnancy may be of seven months' duration, or of
eight months or of nine, and still more commonly of ten months, while
some few women go even into the eleventh month.

Children that come into the world before seven months can under no
circumstances survive. The seven-months' children are the earliest
that are capable of life, and most of them are weakly-for which reason,
by the way, it is customary to swaddle them in wool,-and many of them
are born with some of the orifices of the body imperforate, for instance
the ears or the nostrils. But as they get bigger they become more
perfectly developed, and many of them grow up.

In Egypt, and in some other places where the women are fruitful and
are wont to bear and bring forth many children without difficulty,
and where the children when born are capable of living even if they
be born subject to deformity, in these places the eight-months' children
live and are brought up, but in Greece it is only a few of them that
survive while most perish. And this being the general experience,
when such a child does happen to survive the mother is apt to think
that it was not an eight months' child after all, but that she had
conceived at an earlier period without being aware of it.

Women suffer most pain about the fourth and the eighth months, and
if the foetus perishes in the fourth or in the eighth month the mother
also succumbs as a general rule; so that not only do the eight-months'
children not live, but when they die their mothers are in great danger
of their own lives. In like manner children that are apparently born
at a later term than eleven months are held to be in doubtful case;
inasmuch as with them also the beginning of conception may have escaped
the notice of the mother. What I mean to say is that often the womb
gets filled with wind, and then when at a later period connexion and
conception take place, they think that the former circumstance was
the beginning of conception from the similarity of the symptoms that
they experienced.

Such then are the differences between mankind and other animals in
regard to the many various modes of completion of the term of pregnancy.
Furthermore, some animals produce one and some produce many at a birth,
but the human species does sometimes the one and sometimes the other.
As a general rule and among most nations the women bear one child
a birth; but frequently and in many lands they bear twins, as for
instance in Egypt especially. Sometimes women bring forth three and
even four children, and especially in certain parts of the world,
as has already been stated. The largest number ever brought forth
is five, and such an occurrence has been witnessed on several occasions.
There was once upon a time a certain women who had twenty children
at four births; each time she had five, and most of them grew up.

Now among other animals, if a pair of twins happen to be male and
female they have as good a chance of surviving as though both had
been males or both females; but among mankind very few twins survive
if one happen to be a boy and the other a girl.

Of all animals the woman and the mare are most inclined to receive
the commerce of the male during pregnancy; while all other animals
when they are pregnant avoid the male, save those in which the phenomenon
of superfoetation occurs, such as the hare. Unlike that animal, the
mare after once conceiving cannot be rendered pregnant again, but
brings forth one foal only, at least as a general rule; in the human
species cases of superfoetation are rare, but they do happen now and
then.

An embryo conceived some considerable time after a previous conception
does not come to perfection, but gives rise to pain and causes the
destruction of the earlier embryo; and, by the way, a case has been
known to occur where owing to this destructive influence no less than
twelve embryos conceived by superfoetation have been discharged. But
if the second conception take place at a short interval, then the
mother bears that which was later conceived, and brings forth the
two children like actual twins, as happened, according to the legend,
in the case of Iphicles and Hercules. The following also is a striking
example: a certain woman, having committed adultery, brought forth
the one child resembling her husband and the other resembling the
adulterous lover.

The case has also occurred where a woman, being pregnant of twins,
has subsequently conceived a third child; and in course of time she
brought forth the twins perfect and at full term, but the third a
five-months' child; and this last died there and then. And in another
case it happened that the woman was first delivered of a seven-months'
child, and then of two which were of full term; and of these the first
died and the other two survived.

Some also have been known to conceive while about to miscarry, and
they have lost the one child and been delivered of the other.

If women while going with child cohabit after the eighth month the
child is in most cases born covered over with a slimy fluid. Often
also the child is found to be replete with food of which the mother
had partaken.

==== Part 5 ====


When women have partaken of salt in overabundance their children are
apt to be born destitute of nails.

Milk that is produced earlier than the seventh month is unfit for
use; but as soon as the child is fit to live the milk is fit to use.
The first of the milk is saltish, as it is likewise with sheep. Most
women are sensibly affected by wine during pregnancy, for if they
partake of it they grow relaxed and debilitated.

The beginning of child-bearing in women and of the capacity to procreate
in men, and the cessation of these functions in both cases, coincide
in the one case with the emission of seed and in the other with the
discharge of the catamenia: with this qualification that there is
a lack of fertility at the commencement of these symptoms, and again
towards their close when the emissions become scanty and weak. The
age at which the sexual powers begin has been related already. As
for their end, the menstrual discharges ceases in most women about
their fortieth year; but with those in whom it goes on longer it lasts
even to the fiftieth year, and women of that age have been known to
bear children. But beyond that age there is no case on record.

==== Part 6 ====


Men in most cases continue to be sexually competent until they are
sixty years old, and if that limit be overpassed then until seventy
years; and men have been actually known to procreate children at seventy
years of age. With many men and many women it so happens that they
are unable to produce children to one another, while they are able
to do so in union with other individuals. The same thing happens with
regard to the production of male and female offspring; for sometimes
men and women in union with one another produce male children or female,
as the case may be, but children of the opposite sex when otherwise
mated. And they are apt to change in this respect with advancing age:
for sometimes a husband and wife while they are young produce female
children and in later life male children; and in other cases the very
contrary occurs. And just the same thing is true in regard to the
generative faculty: for some while young are childless, but have children
when they grow older; and some have children to begin with, and later
on no more.

There are certain women who conceive with difficulty, but if they
do conceive, bring the child to maturity; while others again conceive
readily, but are unable to bring the child to birth. Furthermore,
some men and some women produce female offspring and some male, as
for instance in the story of Hercules, who among all his two and seventy
children is said to have begotten but one girl. Those women who are
unable to conceive, save with the help of medical treatment or some
other adventitious circumstance, are as a general rule apt to bear
female children rather than male.

It is a common thing with men to be at first sexually competent and
afterwards impotent, and then again to revert to their former powers.

From deformed parents come deformed children, lame from lame and blind
from blind, and, speaking generally, children often inherit anything
that is peculiar in their parents and are born with similar marks,
such as pimples or scars. Such things have been known to be handed
down through three generations; for instance, a certain man had a
mark on his arm which his son did not possess, but his grandson had
it in the same spot though not very distinct.

Such cases, however, are few; for the children of cripples are mostly
sound, and there is no hard and fast rule regarding them. While children
mostly resemble their parents or their ancestors, it sometimes happens
that no such resemblance is to be traced. But parents may pass on
resemblance after several generations, as in the case of the woman
in Elis, who committed adultery with a negro; in this case it was
not the woman's own daughter but the daughter's child that was a blackamoor.

As a rule the daughters have a tendency to take after the mother,
and the boys after the father; but sometimes it is the other way,
the boys taking after the mother and the girls after the father. And
they may resemble both parents in particular features.

There have been known cases of twins that had no resemblance to one
another, but they are alike as a general rule. There was once upon
a time a woman who had intercourse with her husband a week after giving
birth to a child and she conceived and bore a second child as like
the first as any twin. Some women have a tendency to produce children
that take after themselves, and others children that take after the
husband; and this latter case is like that of the celebrated mare
in Pharsalus, that got the name of the Honest Wife.

==== Part 7 ====


In the emission of sperm there is a preliminary discharge of air,
and the outflow is manifestly caused by a blast of air; for nothing
is cast to a distance save by pneumatic pressure. After the seed reaches
the womb and remains there for a while, a membrane forms around it;
for when it happens to escape before it is distinctly formed, it looks
like an egg enveloped in its membrane after removal of the eggshell;
and the membrane is full of veins.

All animals whatsoever, whether they fly or swim or walk upon dry
land, whether they bring forth their young alive or in the egg, develop
in the same way: save only that some have the navel attached to the
womb, namely the viviparous animals, and some have it attached to
the egg, and some to both parts alike, as in a certain sort of fishes.
And in some cases membranous envelopes surround the egg, and in other
cases the chorion surrounds it. And first of all the animal develops
within the innermost envelope, and then another membrane appears around
the former one, which latter is for the most part attached to the
womb, but is in part separated from it and contains fluid. In between
is a watery or sanguineous fluid, which the women folk call the forewaters.

==== Part 8 ====


All animals, or all such as have a navel, grow by the navel. And the
navel is attached to the cotyledon in all such as possess cotyledons,
and to the womb itself by a vein in all such as have the womb smooth.
And as regards their shape within the womb, the four-footed animals
all lie stretched out, and the footless animals lie on their sides,
as for instance fishes; but two-legged animals lie in a bent position,
as for instance birds; and human embryos lie bent, with nose between
the knees and eyes upon the knees, and the ears free at the sides.

All animals alike have the head upwards to begin with; but as they
grow and approach the term of egress from the womb they turn downwards,
and birth in the natural course of things takes place in all animals
head foremost; but in abnormal cases it may take place in a bent position,
or feet foremost.

The young of quadrupeds when they are near their full time contain
excrements, both liquid and in the form of solid lumps, the latter
in the lower part of the bowel and the urine in the bladder.

In those animals that have cotyledons in the womb the cotyledons grow
less as the embryo grows bigger, and at length they disappear altogether.
The navel-string is a sheath wrapped about blood-vessels which have
their origin in the womb, from the cotyledons in those animals which
possess them and from a blood-vessel in those which do not. In the
larger animals, such as the embryos of oxen, the vessels are four
in number, and in smaller animals two; in the very little ones, such
as fowls, one vessel only.

Of the four vessels that run into the embryo, two pass through the
liver where the so-called gates or 'portae' are, running in the direction
of the great vein, and the other two run in the direction of the aorta
towards the point where it divides and becomes two vessels instead
of one. Around each pair of blood-vessels are membranes, and surrounding
these membranes is the navel-string itself, after the manner of a
sheath. And as the embryo grows, the veins themselves tend more and
more to dwindle in size. And also as the embryo matures it comes down
into the hollow of the womb and is observed to move here, and sometimes
rolls over in the vicinity of the groin.

==== Part 9 ====


When women are in labour, their pains determine towards many divers
parts of the body, and in most cases to one or other of the thighs.
Those are the quickest to be delivered who experience severe pains
in the region of the belly; and parturition is difficult in those
who begin by suffering pain in the loins, and speedy when the pain
is abdominal. If the child about to be born be a male, the preliminary
flood is watery and pale in colour, but if a girl it is tinged with
blood, though still watery. In some cases of labour these latter phenomena
do not occur, either one way or the other.

In other animals parturition is unaccompanied by pain, and the dam
is plainly seen to suffer but moderate inconvenience. In women, however,
the pains are more severe, and this is especially the case in persons
of sedentary habits, and in those who are weak-chested and short of
breath. Labour is apt to be especially difficult if during the process
the woman while exerting force with her breath fails to hold it in.

First of all, when the embryo starts to move and the membranes burst,
there issues forth the watery flood; then afterwards comes the embryo,
while the womb everts and the afterbirth comes out from within.

==== Part 10 ====


The cutting of the navel-string, which is the nurse's duty, is a matter
calling for no little care and skill. For not only in cases of difficult
labour must she be able to render assistance with skilful hand, but
she must also have her wits about her in all contingencies, and especially
in the operation of tying the cord. For if the afterbirth have come
away, the navel is ligatured off from the afterbirth with a woollen
thread and is then cut above the ligature; and at the place where
it has been tied it heals up, and the remaining portion drops off.
(If the ligature come loose the child dies from loss of blood.) But
if the afterbirth has not yet come away, but remains after the child
itself is extruded, it is cut away within after the ligaturing of
the cord.

It often happens that the child appears to have been born dead when
it is merely weak, and when before the umbilical cord has been ligatured,
the blood has run out into the cord and its surroundings. But experienced
midwives have been known to squeeze back the blood into the child's
body from the cord, and immediately the child that a moment before
was bloodless came back to life again.

It is the natural rule, as we have mentioned above, for all animals
to come into the world head foremost, and children, moreover, have
their hands stretched out by their sides. And the child gives a cry
and puts its hands up to its mouth as soon as it issues forth.

Moreover the child voids excrement sometimes at once, sometimes a
little later, but in all cases during the first day; and this excrement
is unduly copious in comparison with the size of the child; it is
what the midwives call the meconium or 'poppy-juice'. In colour it
resembles blood, extremely dark and pitch-like, but later on it becomes
milky, for the child takes at once to the breast. Before birth the
child makes no sound, even though in difficult labour it put forth
its head while the rest of the body remains within.

In cases where flooding takes place rather before its time, it is
apt to be followed by difficult parturition. But if discharge take
place after birth in small quantity, and in cases where it only takes
place at the beginning and does not continue till the fortieth day,
then in such cases women make a better recovery and are the sooner
ready to conceive again.

Until the child is forty days old it neither laughs nor weeps during
waking hours, but of nights it sometimes does both; and for the most
part it does not even notice being tickled, but passes most of its
time in sleep. As it keeps on growing, it gets more and more wakeful;
and moreover it shows signs of dreaming, though it is long afterwards
before it remembers what it dreams.

In other animals there is no contrasting difference between one bone
and another, but all are properly formed; but in children the front
part of the head is soft and late of ossifying. And by the way, some
animals are born with teeth, but children begin to cut their teeth
in the seventh month; and the front teeth are the first to come through,
sometimes the upper and sometimes the lower ones. And the warmer the
nurses' milk so much the quicker are the children's teeth to come.

==== Part 11 ====


After parturition and the cleasing flood the milk comes in plenty,
and in some women it flows not only from the nipples but at divers
parts of the breasts, and in some cases even from the armpits. And
for some time afterwards there continue to be certain indurated parts
of the breast called strangalides, or 'knots', which occur when it
so happens that the moisture is not concocted, or when it finds no
outlet but accumulates within. For the whole breast is so spongy that
if a woman in drinking happen to swallow a hair, she gets a pain in
her breast, which ailment is called 'trichia'; and the pain lasts
till the hair either find its own way out or be sucked out with the
milk. Women continue to have milk until their next conception; and
then the milk stops coming and goes dry, alike in the human species
and in the quadrupedal vivipara. So long as there is a flow of milk
the menstrual purgations do not take place, at least as a general
rule, though the discharge has been known to occur during the period
of suckling. For, speaking generally, a determination of moisture
does not take place at one and the same time in several directions;
as for instance the menstrual purgations tend to be scanty in persons
suffering from haemorrhoids. And in some women the like happens owing
to their suffering from varices, when the fluids issue from the pelvic
region before entering into the womb. And patients who during suppression
of the menses happen to vomit blood are no whit the worse.

==== Part 12 ====


Children are very commonly subject to convulsions, more especially
such of them as are more than ordinarily well-nourished on rich or
unusually plentiful milk from a stout nurse. Wine is bad for infants,
in that it tends to excite this malady, and red wine is worse than
white, especially when taken undiluted; and most things that tend
to induce flatulency are also bad, and constipation too is prejudicial.
The majority of deaths in infancy occur before the child is a week
old, hence it is customary to name the child at that age, from a belief
that it has now a better chance of survival. This malady is worst
at the full of the moon; and by the way, it is a dangerous symptom
when the spasms begin in the child's back.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

===== BOOK VIII =====


==== Part 1 ====


We have now discussed the physical characteristics of animals and
their methods of generation. Their habits and their modes of living
vary according to their character and their food.

In the great majority of animals there are traces of psychical qualities
or attitudes, which qualities are more markedly differentiated in
the case of human beings. For just as we pointed out resemblances
in the physical organs, so in a number of animals we observe gentleness
or fierceness, mildness or cross temper, courage, or timidity, fear
or confidence, high spirit or low cunning, and, with regard to intelligence,
something equivalent to sagacity. Some of these qualities in man,
as compared with the corresponding qualities in animals, differ only
quantitatively: that is to say, a man has more or less of this quality,
and an animal has more or less of some other; other qualities in man
are represented by analogous and not identical qualities: for instance,
just as in man we find knowledge, wisdom, and sagacity, so in certain
animals there exists some other natural potentiality akin to these.
The truth of this statement will be the more clearly apprehended if
we have regard to the phenomena of childhood: for in children may
be observed the traces and seeds of what will one day be settled psychological
habits, though psychologically a child hardly differs for the time
being from an animal; so that one is quite justified in saying that,
as regards man and animals, certain psychical qualities are identical
with one another, whilst others resemble, and others are analogous
to, each other.

Nature proceeds little by little from things lifeless to animal life
in such a way that it is impossible to determine the exact line of
demarcation, nor on which side thereof an intermediate form should
lie. Thus, next after lifeless things in the upward scale comes the
plant, and of plants one will differ from another as to its amount
of apparent vitality; and, in a word, the whole genus of plants, whilst
it is devoid of life as compared with an animal, is endowed with life
as compared with other corporeal entities. Indeed, as we just remarked,
there is observed in plants a continuous scale of ascent towards the
animal. So, in the sea, there are certain objects concerning which
one would be at a loss to determine whether they be animal or vegetable.
For instance, certain of these objects are fairly rooted, and in several
cases perish if detached; thus the pinna is rooted to a particular
spot, and the solen (or razor-shell) cannot survive withdrawal from
its burrow. Indeed, broadly speaking, the entire genus of testaceans
have a resemblance to vegetables, if they be contrasted with such
animals as are capable of progression.

In regard to sensibility, some animals give no indication whatsoever
of it, whilst others indicate it but indistinctly. Further, the substance
of some of these intermediate creatures is fleshlike, as is the case
with the so-called tethya (or ascidians) and the acalephae (or sea-anemones);
but the sponge is in every respect like a vegetable. And so throughout
the entire animal scale there is a graduated differentiation in amount
of vitality and in capacity for motion.

A similar statement holds good with regard to habits of life. Thus
of plants that spring from seed the one function seems to be the reproduction
of their own particular species, and the sphere of action with certain
animals is similarly limited. The faculty of reproduction, then, is
common to all alike. If sensibility be superadded, then their lives
will differ from one another in respect to sexual intercourse through
the varying amount of pleasure derived therefrom, and also in regard
to modes of parturition and ways of rearing their young. Some animals,
like plants, simply procreate their own species at definite seasons;
other animals busy themselves also in procuring food for their young,
and after they are reared quit them and have no further dealings with
them; other animals are more intelligent and endowed with memory,
and they live with their offspring for a longer period and on a more
social footing.

The life of animals, then, may be divided into two acts-procreation
and feeding; for on these two acts all their interests and life concentrate.
Their food depends chiefly on the substance of which they are severally
constituted; for the source of their growth in all cases will be this
substance. And whatsoever is in conformity with nature is pleasant,
and all animals pursue pleasure in keeping with their nature.

==== Part 2 ====


Animals are also differentiated locally: that is to say, some live
upon dry land, while others live in the water. And this differentiation
may be interpreted in two different ways. Thus, some animals are termed
terrestrial as inhaling air, and others aquatic as taking in water;
and there are others which do not actually take in these elements,
but nevertheless are constitutionally adapted to the cooling influence,
so far as is needful to them, of one element or the other, and hence
are called terrestrial or aquatic though they neither breathe air
nor take in water. Again, other animals are so called from their finding
their food and fixing their habitat on land or in water: for many
animals, although they inhale air and breed on land, yet derive their
food from the water, and live in water for the greater part of their
lives; and these are the only animals to which as living in and on
two elements the term 'amphibious' is applicable. There is no animal
taking in water that is terrestrial or aerial or that derives its
food from the land, whereas of the great number of land animals inhaling
air many get their food from the water; moreover some are so peculiarly
organized that if they be shut off altogether from the water they
cannot possibly live, as for instance, the so-called sea-turtle, the
crocodile, the hippopotamus, the seal, and some of the smaller creatures,
such as the fresh-water tortoise and the frog: now all these animals
choke or drown if they do not from time to time breathe atmospheric
air: they breed and rear their young on dry land, or near the land,
but they pass their lives in water.

But the dolphin is equipped in the most remarkable way of all animals:
the dolphin and other similar aquatic animals, including the other
cetaceans which resemble it; that is to say, the whale, and all the
other creatures that are furnished with a blow-hole. One can hardly
allow that such an animal is terrestrial and terrestrial only, or
aquatic and aquatic only, if by terrestrial we mean an animal that
inhales air, and if by aquatic we mean an animal that takes in water.
For the fact is the dolphin performs both these processes: he takes
in water and discharges it by his blow-hole, and he also inhales air
into his lungs; for, by the way, the creature is furnished with this
organ and respires thereby, and accordingly, when caught in the nets,
he is quickly suffocated for lack of air. He can also live for a considerable
while out of the water, but all this while he keeps up a dull moaning
sound corresponding to the noise made by air-breathing animals in
general; furthermore, when sleeping, the animal keeps his nose above
water, and he does so that he may breathe the air. Now it would be
unreasonable to assign one and the same class of animals to both categories,
terrestrial and aquatic, seeing that these categories are more or
less exclusive of one another; we must accordingly supplement our
definition of the term 'aquatic' or 'marine'. For the fact is, some
aquatic animals take in water and discharge it again, for the same
reason that leads air-breathing animals to inhale air: in other words,
with the object of cooling the blood. Others take in water as incidental
to their mode of feeding; for as they get their food in the water
they cannot but take in water along with their food, and if they take
in water they must be provided with some organ for discharging it.
Those blooded animals, then, that use water for a purpose analogous
to respiration are provided with gills; and such as take in water
when catching their prey, with the blow-hole. Similar remarks are
applicable to molluscs and crustaceans; for again it is by way of
procuring food that these creatures take in water.

Aquatic in different ways, the differences depending on bodily relation
to external temperature and on habit of life, are such animals on
the one hand as take in air but live in water, and such on the other
hand as take in water and are furnished with gills but go upon dry
land and get their living there. At present only one animal of the
latter kind is known, the so-called cordylus or water-newt; this creature
is furnished not with lungs but with gills, but for all that it is
a quadruped and fitted for walking on dry land.

In the case of all these animals their nature appears in some kind
of a way to have got warped, just as some male animals get to resemble
the female, and some female animals the male. The fact is that animals,
if they be subjected to a modification in minute organs, are liable
to immense modifications in their general configuration. This phenomenon
may be observed in the case of gelded animals: only a minute organ
of the animal is mutilated, and the creature passes from the male
to the female form. We may infer, then, that if in the primary conformation
of the embryo an infinitesimally minute but absolutely essential organ
sustain a change of magnitude one way or the other, the animal will
in one case turn to male and in the other to female; and also that,
if the said organ be obliterated altogether, the animal will be of
neither one sex nor the other. And so by the occurrence of modification
in minute organs it comes to pass that one animal is terrestrial and
another aquatic, in both senses of these terms. And, again, some animals
are amphibious whilst other animals are not amphibious, owing to the
circumstance that in their conformation while in the embryonic condition
there got intermixed into them some portion of the matter of which
their subsequent food is constituted; for, as was said above, what
is in conformity with nature is to every single animal pleasant and
agreeable.

Animals then have been categorized into terrestrial and aquatic in
three ways, according to their assumption of air or of water, the
temperament of their bodies, or the character of their food; and the
mode of life of an animal corresponds to the category in which it
is found. That is to say, in some cases the animal depends for its
terrestrial or aquatic nature on temperament and diet combined, as
well as upon its method of respiration; and sometimes on temperament
and habits alone.

Of testaceans, some, that are incapable of motion, subsist on fresh
water, for, as the sea water dissolves into its constituents, the
fresh water from its greater thinness percolates through the grosser
parts; in fact, they live on fresh water just as they were originally
engendered from the same. Now that fresh water is contained in the
sea and can be strained off from it can be proved in a thoroughly
practical way. Take a thin vessel of moulded wax, attach a cord to
it, and let it down quite empty into the sea: in twenty-four hours
it will be found to contain a quantity of water, and the water will
be fresh and drinkable.

Sea-anemones feed on such small fishes as come in their way. The mouth
of this creature is in the middle of its body; and this fact may be
clearly observed in the case of the larger varieties. Like the oyster
it has a duct for the outlet of the residuum; and this duct is at
the top of the animal. In other words, the sea-anemone corresponds
to the inner fleshy part of the oyster, and the stone to which the
one creature clings corresponds to the shell which encases the other.

The limpet detaches itself from the rock and goes about in quest of
food. Of shell-fish that are mobile, some are carnivorous and live
on little fishes, as for instance, the purple murex-and there can
be no doubt that the purple murex is carnivorous, as it is caught
by a bait of fish; others are carnivorous, but feed also on marine
vegetation.

The sea-turtles feed on shell-fish-for, by the way, their mouths are
extraordinarily hard; whatever object it seizes, stone or other, it
crunches into bits, but when it leaves the water for dry land it browses
on grass). These creatures suffer greatly, and oftentimes die when
they lie on the surface of the water exposed to a scorching sun; for,
when once they have risen to the surface, they find a difficulty in
sinking again.

Crustaceans feed in like manner. They are omnivorous; that is to say,
they live on stones, slime, sea-weed, and excrement-as for instance
the rock-crab-and are also carnivorous. The crawfish or spiny-lobster
can get the better of fishes even of the larger species, though in
some of them it occasionally finds more than its match. Thus, this
animal is so overmastered and cowed by the octopus that it dies of
terror if it become aware of an octopus in the same net with itself.
The crawfish can master the conger-eel, for owing to the rough spines
of the crawfish the eel cannot slip away and elude its hold. The conger-eel,
however, devours the octopus, for owing to the slipperiness of its
antagonist the octopus can make nothing of it. The crawfish feeds
on little fish, capturing them beside its hole or dwelling place;
for, by the way, it is found out at sea on rough and stony bottoms,
and in such places it makes its den. Whatever it catches, it puts
into its mouth with its pincer-like claws, like the common crab. Its
nature is to walk straight forward when it has nothing to fear, with
its feelers hanging sideways; if it be frightened, it makes its escape
backwards, darting off to a great distance. These animals fight one
another with their claws, just as rams fight with their horns, raising
them and striking their opponents; they are often also seen crowded
together in herds. So much for the mode of life of the crustacean.

Molluscs are all carnivorous; and of molluscs the calamary and the
sepia are more than a match for fishes even of the large species.
The octopus for the most part gathers shellfish, extracts the flesh,
and feeds on that; in fact, fishermen recognize their holes by the
number of shells lying about. Some say that the octopus devours its
own species, but this statement is incorrect; it is doubtless founded
on the fact that the creature is often found with its tentacles removed,
which tentacles have really been eaten off by the conger.

Fishes, all without exception, feed on spawn in the spawning season;
but in other respects the food varies with the varying species. Some
fishes are exclusively carnivorous, as the cartilaginous genus, the
conger, the channa or Serranus, the tunny, the bass, the synodon or
Dentex, the amia, the sea-perch, and the muraena. The red mullet is
carnivorous, but feeds also on sea-weed, on shell-fish, and on mud.
The grey mullet feeds on mud, the dascyllus on mud and offal, the
scarus or parrot-fish and the melanurus on sea-weed, the saupe on
offal and sea-weed; the saupe feeds also on zostera, and is the only
fish that is captured with a gourd. All fishes devour their own species,
with the single exception of the cestreus or mullet; and the conger
is especially ravenous in this respect. The cephalus and the mullet
in general are the only fish that eat no flesh; this may be inferred
from the facts that when caught they are never found with flesh in
their intestines, and that the bait used to catch them is not flesh
but barley-cake. Every fish of the mullet-kind lives on sea-weed and
sand. The cephalus, called by some the 'chelon', keeps near in to
the shore, the peraeas keeps out at a distance from it, and feeds
on a mucous substance exuding from itself, and consequently is always
in a starved condition. The cephalus lives in mud, and is in consequence
heavy and slimy; it never feeds on any other fish. As it lives in
mud, it has every now and then to make a leap upwards out of the mud
so as to wash the slime from off its body. There is no creature known
to prey upon the spawn of the cephalus, so that the species is exceedingly
numerous; when, however, the is full-grown it is preyed upon by a
number of fishes, and especially by the acharnas or bass. Of all fishes
the mullet is the most voracious and insatiable, and in consequence
its belly is kept at full stretch; whenever it is not starving, it
may be considered as out of condition. When it is frightened, it hides
its head in mud, under the notion that it is hiding its whole body.
The synodon is carnivorous and feeds on molluscs. Very often the synodon
and the channa cast up their stomachs while chasing smaller fishes;
for, be it remembered, fishes have their stomachs close to the mouth,
and are not furnished with a gullet.

Some fishes then, as has been stated, are carnivorous, and carnivorous
only, as the dolphin, the synodon, the gilt-head, the selachians,
and the molluscs. Other fishes feed habitually on mud or sea-weed
or sea-moss or the so-called stalk-weed or growing plants; as for
instance, the phycis, the goby, and the rock-fish; and, by the way,
the only meat that the phycis will touch is that of prawns. Very often,
however, as has been stated, they devour one another, and especially
do the larger ones devour the smaller. The proof of their being carnivorous
is the fact that they can be caught with flesh for a bait. The mackerel,
the tunny, and the bass are for the most part carnivorous, but they
do occasionally feed on sea-weed. The sargue feeds on the leavings
of the trigle or red mullet. The red mullet burrows in the mud, when
it sets the mud in motion and quits its haunt, the sargue settles
down into the place and feeds on what is left behind, and prevents
any smaller fish from settling in the immediate vicinity.

Of all fishes the so-called scarus, or parrot, wrasse, is the only
one known to chew the cud like a quadruped.

As a general rule the larger fishes catch the smaller ones in their
mouths whilst swimming straight after them in the ordinary position;
but the selachians, the dolphin, and all the cetacea must first turn
over on their backs, as their mouths are placed down below; this allows
a fair chance of escape to the smaller fishes, and, indeed, if it
were not so, there would be very few of the little fishes left, for
the speed and voracity of the dolphin is something marvellous.

Of eels a few here and there feed on mud and on chance morsels of
food thrown to them; the greater part of them subsist on fresh water.
Eel-breeders are particularly careful to have the water kept perfectly
clear, by its perpetually flowing on to flat slabs of stone and then
flowing off again; sometimes they coat the eel-tanks with plaster.
The fact is that the eel will soon choke if the water is not clear
as his gills are peculiarly small. On this account, when fishing for
eels, they disturb the water. In the river Strymon eel-fishing takes
place at the rising of the Pleiads, because at this period the water
is troubled and the mud raised up by contrary winds; unless the water
be in this condition, it is as well to leave the eels alone. When
dead the eel, unlike the majority of fishes, neither floats on nor
rises to the surface; and this is owing to the smallness of the stomach.
A few eels are supplied with fat, but the greater part have no fat
whatsoever. When removed from the water they can live for five or
six days; for a longer period if north winds prevail, for a shorter
if south winds. If they are removed in summer from the pools to the
tanks they will die; but not so if removed in the winter. They are
not capable of holding out against any abrupt change; consequently
they often die in large numbers when men engaged in transporting them
from one place to another dip them into water particularly cold. They
will also die of suffocation if they be kept in a scanty supply of
water. This same remark will hold good for fishes in general; for
they are suffocated if they be long confined in a short supply of
water, with the water kept unchanged-just as animals that respire
are suffocated if they be shut up with a scanty supply of air. The
eel in some cases lives for seven or eight years. The river-eel feeds
on his own species, on grass, or on roots, or on any chance food found
in the mud. Their usual feeding-time is at night, and during the day-time
they retreat into deep water. And so much for the food of fishes.

==== Part 3 ====


Of birds, such as have crooked talons are carnivorous without exception,
and cannot swallow corn or bread-food even if it be put into their
bills in tit-bits; as for instance, the eagle of every variety, the
kite, the two species of hawks, to wit, the dove-hawk and the sparrow-hawk-and,
by the way, these two hawks differ greatly in size from one another-and
the buzzard. The buzzard is of the same size as the kite, and is visible
at all seasons of the year. There is also the phene (or lammergeier)
and the vulture. The phene is larger than the common eagle and is
ashen in colour. Of the vulture there are two varieties: one small
and whitish, the other comparatively large and rather more ashen-coloured
than white. Further, of birds that fly by night, some have crooked
talons, such as the night-raven, the owl, and the eagle-owl. The eagle-owl
resembles the common owl in shape, but it is quite as large as the
eagle. Again, there is the eleus, the Aegolian owl, and the little
horned owl. Of these birds, the eleus is somewhat larger than the
barn-door cock, and the Aegolian owl is of about the same size as
the eleus, and both these birds hunt the jay; the little horned owl
is smaller than the common owl. All these three birds are alike in
appearance, and all three are carnivorous.

Again, of birds that have not crooked talons some are carnivorous,
such as the swallow. Others feed on grubs, such as the chaffinch,
the sparrow, the 'batis', the green linnet, and the titmouse. Of the
titmouse there are three varieties. The largest is the finch-titmouse--for
it is about the size of a finch; the second has a long tail, and from
its habitat is called the hill-titmouse; the third resembles the other
two in appearance, but is less in size than either of them. Then come
the becca-fico, the black-cap, the bull-finch, the robin, the epilais,
the midget-bird, and the golden-crested wren. This wren is little
larger than a locust, has a crest of bright red gold, and is in every
way a beautiful and graceful little bird. Then the anthus, a bird
about the size of a finch; and the mountain-finch, which resembles
a finch and is of much the same size, but its neck is blue, and it
is named from its habitat; and lastly the wren and the rook. The above-enumerated
birds and the like of them feed either wholly or for the most part
on grubs, but the following and the like feed on thistles; to wit,
the linnet, the thraupis, and the goldfinch. All these birds feed
on thistles, but never on grubs or any living thing whatever; they
live and roost also on the plants from which they derive their food.

There are other birds whose favourite food consists of insects found
beneath the bark of trees; as for instance, the great and the small
pie, which are nicknamed the woodpeckers. These two birds resemble
one another in plumage and in note, only that the note of the larger
bird is the louder of the two; they both frequent the trunks of trees
in quest of food. There is also the greenpie, a bird about the size
of a turtle-dove, green-coloured all over, that pecks at the bark
of trees with extraordinary vigour, lives generally on the branch
of a tree, has a loud note, and is mostly found in the Peloponnese.
There is another bird called the 'grub-picker' (or tree-creeper),
about as small as the penduline titmouse, with speckled plumage of
an ashen colour, and with a poor note; it is a variety of the woodpecker.

There are other birds that live on fruit and herbage, such as the
wild pigeon or ringdove, the common pigeon, the rock-dove, and the
turtle-dove. The ring-dove and the common pigeon are visible at all
seasons; the turtledove only in the summer, for in winter it lurks
in some hole or other and is never seen. The rock-dove is chiefly
visible in the autumn, and is caught at that season; it is larger
than the common pigeon but smaller than the wild one; it is generally
caught while drinking. These pigeons bring their young ones with them
when they visit this country. All our other birds come to us in the
early summer and build their nests here, and the greater part of them
rear their young on animal food, with the sole exception of the pigeon
and its varieties.

The whole genus of birds may be pretty well divided into such as procure
their food on dry land, such as frequent rivers and lakes, and such
as live on or by the sea.

Of water-birds such as are web-footed live actually on the water,
while such as are split-footed live by the edge of it-and, by the
way, water-birds that are not carnivorous live on water-plants, (but
most of them live on fish), like the heron and the spoonbill that
frequent the banks of lakes and rivers; and the spoonbill, by the
way, is less than the common heron, and has a long flat bill. There
are furthermore the stork and the seamew; and the seamew, by the way,
is ashen-coloured. There is also the schoenilus, the cinclus, and
the white-rump. Of these smaller birds the last mentioned is the largest,
being about the size of the common thrush; all three may be described
as 'wag-tails'. Then there is the scalidris, with plumage ashen-grey,
but speckled. Moreover, the family of the halcyons or kingfishers
live by the waterside. Of kingfishers there are two varieties; one
that sits on reeds and sings; the other, the larger of the two, is
without a note. Both these varieties are blue on the back. There is
also the trochilus (or sandpiper). The halcyon also, including a variety
termed the cerylus, is found near the seaside. The crow also feeds
on such animal life as is cast up on the beach, for the bird is omnivorous.
There are also the white gull, the cepphus, the aethyia, and the charadrius.

Of web-footed birds, the larger species live on the banks of rivers
and lakes; as the swan, the duck, the coot, the grebe, and the teal-a
bird resembling the duck but less in size-and the water-raven or cormorant.
This bird is the size of a stork, only that its legs are shorter;
it is web-footed and is a good swimmer; its plumage is black. It roosts
on trees, and is the only one of all such birds as these that is found
to build its nest in a tree. Further there is the large goose, the
little gregarious goose, the vulpanser, the horned grebe, and the
penelops. The sea-eagle lives in the neighbourhood of the sea and
seeks its quarry in lagoons.

A great number of birds are omnivorous. Birds of prey feed on any
animal or bird, other than a bird of prey, that they may catch. These
birds never touch one of their own genus, whereas fishes often devour
members actually of their own species.

Birds, as a rule, are very spare drinkers. In fact birds of prey never
drink at all, excepting a very few, and these drink very rarely; and
this last observation is peculiarly applicable to the kestrel. The
kite has been seen to drink, but he certainly drinks very seldom.

==== Part 4 ====


Animals that are coated with tessellates-such as the lizard and the
other quadrupeds, and the serpents-are omnivorous: at all events they
are carnivorous and graminivorous; and serpents, by the way, are of
all animals the greatest gluttons.

Tessellated animals are spare drinkers, as are also all such animals
as have a spongy lung, and such a lung, scantily supplied with blood,
is found in all oviparous animals. Serpents, by the by, have an insatiate
appetite for wine; consequently, at times men hunt for snakes by pouring
wine into saucers and putting them into the interstices of walls,
and the creatures are caught when inebriated. Serpents are carnivorous,
and whenever they catch an animal they extract all its juices and
eject the creature whole. And, by the way, this is done by all other
creatures of similar habits, as for instance the spider; only that
the spider sucks out the juices of its prey outside, and the serpent
does so in its belly. The serpent takes any food presented to him,
eats birds and animals, and swallows eggs entire. But after taking
his prey he stretches himself until he stands straight out to the
very tip, and then he contracts and squeezes himself into little compass,
so that the swallowed mass may pass down his outstretched body; and
this action on his part is due to the tenuity and length of his gullet.
Spiders and snakes can both go without food for a long time; and this
remark may be verified by observation of specimens kept alive in the
shops of the apothecaries.

==== Part 5 ====


Of viviparous quadrupeds such as are fierce and jag-toothed are without
exception carnivorous; though, by the way, it is stated of the wolf,
but of no other animal, that in extremity of hunger it will eat a
certain kind of earth. These carnivorous animals never eat grass except
when they are sick, just as dogs bring on a vomit by eating grass
and thereby purge themselves.

The solitary wolf is more apt to attack man than the wolf that goes
with a pack.

The animal called 'glanus' by some and 'hyaena' by others is as large
as a wolf, with a mane like a horse, only that the hair is stiffer
and longer and extends over the entire length of the chine. It will
lie in wait for a man and chase him, and will inveigle a dog within
its reach by making a noise that resembles the retching noise of a
man vomiting. It is exceedingly fond of putrefied flesh, and will
burrow in a graveyard to gratify this propensity.

The bear is omnivorous. It eats fruit, and is enabled by the suppleness
of its body to climb a tree; it also eats vegetables, and it will
break up a hive to get at the honey; it eats crabs and ants also,
and is in a general way carnivorous. It is so powerful that it will
attack not only the deer but the wild boar, if it can take it unawares,
and also the bull. After coming to close quarters with the bull it
falls on its back in front of the animal, and, when the bull proceeds
to butt, the bear seizes hold of the bull's horns with its front paws,
fastens its teeth into his shoulder, and drags him down to the ground.
For a short time together it can walk erect on its hind legs. All
the flesh it eats it first allows to become carrion.

The lion, like all other savage and jag-toothed animals, is carnivorous.
It devours its food greedily and fiercely, and often swallows its
prey entire without rending it at all; it will then go fasting for
two or three days together, being rendered capable of this abstinence
by its previous surfeit. It is a spare drinker. It discharges the
solid residuum in small quantities, about every other day or at irregular
intervals, and the substance of it is hard and dry like the excrement
of a dog. The wind discharged from off its stomach is pungent, and
its urine emits a strong odour, a phenomenon which, in the case of
dogs, accounts for their habit of sniffing at trees; for, by the way,
the lion, like the dog, lifts its leg to void its urine. It infects
the food it eats with a strong smell by breathing on it, and when
the animal is cut open an overpowering vapour exhales from its inside.

Some wild quadrupeds feed in lakes and rivers; the seal is the only
one that gets its living on the sea. To the former class of animals
belong the so-called castor, the satyrium, the otter, and the so-called
latax, or beaver. The beaver is flatter than the otter and has strong
teeth; it often at night-time emerges from the water and goes nibbling
at the bark of the aspens that fringe the riversides. The otter will
bite a man, and it is said that whenever it bites it will never let
go until it hears a bone crack. The hair of the beaver is rough, intermediate
in appearance between the hair of the seal and the hair of the deer.

==== Part 6 ====


Jag-toothed animals drink by lapping, as do also some animals with
teeth differently formed, as the mouse. Animals whose upper and lower
teeth meet evenly drink by suction, as the horse and the ox; the bear
neither laps nor sucks, but gulps down his drink. Birds, a rule, drink
by suction, but the long necked birds stop and elevate their heads
at intervals; the purple coot is the only one (of the long-necked
birds) that swallows water by gulps.

Horned animals, domesticated or wild, and all such as are not jag-toothed,
are all frugivorous and graminivorous, save under great stress of
hunger. The pig is an exception, it cares little for grass or fruit,
but of all animals it is the fondest of roots, owing to the fact that
its snout is peculiarly adapted for digging them out of the ground;
it is also of all animals the most easily pleased in the matter of
food. It takes on fat more rapidly in proportion to its size than
any other animal; in fact, a pig can be fattened for the market in
sixty days. Pig-dealers can tell the amount of flesh taken on, by
having first weighed the animal while it was being starved. Before
the fattening process begins, the creature must be starved for three
days; and, by the way, animals in general will take on fat if subjected
previously to a course of starvation; after the three days of starvation,
pig-breeders feed the animal lavishly. Breeders in Thrace, when fattening
pigs, give them a drink on the first day; then they miss one, and
then two days, then three and four, until the interval extends over
seven days. The pigs' meat used for fattening is composed of barley,
millet, figs, acorns, wild pears, and cucumbers. These animals-and
other animals that have warm bellies-are fattened by repose. (Pigs
also fatten the better by being allowed to wallow in mud. They like
to feed in batches of the same age. A pig will give battle even to
a wolf.) If a pig be weighed when living, you may calculate that after
death its flesh will weigh five-sixths of that weight, and the hair,
the blood, and the rest will weigh the other sixth. When suckling
their young, swinelike all other animals-get attenuated. So much for
these animals.

==== Part 7 ====


Cattle feed on corn and grass, and fatten on vegetables that tend
to cause flatulency, such as bitter vetch or bruised beans or bean-stalks.
The older ones also will fatten if they be fed up after an incision
has been made into their hide, and air blown thereinto. Cattle will
fatten also on barley in its natural state or on barley finely winnowed,
or on sweet food, such as figs, or pulp from the wine-press, or on
elm-leaves. But nothing is so fattening as the heat of the sun and
wallowing in warm waters. If the horns of young cattle be smeared
with hot wax, you may mold them to any shape you please, and cattle
are less subject to disease of the hoof if you smear the horny parts
with wax, pitch, or olive oil. Herded cattle suffer more when they
are forced to change their pasture ground by frost than when snow
is the cause of change. Cattle grow all the more in size when they
are kept from sexual commerce over a number of years; and it is with
a view to growth in size that in Epirus the so-called Pyrrhic kine
are not allowed intercourse with the bull until they are nine years
old; from which circumstance they are nicknamed the 'unbulled' kine.
Of these Pyrrhic cattle, by the way, they say that there are only
about four hundred in the world, that they are the private property
of the Epirote royal family, that they cannot thrive out of Epirus,
and that people elsewhere have tried to rear them, but without success.

==== Part 8 ====


Horses, mules, and asses feed on corn and grass, but are fattened
chiefly by drink. Just in proportion as beasts of burden drink water,
so will they more or less enjoy their food, and a place will give
good or bad feeding according as the water is good or bad. Green corn,
while ripening, will give a smooth coat; but such corn is injurious
if the spikes are too stiff and sharp. The first crop of clover is
unwholesome, and so is clover over which ill-scented water runs; for
the clover is sure to get the taint of the water. Cattle like clear
water for drinking; but the horse in this respect resembles the camel,
for the camel likes turbid and thick water, and will never drink from
a stream until he has trampled it into a turbid condition. And, by
the way, the camel can go without water for as much as four days,
but after that when he drinks, he drinks in immense quantities.

==== Part 9 ====


The elephant at the most can eat nine Macedonian medimni of fodder
at one meal; but so large an amount is unwholesome. As a general rule
it can take six or seven medimni of fodder, five medimni of wheat,
and five mareis of wine-six cotylae going to the maris. An elephant
has been known to drink right off fourteen Macedonian metretae of
water, and another metretae later in the day.

Camels live for about thirty years; in some exceptional cases they
live much longer, and instances have been known of their living to
the age of a hundred. The elephant is said by some to live for about
two hundred years; by others, for three hundred.

==== Part 10 ====


Sheep and goats are graminivorous, but sheep browse assiduously and
steadily, whereas goats shift their ground rapidly, and browse only
on the tips of the herbage. Sheep are much improved in condition by
drinking, and accordingly they give the flocks salt every five days
in summer, to the extent of one medimnus to the hundred sheep, and
this is found to render a flock healthier and fatter. In fact they
mix salt with the greater part of their food; a large amount of salt
is mixed into their bran (for the reason that they drink more when
thirsty), and in autumn they get cucumbers with a sprinkling of salt
on them; this admixture of salt in their food tends also to increase
the quantity of milk in the ewes. If sheep be kept on the move at
midday they will drink more copiously towards evening; and if the
ewes be fed with salted food as the lambing season draws near they
will get larger udders. Sheep are fattened by twigs of the olive or
of the oleaster, by vetch, and bran of every kind; and these articles
of food fatten all the more if they be first sprinkled with brine.
Sheep will take on flesh all the better if they be first put for three
days through a process of starving. In autumn, water from the north
is more wholesome for sheep than water from the south. Pasture grounds
are all the better if they have a westerly aspect.

Sheep will lose flesh if they be kept overmuch on the move or be subjected
to any hardship. In winter time shepherds can easily distinguish the
vigorous sheep from the weakly, from the fact that the vigorous sheep
are covered with hoar-frost while the weakly ones are quite free of
it; the fact being that the weakly ones feeling oppressed with the
burden shake themselves and so get rid of it. The flesh of all quadrupeds
deteriorates in marshy pastures, and is the better on high grounds.
Sheep that have flat tails can stand the winter better than long-tailed
sheep, and short-fleeced sheep than the shaggy-fleeced; and sheep
with crisp wool stand the rigour of winter very poorly. Sheep are
healthier than goats, but goats are stronger than sheep. (The fleeces
and the wool of sheep that have been killed by wolves, as also the
clothes made from them, are exceptionally infested with lice.)

==== Part 11 ====


Of insects, such as have teeth are omnivorous; such as have a tongue
feed on liquids only, extracting with that organ juices from all quarters.
And of these latter some may be called omnivorous, inasmuch as they
feed on every kind of juice, as for instance, the common fly; others
are blood-suckers, such as the gadfly and the horse-fly, others again
live on the juices of fruits and plants. The bee is the only insect
that invariably eschews whatever is rotten; it will touch no article
of food unless it have a sweet-tasting juice, and it is particularly
fond of drinking water if it be found bubbling up clear from a spring
underground.

So much for the food of animals of the leading genera.

==== Part 12 ====


The habits of animals are all connected with either breeding and the
rearing of young, or with the procuring a due supply of food; and
these habits are modified so as to suit cold and heat and the variations
of the seasons. For all animals have an instinctive perception of
the changes of temperature, and, just as men seek shelter in houses
in winter, or as men of great possessions spend their summer in cool
places and their winter in sunny ones, so also all animals that can
do so shift their habitat at various seasons.

Some creatures can make provision against change without stirring
from their ordinary haunts; others migrate, quitting Pontus and the
cold countries after the autumnal equinox to avoid the approaching
winter, and after the spring equinox migrating from warm lands to
cool lands to avoid the coming heat. In some cases they migrate from
places near at hand, in others they may be said to come from the ends
of the world, as in the case of the crane; for these birds migrate
from the steppes of Scythia to the marshlands south of Egypt where
the Nile has its source. And it is here, by the way, that they are
said to fight with the pygmies; and the story is not fabulous, but
there is in reality a race of dwarfish men, and the horses are little
in proportion, and the men live in caves underground. Pelicans also
migrate, and fly from the Strymon to the Ister, and breed on the banks
of this river. They depart in flocks, and the birds in front wait
for those in the rear, owing to the fact that when the flock is passing
over the intervening mountain range, the birds in the rear lose sight
of their companions in the van.

Fishes also in a similar manner shift their habitat now out of the
Euxine and now into it. In winter they move from the outer sea in
towards land in quest of heat; in summer they shift from shallow waters
to the deep sea to escape the heat.

Weakly birds in winter and in frosty weather come down to the plains
for warmth, and in summer migrate to the hills for coolness. The more
weakly an animal is the greater hurry will it be in to migrate on
account of extremes of temperature, either hot or cold; thus the mackerel
migrates in advance of the tunnies, and the quail in advance of the
cranes. The former migrates in the month of Boedromion, and the latter
in the month of Maemacterion. All creatures are fatter in migrating
from cold to heat than in migrating from heat to cold; thus the quail
is fatter when he emigrates in autumn than when he arrives in spring.
The migration from cold countries is contemporaneous with the close
of the hot season. Animals are in better trim for breeding purposes
in spring-time, when they change from hot to cool lands.

Of birds, the crane, as has been said, migrates from one end of the
world to the other; they fly against the wind. The story told about
the stone is untrue: to wit, that the bird, so the story goes, carries
in its inside a stone by way of ballast, and that the stone when vomited
up is a touchstone for gold.

The cushat and the rock-dove migrate, and never winter in our country,
as is the case also with the turtle-dove; the common pigeon, however,
stays behind. The quail also migrates; only, by the way, a few quails
and turtle-doves may stay behind here and there in sunny districts.
Cushats and turtle-doves flock together, both when they arrive and
when the season for migration comes round again. When quails come
to land, if it be fair weather or if a north wind is blowing, they
will pair off and manage pretty comfortably; but if a southerly wind
prevail they are greatly distressed owing to the difficulties in the
way of flight, for a southerly wind is wet and violent. For this reason
bird-catchers are never on the alert for these birds during fine weather,
but only during the prevalence of southerly winds, when the bird from
the violence of the wind is unable to fly. And, by the way, it is
owing to the distress occasioned by the bulkiness of its body that
the bird always screams while flying: for the labour is severe. When
the quails come from abroad they have no leaders, but when they migrate
hence, the glottis flits along with them, as does also the landrail,
and the eared owl, and the corncrake. The corncrake calls them in
the night, and when the birdcatchers hear the croak of the bird in
the nighttime they know that the quails are on the move. The landrail
is like a marsh bird, and the glottis has a tongue that can project
far out of its beak. The eared owl is like an ordinary owl, only that
it has feathers about its ears; by some it is called the night-raven.
It is a great rogue of a bird, and is a capital mimic; a bird-catcher
will dance before it and, while the bird is mimicking his gestures,
the accomplice comes behind and catches it. The common owl is caught
by a similar trick.

As a general rule all birds with crooked talons are short-necked,
flat-tongued, and disposed to mimicry. The Indian bird, the parrot,
which is said to have a man's tongue, answers to this description;
and, by the way, after drinking wine, the parrot becomes more saucy
than ever.

Of birds, the following are migratory-the crane, the swan, the pelican,
and the lesser goose.

==== Part 13 ====


Of fishes, some, as has been observed, migrate from the outer seas
in towards shore, and from the shore towards the outer seas, to avoid
the extremes of cold and heat.

Fish living near to the shore are better eating than deep-sea fish.
The fact is they have more abundant and better feeding, for wherever
the sun's heat can reach vegetation is more abundant, better in quality,
and more delicate, as is seen in any ordinary garden. Further, the
black shore-weed grows near to shore; the other shore-weed is like
wild weed. Besides, the parts of the sea near to shore are subjected
to a more equable temperature; and consequently the flesh of shallow-water
fishes is firm and consistent, whereas the flesh of deep-water fishes
is flaccid and watery.

The following fishes are found near into the shore-the synodon, the
black bream, the merou, the gilthead, the mullet, the red mullet,
the wrasse, the weaver, the callionymus, the goby, and rock-fishes
of all kinds. The following are deep-sea fishes--the trygon, the cartilaginous
fishes, the white conger, the serranus, the erythrinus, and the glaucus.
The braize, the sea-scorpion, the black conger, the muraena, and the
piper or sea-cuckoo are found alike in shallow and deep waters. These
fishes, however, vary for various localities; for instance, the goby
and all rock-fish are fat off the coast of Crete. Again, the tunny
is out of season in summer, when it is being preyed on by its own
peculiar louse-parasite, but after the rising of Arcturus, when the
parasite has left it, it comes into season again. A number of fish
also are found in sea-estuaries; such as the saupe, the gilthead,
the red mullet, and, in point of fact, the greater part of the gregarious
fishes. The bonito also is found in such waters, as, for instance,
off the coast of Alopeconnesus; and most species of fishes are found
in Lake Bistonis. The coly-mackerel as a rule does not enter the Euxine,
but passes the summer in the Propontis, where it spawns, and winters
in the Aegean. The tunny proper, the pelamys, and the bonito penetrate
into the Euxine in summer and pass the summer there; as do also the
greater part of such fish as swim in shoals with the currents, or
congregate in shoals together. And most fish congregate in shoals,
and shoal-fishes in all cases have leaders.

Fish penetrate into the Euxine for two reasons, and firstly for food.
For the feeding is more abundant and better in quality owing to the
amount of fresh river-water that discharges into the sea, and moreover,
the large fishes of this inland sea are smaller than the large fishes
of the outer sea. In point of fact, there is no large fish in the
Euxine excepting the dolphin and the porpoise, and the dolphin is
a small variety; but as soon as you get into the outer sea the big
fishes are on the big scale. Furthermore, fish penetrate into this
sea for the purpose of breeding; for there are recesses there favourable
for spawning, and the fresh and exceptionally sweet water has an invigorating
effect upon the spawn. After spawning, when the young fishes have
attained some size, the parent fish swim out of the Euxine immediately
after the rising of the Pleiads. If winter comes in with a southerly
wind, they swim out with more or less of deliberation; but, if a north
wind be blowing, they swim out with greater rapidity, from the fact
that the breeze is favourable to their own course. And, by the way,
the young fish are caught about this time in the neighbourhood of
Byzantium very small in size, as might have been expected from the
shortness of their sojourn in the Euxine. The shoals in general are
visible both as they quit and enter the Euxine. The trichiae, however,
only can be caught during their entry, but are never visible during
their exit; in point of fact, when a trichia is caught running outwards
in the neighbourhood of Byzantium, the fishermen are particularly
careful to cleanse their nets, as the circumstance is so singular
and exceptional. The way of accounting for this phenomenon is that
this fish, and this one only, swims northwards into the Danube, and
then at the point of its bifurcation swims down southwards into the
Adriatic. And, as a proof that this theory is correct, the very opposite
phenomenon presents itself in the Adriatic; that is to say, they are
not caught in that sea during their entry, but are caught during their
exit.

Tunny-fish swim into the Euxine keeping the shore on their right,
and swim out of it with the shore upon their left. It is stated that
they do so as being naturally weak-sighted, and seeing better with
the right eye.

During the daytime shoal-fish continue on their way, but during the
night they rest and feed. But if there be moonlight, they continue
their journey without resting at all. Some people accustomed to sea-life
assert that shoal-fish at the period of the winter solstice never
move at all, but keep perfectly still wherever they may happen to
have been overtaken by the solstice, and this lasts until the equinox.

The coly-mackerel is caught more frequently on entering than on quitting
the Euxine. And in the Propontis the fish is at its best before the
spawning season. Shoal-fish, as a rule, are caught in greater quantities
as they leave the Euxine, and at that season they are in the best
condition. At the time of their entrance they are caught in very plump
condition close to shore, but those are in comparatively poor condition
that are caught farther out to sea. Very often, when the coly-mackerel
and the mackerel are met by a south wind in their exit, there are
better catches to the southward than in the neighbourhood of Byzantium.
So much then for the phenomenon of migration of fishes.

Now the same phenomenon is observed in fishes as in terrestrial animals
in regard to hibernation: in other words, during winter fishes take
to concealing themselves in out of the way places, and quit their
places of concealment in the warmer season. But, by the way, animals
go into concealment by way of refuge against extreme heat, as well
as against extreme cold. Sometimes an entire genus will thus seek
concealment; in other cases some species will do so and others will
not. For instance, the shell-fish seek concealment without exception,
as is seen in the case of those dwelling in the sea, the purple murex,
the ceryx, and all such like; but though in the case of the detached
species the phenomenon is obvious-for they hide themselves, as is
seen in the scallop, or they are provided with an operculum on the
free surface, as in the case of land snails-in the case of the non-detached
the concealment is not so clearly observed. They do not go into hiding
at one and the same season; but the snails go in winter, the purple
murex and the ceryx for about thirty days at the rising of the Dog-star,
and the scallop at about the same period. But for the most part they
go into concealment when the weather is either extremely cold or extremely
hot.

==== Part 14 ====


Insects almost all go into hiding, with the exception of such of them
as live in human habitations or perish before the completion of the
year. They hide in the winter; some of them for several days, others
for only the coldest days, as the bee. For the bee also goes into
hiding: and the proof that it does so is that during a certain period
bees never touch the food set before them, and if a bee creeps out
of the hive, it is quite transparent, with nothing whatsoever in its
stomach; and the period of its rest and hiding lasts from the setting
of the Pleiads until springtime.

Animals take their winter-sleep or summer-sleep by concealing themselves
in warm places, or in places where they have been used to lie concealed.

==== Part 15 ====


Several blooded animals take this sleep, such as the pholidotes or
tessellates, namely, the serpent, the lizard, the gecko, and the river.
crocodile, all of which go into hiding for four months in the depth
of winter, and during that time eat nothing. Serpents in general burrow
under ground for this purpose; the viper conceals itself under a stone.

A great number of fishes also take this sleep, and notably, the hippurus
and coracinus in winter time; for, whereas fish in general may be
caught at all periods of the year more or less, there is this singularity
observed in these fishes, that they are caught within a certain fixed
period of the year, and never by any chance out of it. The muraena
also hides, and the orphus or sea-perch, and the conger. Rock-fish
pair off, male and female, for hiding (just as for breeding); as is
observed in the case of the species of wrasse called the thrush and
the owzel, and in the perch.

The tunny also takes a sleep in winter in deep waters, and gets exceedingly
fat after the sleep. The fishing season for the tunny begins at the
rising of the Pleiads and lasts, at the longest, down to the setting
of Arcturus; during the rest of the year they are hid and enjoying
immunity. About the time of hibernation a few tunnies or other hibernating
fishes are caught while swimming about, in particularly warm localities
and in exceptionally fine weather, or on nights of full moon; for
the fishes are induced (by the warmth or the light) to emerge for
a while from their lair in quest of food.

Most fishes are at their best for the table during the summer or winter
sleep.

The primas-tunny conceals itself in the mud; this may be inferred
from the fact that during a particular period the fish is never caught,
and that, when it is caught after that period, it is covered with
mud and has its fins damaged. In the spring these tunnies get in motion
and proceed towards the coast, coupling and breeding, and the females
are now caught full of spawn. At this time they are considered as
in season, but in autumn and in winter as of inferior quality; at
this time also the males are full of milt. When the spawn is small,
the fish is hard to catch, but it is easily caught when the spawn
gets large, as the fish is then infested by its parasite. Some fish
burrow for sleep in the sand and some in mud, just keeping their mouths
outside.

Most fishes hide, then, during the winter only, but crustaceans, the
rock-fish, the ray, and the cartilaginous species hide only during
extremely severe weather, and this may be inferred from the fact that
these fishes are never by any chance caught when the weather is extremely
cold. Some fishes, however, hide during the summer, as the glaucus
or grey-back; this fish hides in summer for about sixty days. The
hake also and the gilthead hide; and we infer that the hake hides
over a lengthened period from the fact that it is only caught at long
intervals. We are led also to infer that fishes hide in summer from
the circumstance that the takes of certain fish are made between the
rise and setting of certain constellations: of the Dog-star in particular,
the sea at this period being upturned from the lower depths. This
phenomenon may be observed to best advantage in the Bosporus; for
the mud is there brought up to the surface and the fish are brought
up along with it. They say also that very often, when the sea-bottom
is dredged, more fish will be caught by the second haul than by the
first one. Furthermore, after very heavy rains numerous specimens
become visible of creatures that at other times are never seen at
all or seen only at intervals.

==== Part 16 ====


A great number of birds also go into hiding; they do not all migrate,
as is generally supposed, to warmer countries. Thus, certain birds
(as the kite and the swallow) when they are not far off from places
of this kind, in which they have their permanent abode, betake themselves
thither; others, that are at a distance from such places, decline
the trouble of migration and simply hide themselves where they are.
Swallows, for instance, have been often found in holes, quite denuded
of their feathers, and the kite on its first emergence from torpidity
has been seen to fly from out some such hiding-place. And with regard
to this phenomenon of periodic torpor there is no distinction observed,
whether the talons of a bird be crooked or straight; for instance,
the stork, the owzel, the turtle-dove, and the lark, all go into hiding.
The case of the turtledove is the most notorious of all, for we would
defy any one to assert that he had anywhere seen a turtle-dove in
winter-time; at the beginning of the hiding time it is exceedingly
plump, and during this period it moults, but retains its plumpness.
Some cushats hide; others, instead of hiding, migrate at the same
time as the swallow. The thrush and the starling hide; and of birds
with crooked talons the kite and the owl hide for a few days.

==== Part 17 ====


Of viviparous quadrupeds the porcupine and the bear retire into concealment.
The fact that the bear hides is well established, but there are doubts
as to its motive for so doing, whether it be by reason of the cold
or from some other cause. About this period the male and the female
become so fat as to be hardly capable of motion. The female brings
forth her young at this time, and remains in concealment until it
is time to bring the cubs out; and she brings them out in spring,
about three months after the winter solstice. The bear hides for at
least forty days; during fourteen of these days it is said not to
move at all, but during most of the subsequent days it moves, and
from time to time wakes up. A she-bear in pregnancy has either never
been caught at all or has been caught very seldom. There can be no
doubt but that during this period they eat nothing; for in the first
place they never emerge from their hiding-place, and further, when
they are caught, their belly and intestines are found to be quite
empty. It is also said that from no food being taken the gut almost
closes up, and that in consequence the animal on first emerging takes
to eating arum with the view of opening up and distending the gut.

The dormouse actually hides in a tree, and gets very fat at that period;
as does also the white mouse of Pontus.

(Of animals that hide or go torpid some slough off what is called
their 'old-age'. This name is applied to the outermost skin, and to
the casing that envelops the developing organism.)

In discussing the case of terrestrial vivipara we stated that the
reason for the bear's seeking concealment is an open question. We
now proceed to treat of the tessellates. The tessellates for the most
part go into hiding, and if their skin is soft they slough off their
'old-age', but not if the skin is shell-like, as is the shell of the
tortoise-for, by the way, the tortoise and the fresh water tortoise
belong to the tessellates. Thus, the old-age is sloughed off by the
gecko, the lizard, and above all, by serpents; and they slough off
the skin in springtime when emerging from their torpor, and again
in the autumn. Vipers also slough off their skin both in spring and
in autumn, and it is not the case, as some aver, that this species
of the serpent family is exceptional in not sloughing. When the serpent
begins to slough, the skin peels off at first from the eyes, so that
any one ignorant of the phenomenon would suppose the animal were going
blind; after that it peels off the head, and so on, until the creature
presents to view only a white surface all over. The sloughing goes
on for a day and a night, beginning with the head and ending with
the tail. During the sloughing of the skin an inner layer comes to
the surface, for the creature emerges just as the embryo from its
afterbirth.

All insects that slough at all slough in the same way; as the silphe,
and the empis or midge, and all the coleoptera, as for instance the
cantharus-beetle. They all slough after the period of development;
for just as the afterbirth breaks from off the young of the vivipara
so the outer husk breaks off from around the young of the vermipara,
in the same way both with the bee and the grasshopper. The cicada
the moment after issuing from the husk goes and sits upon an olive
tree or a reed; after the breaking up of the husk the creature issues
out, leaving a little moisture behind, and after a short interval
flies up into the air and sets a. chirping.

Of marine animals the crawfish and the lobster slough sometimes in
the spring, and sometimes in autumn after parturition. Lobsters have
been caught occasionally with the parts about the thorax soft, from
the shell having there peeled off, and the lower parts hard, from
the shell having not yet peeled off there; for, by the way, they do
not slough in the same manner as the serpent. The crawfish hides for
about five months. Crabs also slough off their old-age; this is generally
allowed with regard to the soft-shelled crabs, and it is said to be
the case with the testaceous kind, as for instance with the large
'granny' crab. When these animals slough their shell becomes soft
all over, and as for the crab, it can scarcely crawl. These animals
also do not cast their skins once and for all, but over and over again.

So much for the animals that go into hiding or torpidity, for the
times at which, and the ways in which, they go; and so much also for
the animals that slough off their old-age, and for the times at which
they undergo the process.

==== Part 18 ====


Animals do not all thrive at the same seasons, nor do they thrive
alike during all extremes of weather. Further animals of diverse species
are in a diverse way healthy or sickly at certain seasons; and, in
point of fact, some animals have ailments that are unknown to others.
Birds thrive in times of drought, both in their general health and
in regard to parturition, and this is especially the case with the
cushat; fishes, however, with a few exceptions, thrive best in rainy
weather; on the contrary rainy seasons are bad for birds-and so by
the way is much drinking-and drought is bad for fishes. Birds of prey,
as has been already stated, may in a general way be said never to
drink at all, though Hesiod appears to have been ignorant of the fact,
for in his story about the siege of Ninus he represents the eagle
that presided over the auguries as in the act of drinking; all other
birds drink, but drink sparingly, as is the case also with all other
spongy-lunged oviparous animals. Sickness in birds may be diagnosed
from their plumage, which is ruffled when they are sickly instead
of lying smooth as when they are well.

==== Part 19 ====


The majority of fishes, as has been stated, thrive best in rainy seasons.
Not only have they food in greater abundance at this time, but in
a general way rain is wholesome for them just as it is for vegetation-for,
by the way, kitchen vegetables, though artificially watered, derive
benefit from rain; and the same remark applies even to reeds that
grow in marshes, as they hardly grow at all without a rainfall. That
rain is good for fishes may be inferred from the fact that most fishes
migrate to the Euxine for the summer; for owing to the number of the
rivers that discharge into this sea its water is exceptionally fresh,
and the rivers bring down a large supply of food. Besides, a great
number of fishes, such as the bonito and the mullet, swim up the rivers
and thrive in the rivers and marshes. The sea-gudgeon also fattens
in the rivers, and, as a rule, countries abounding in lagoons furnish
unusually excellent fish. While most fishes, then, are benefited by
rain, they are chiefly benefited by summer rain; or we may state the
case thus, that rain is good for fishes in spring, summer, and autumn,
and fine dry weather in winter. As a general rule what is good for
men is good for fishes also.

Fishes do not thrive in cold places, and those fishes suffer most
in severe winters that have a stone in their head, as the chromis,
the basse, the sciaena, and the braize; for owing to the stone they
get frozen with the cold, and are thrown up on shore.

Whilst rain is wholesome for most fishes, it is, on the contrary,
unwholesome for the mullet, the cephalus, and the so-called marinus,
for rain superinduces blindness in most of these fishes, and all the
more rapidly if the rainfall be superabundant. The cephalus is peculiarly
subject to this malady in severe winters; their eyes grow white, and
when caught they are in poor condition, and eventually the disease
kills them. It would appear that this disease is due to extreme cold
even more than to an excessive rainfall; for instance, in many places
and more especially in shallows off the coast of Nauplia, in the Argolid,
a number of fishes have been known to be caught out at sea in seasons
of severe cold. The gilthead also suffers in winter; the acharnas
suffers in summer, and loses condition. The coracine is exceptional
among fishes in deriving benefit from drought, and this is due to
the fact that heat and drought are apt to come together.

Particular places suit particular fishes; some are naturally fishes
of the shore, and some of the deep sea, and some are at home in one
or the other of these regions, and others are common to the two and
are at home in both. Some fishes will thrive in one particular spot,
and in that spot only. As a general rule it may be said that places
abounding in weeds are wholesome; at all events, fishes caught in
such places are exceptionally fat: that is, such fishes a a habit
all sorts of localities as well. The fact is that weed-eating fishes
find abundance of their special food in such localities, and carnivorous
fish find an unusually large number of smaller fish. It matters also
whether the wind be from the north or south: the longer fish thrive
better when a north wind prevails, and in summer at one and the same
spot more long fish will be caught than flat fish with a north wind
blowing.

The tunny and the sword-fish are infested with a parasite about the
rising of the Dog-star; that is to say, about this time both these
fishes have a grub beside their fins that is nicknamed the 'gadfly'.
It resembles the scorpion in shape, and is about the size of the spider.
So acute is the pain it inflicts that the sword-fish will often leap
as high out of the water as a dolphin; in fact, it sometimes leaps
over the bulwarks of a vessel and falls back on the deck. The tunny
delights more than any other fish in the heat of the sun. It will
burrow for warmth in the sand in shallow waters near to shore, or
will, because it is warm, disport itself on the surface of the sea.

The fry of little fishes escape by being overlooked, for it is only
the larger ones of the small species that fishes of the large species
will pursue. The greater part of the spawn and the fry of fishes is
destroyed by the heat of the sun, for whatever of them the sun reaches
it spoils.

Fishes are caught in greatest abundance before sunrise and after sunset,
or, speaking generally, just about sunset and sunrise. Fishermen haul
up their nets at these times, and speak of the hauls then made as
the 'nick-of-time' hauls. The fact is, that at these times fishes
are particularly weak-sighted; at night they are at rest, and as the
light grows stronger they see comparatively well.

We know of no pestilential malady attacking fishes, such as those
which attack man, and horses and oxen among the quadrupedal vivipara,
and certain species of other genera, domesticated and wild; but fishes
do seem to suffer from sickness; and fishermen infer this from the
fact that at times fishes in poor condition, and looking as though
they were sick, and of altered colour, are caught in a large haul
of well-conditioned fish of their own species. So much for sea-fishes.

==== Part 20 ====


River-fish and lake-fish also are exempt from diseases of a pestilential
character, but certain species are subject to special and peculiar
maladies. For instance, the sheat-fish just before the rising of the
Dog-star, owing to its swimming near the surface of the water, is
liable to sunstroke, and is paralysed by a loud peal of thunder. The
carp is subject to the same eventualities but in a lesser degree.
The sheatfish is destroyed in great quantities in shallow waters by
the serpent called the dragon. In the balerus and tilon a worm is
engendered about the rising of the Dog-star, that sickens these fish
and causes them to rise towards the surface, where they are killed
by the excessive heat. The chalcis is subject to a very violent malady;
lice are engendered underneath their gills in great numbers, and cause
destruction among them; but no other species of fish is subject to
any such malady.

If mullein be introduced into water it will kill fish in its vicinity.
It is used extensively for catching fish in rivers and ponds; by the
Phoenicians it is made use of also in the sea.

There are two other methods employed for catch-fish. It is a known
fact that in winter fishes emerge from the deep parts of rivers and,
by the way, at all seasons fresh water is tolerably cold. A trench
accordingly is dug leading into a river, and wattled at the river
end with reeds and stones, an aperture being left in the wattling
through which the river water flows into the trench; when the frost
comes on the fish can be taken out of the trench in weels. Another
method is adopted in summer and winter alike. They run across a stream
a dam composed of brushwood and stones leaving a small open space,
and in this space they insert a weel; they then coop the fish in towards
this place, and draw them up in the weel as they swim through the
open space.

Shell-fish, as a rule, are benefited by rainy weather. The purple
murex is an exception; if it be placed on a shore near to where a
river discharges, it will die within a day after tasting the fresh
water. The murex lives for about fifty days after capture; during
this period they feed off one another, as there grows on the shell
a kind of sea-weed or sea-moss; if any food is thrown to them during
this period, it is said to be done not to keep them alive, but to
make them weigh more.

To shell-fish in general drought is unwholesome. During dry weather
they decrease in size and degenerate in quality; and it is during
such weather that the red scallop is found in more than usual abundance.
In the Pyrrhaean Strait the clam was exterminated, partly by the dredging-machine
used in their capture, and partly by long-continued droughts. Rainy
weather is wholesome to the generality of shellfish owing to the fact
that the sea-water then becomes exceptionally sweet. In the Euxine,
owing to the coldness of the climate, shellfish are not found: nor
yet in rivers, excepting a few bivalves here and there. Univalves,
by the way, are very apt to freeze to death in extremely cold weather.
So much for animals that live in water.

==== Part 21 ====


To turn to quadrupeds, the pig suffers from three diseases, one of
which is called branchos, a disease attended with swellings about
the windpipe and the jaws. It may break out in any part of the body;
very often it attacks the foot, and occasionally the ear; the neighbouring
parts also soon rot, and the decay goes on until it reaches the lungs,
when the animal succumbs. The disease develops with great rapidity,
and the moment it sets in the animal gives up eating. The swineherds
know but one way to cure it, namely, by complete excision, when they
detect the first signs of the disease. There are two other diseases,
which are both alike termed craurus. The one is attended with pain
and heaviness in the head, and this is the commoner of the two, the
other with diarrhoea. The latter is incurable, the former is treated
by applying wine fomentations to the snout and rinsing the nostrils
with wine. Even this disease is very hard to cure; it has been known
to kill within three or four days. The animal is chiefly subject to
branchos when it gets extremely fat, and when the heat has brought
a good supply of figs. The treatment is to feed on mashed mulberries,
to give repeated warm baths, and to lance the under part of the tongue.

Pigs with flabby flesh are subject to measles about the legs, neck,
and shoulders, for the pimples develop chiefly in these parts. If
the pimples are few in number the flesh is comparatively sweet, but
if they be numerous it gets watery and flaccid. The symptoms of measles
are obvious, for the pimples show chiefly on the under side of the
tongue, and if you pluck the bristles off the chine the skin will
appear suffused with blood, and further the animal will be unable
to keep its hind-feet at rest. Pigs never take this disease while
they are mere sucklings. The pimples may be got rid of by feeding
on this kind of spelt called tiphe; and this spelt, by the way, is
very good for ordinary food. The best food for rearing and fattening
pigs is chickpeas and figs, but the one thing essential is to vary
the food as much as possible, for this animal, like animals in general
lights in a change of diet; and it is said that one kind of food blows
the animal out, that another superinduces flesh, and that another
puts on fat, and that acorns, though liked by the animal, render the
flesh flaccid. Besides, if a sow eats acorns in great quantities,
it will miscarry, as is also the case with the ewe; and, indeed, the
miscarriage is more certain in the case of the ewe than in the case
of the sow. The pig is the only animal known to be subject to measles.

==== Part 22 ====


Dogs suffer from three diseases; rabies, quinsy, and sore feet. Rabies
drives the animal mad, and ary animal whatever, excepting man, will
take the disease if bitten by a dog so afflicted; the disease is fatal
to the dog itself, and to any animal it may bite, man excepted. Quinsy
also is fatal to dogs; and only a few recover from disease of the
feet. The camel, like the dog, is subject to rabies. The elephant,
which is reputed to enjoy immunity from all other illnesses, is occasionally
subject to flatulency.

==== Part 23 ====


Cattle in herds are liable to two diseases, foot, sickness and craurus.
In the former their feet suffer from eruptions, but the animal recovers
from the disease without even the loss of the hoof. It is found of
service to smear the horny parts with warm pitch. In craurus, the
breath comes warm at short intervals; in fact, craurus in cattle answers
to fever in man. The symptoms of the disease are drooping of the ears
and disinclination for food. The animal soon succumbs, and when the
carcase is opened the lungs are found to be rotten.

==== Part 24 ====


Horses out at pasture are free from all diseases excepting disease
of the feet. From this disease they sometimes lose their hooves: but
after losing them they grow them soon again, for as one hoof is decaying
it is being replaced by another. Symptoms of the malady are a sinking
in and wrinkling of the lip in the middle under the nostrils, and
in the case of the male, a twitching of the right testicle.

Stall-reared horses are subject to very numerous forms of disease.
They are liable to disease called 'eileus'. Under this disease the
animal trails its hind-legs under its belly so far forward as almost
to fall back on its haunches; if it goes without food for several
days and turns rabid, it may be of service to draw blood, or to castrate
the male. The animal is subject also to tetanus: the veins get rigid,
as also the head and neck, and the animal walks with its legs stretched
out straight. The horse suffers also from abscesses. Another painful
illness afflicts them called the 'barley-surfeit'. The are a softening
of the palate and heat of the breath; the animal may recover through
the strength of its own constitution, but no formal remedies are of
any avail.

There is also a disease called nymphia, in which the animal is said
to stand still and droop its head on hearing flute-music; if during
this ailment the horse be mounted, it will run off at a gallop until
it is pulled. Even with this rabies in full force, it preserves a
dejected spiritless appearance; some of the symptoms are a throwing
back of the ears followed by a projection of them, great languor,
and heavy breathing. Heart-ache also is incurable, of which the symptom
is a drawing in of the flanks; and so is displacement of the bladder,
which is accompanied by a retention of urine and a drawing up of the
hooves and haunches. Neither is there any cure if the animal swallow
the grape-beetle, which is about the size of the sphondyle or knuckle-beetle.
The bite of the shrewmouse is dangerous to horses and other draught
animals as well; it is followed by boils. The bite is all the more
dangerous if the mouse be pregnant when she bites, for the boils then
burst, but do not burst otherwise. The cicigna-called 'chalcis' by
some, and 'zignis' by others-either causes death by its bite or, at
all events, intense pain; it is like a small lizard, with the colour
of the blind snake. In point of fact, according to experts, the horse
and the sheep have pretty well as many ailments as the human species.
The drug known under the name of 'sandarace' or realgar, is extremely
injurious to a horse, and to all draught animals; it is given to the
animal as a medicine in a solution of water, the liquid being filtered
through a colander. The mare when pregnant apt to miscarry when disturbed
by the odour of an extinguished candle; and a similar accident happens
occasionally to women in their pregnancy. So much for the diseases
of the horse.

The so-called hippomanes grows, as has stated, on the foal, and the
mare nibbles it off as she licks and cleans the foal. All the curious
stories connected with the hippomanes are due to old wives and to
the venders of charms. What is called the 'polium' or foal's membrane,
is, as all the accounts state, delivered by the mother before the
foal appears.

A horse will recognize the neighing of any other horse with which
it may have fought at any previous period. The horse delights in meadows
and marshes, and likes to drink muddy water; in fact, if water be
clear, the horse will trample in it to make it turbid, will then drink
it, and afterwards will wallow in it. The animal is fond of water
in every way, whether for drinking or for bathing purposes; and this
explains the peculiar constitution of the hippopotamus or river-horse.
In regard to water the ox is the opposite of the horse; for if the
water be impure or cold, or mixed up with alien matter, it will refuse
to drink it.

==== Part 25 ====


The ass suffers chiefly from one particular disease which they call
'melis'. It arises first in the head, and a clammy humour runs down
the nostrils, thick and red; if it stays in the head the animal may
recover, but if it descends into the lungs the animal will die. Of
all animals on its of its kind it is the least capable of enduring
extreme cold, which circumstance will account for the fact that the
animal is not found on the shores of the Euxine, nor in Scythia.

==== Part 26 ====


Elephants suffer from flatulence, and when thus afflicted can void
neither solid nor liquid residuum. If the elephant swallow earth-mould
it suffers from relaxation; but if it go on taking it steadily, it
will experience no harm. From time to time it takes to swallowing
stones. It suffers also from diarrhoea: in this case they administer
draughts of lukewarm water or dip its fodder in honey, and either
one or the other prescription will prove a costive. When they suffer
from insomnia, they will be restored to health if their shoulders
be rubbed with salt, olive-oil, and warm water; when they have aches
in their shoulders they will derive great benefit from the application
of roast pork. Some elephants like olive oil, and others do not. If
there is a bit of iron in the inside of an elephant it is said that
it will pass out if the animal takes a drink of olive-oil; if the
animal refuses olive-oil, they soak a root in the oil and give it
the root to swallow. So much, then, for quadrupeds.

==== Part 27 ====


Insects, as a general rule, thrive best in the time of year in which
they come into being, especially if the season be moist and warm,
as in spring.

In bee-hives are found creatures that do great damage to the combs;
for instance, the grub that spins a web and ruins the honeycomb: it
is called the 'cleros'. It engenders an insect like itself, of a spider-shape,
and brings disease into the swarm. There is another insect resembling
the moth, called by some the 'pyraustes', that flies about a lighted
candle: this creature engenders a brood full of a fine down. It is
never stung by a bee, and can only be got out of a hive by fumigation.
A caterpillar also is engendered in hives, of a species nicknamed
the teredo, or 'borer', with which creature the bee never interferes.
Bees suffer most when flowers are covered with mildew, or in seasons
of drought.

All insects, without exception, die if they be smeared over with oil;
and they die all the more rapidly if you smear their head with the
oil and lay them out in the sun.

==== Part 28 ====


Variety in animal life may be produced by variety of locality: thus
in one place an animal will not be found at all, in another it will
be small, or short-lived, or will not thrive. Sometimes this sort
of difference is observed in closely adjacent districts. Thus, in
the territory of Miletus, in one district cicadas are found while
there are none in the district close adjoining; and in Cephalenia
there is a river on one side of which the cicada is found and not
on the other. In Pordoselene there is a public road one side of which
the weasel is found but not on the other. In Boeotia the mole is found
in great abundance in the neighbourhood of Orchomenus, but there are
none in Lebadia though it is in the immediate vicinity, and if a mole
be transported from the one district to the other it will refuse to
burrow in the soil. The hare cannot live in Ithaca if introduced there;
in fact it will be found dead, turned towards the point of the beach
where it was landed. The horseman-ant is not found in Sicily; the
croaking frog has only recently appeared in the neighbourhood of Cyrene.
In the whole of Libya there is neither wild boar, nor stag, nor wild
goat; and in India, according to Ctesias-no very good authority, by
the way-there are no swine, wild or tame, but animals that are devoid
of blood and such as go into hiding or go torpid are all of immense
size there. In the Euxine there are no small molluscs nor testaceans,
except a few here and there; but in the Red Sea all the testaceans
are exceedingly large. In Syria the sheep have tails a cubit in breadth;
the goats have ears a span and a palm long, and some have ears that
flap down to the ground; and the cattle have humps on their shoulders,
like the camel. In Lycia goats are shorn for their fleece, just as
sheep are in all other countries. In Libya the long-horned ram is
born with horns, and not the ram only, as Homer' words it, but the
ewe as well; in Pontus, on the confines of Scythia, the ram is without
horns.

In Egypt animals, as a rule, are larger than their congeners in Greece,
as the cow and the sheep; but some are less, as the dog, the wolf,
the hare, the fox, the raven, and the hawk; others are of pretty much
the same size, as the crow and the goat. The difference, where it
exists, is attributed to the food, as being abundant in one case and
insufficient in another, for instance for the wolf and the hawk; for
provision is scanty for the carnivorous animals, small birds being
scarce; food is scanty also for the hare and for all frugivorous animals,
because neither the nuts nor the fruit last long.

In many places the climate will account for peculiarities; thus in
Illyria, Thrace, and Epirus the ass is small, and in Gaul and in Scythia
the ass is not found at all owing to the coldness of the climate of
these countries. In Arabia the lizard is more than a cubit in length,
and the mouse is much larger than our field-mouse, with its hind-legs
a span long and its front legs the length of the first finger-joint.
In Libya, according to all accounts, the length of the serpents is
something appalling; sailors spin a yarn to the effect that some crews
once put ashore and saw the bones of a number of oxen, and that they
were sure that the oxen had been devoured by serpents, for, just as
they were putting out to sea, serpents came chasing their galleys
at full speed and overturned one galley and set upon the crew. Again,
lions are more numerous in Libya, and in that district of Europe that
lies between the Achelous and the Nessus; the leopard is more abundant
in Asia Minor, and is not found in Europe at all. As a general rule,
wild animals are at their wildest in Asia, at their boldest in Europe,
and most diverse in form in Libya; in fact, there is an old saying,
'Always something fresh in Libya.'

It would appear that in that country animals of diverse species meet,
on account of the rainless climate, at the watering-places, and there
pair together; and that such pairs will often breed if they be nearly
of the same size and have periods of gestation of the same length.
For it is said that they are tamed down in their behaviour towards
each other by extremity of thirst. And, by the way, unlike animals
elsewhere, they require to drink more in wintertime than in summer:
for they acquire the habit of not drinking in summer, owing to the
circumstance that there is usually no water then; and the mice, if
they drink, die. Elsewhere also bastard-animals are born to heterogeneous
pairs; thus in Cyrene the wolf and the bitch will couple and breed;
and the Laconian hound is a cross between the fox and the dog. They
say that the Indian dog is a cross between the tiger and the bitch,
not the first cross, but a cross in the third generation; for they
say that the first cross is a savage creature. They take the bitch
to a lonely spot and tie her up: if the tiger be in an amorous mood
he will pair with her; if not he will eat her up, and this casualty
is of frequent occurrence.

==== Part 29 ====


Locality will differentiate habits also: for instance, rugged highlands
will not produce the same results as the soft lowlands. The animals
of the highlands look fiercer and bolder, as is seen in the swine
of Mount Athos; for a lowland boar is no match even for a mountain
sow.

Again, locality is an important element in regard to the bite of an
animal. Thus, in Pharos and other places, the bite of the scorpion
is not dangerous; elsewhere-in Caria, for instances-where scorpions
are venomous as well as plentiful and of large size, the sting is
fatal to man or beast, even to the pig, and especially to a black
pig, though the pig, by the way, is in general most singularly indifferent
to the bite of any other creature. If a pig goes into water after
being struck by the scorpion of Caria, it will surely die.

There is great variety in the effects produced by the bites of serpents.
The asp is found in Libya; the so-called 'septic' drug is made from
the body of the animal, and is the only remedy known for the bite
of the original. Among the silphium, also, a snake is found, for the
bite or which a certain stone is said to be a cure: a stone that is
brought from the grave of an ancient king, which stone is put into
water and drunk off. In certain parts of Italy the bite of the gecko
is fatal. But the deadliest of all bites of venomous creatures is
when one venomous animal has bitten another; as, for instance, a viper's
after it has bitten a scorpion. To the great majority of such creatures
man's is fatal. There is a very little snake, by some entitled the
'holy-snake', which is dreaded by even the largest serpents. It is
about an ell long, and hairy-looking; whenever it bites an animal,
the flesh all round the wound will at once mortify. There is in India
a small snake which is exceptional in this respect, that for its bite
no specific whatever is known.

==== Part 30 ====


Animals also vary as to their condition of health in connexion with
their pregnancy.

Testaceans, such as scallops and all the oyster-family, and crustaceans,
such as the lobster family, are best when with spawn. Even in the
case of the testacean we speak of spawning (or pregnancy); but whereas
the crustaceans may be seen coupling and laying their spawn, this
is never the case with testaceans. Molluscs are best in the breeding
time, as the calamary, the sepia, and the octopus.

Fishes, when they begin to breed, are nearly all good for the table;
but after the female has gone long with spawn they are good in some
cases, and in others are out of season. The maenis, for instance,
is good at the breeding time. The female of this fish is round, the
male longer and flatter; when the female is beginning to breed the
male turns black and mottled, and is quite unfit for the table; at
this period he is nicknamed the 'goat'.

The wrasses called the owzel and the thrush, and the smaris have different
colours at different seasons, as is the case with the plumage of certain
birds; that is to say, they become black in the spring and after the
spring get white again. The phycis also changes its hue: in general
it is white, but in spring it is mottled; it is the only sea-fish
which is said make a bed for itself, and the female lays her spawn
in this bed or nest. The maenis, as was observed, changes its colour
as does the smaris, and in summer-time changes back from whitish to
black, the change being especially marked about the fins and gills.
The coracine, like the maenis, is in best condition at breeding time;
the mullet, the basse, and scaly fishes in general are in bad condition
at this period. A few fish are in much the same condition at all times,
whether with spawn or not, as the glaucus. Old fishes also are bad
eating; the old tunny is unfit even for pickling, as a great part
of its flesh wastes away with age, and the same wasting is observed
in all old fishes. The age of a scaly fish may be told by the size
and the hardness of its scales. An old tunny has been caught weighing
fifteen talents, with the span of its tail two cubits and a palm broad.

River-fish and lake-fish are best after they have discharged the spawn
in the case of the female and the milt in the case of the male: that
is, when they have fully recovered from the exhaustion of such discharge.
Some are good in the breeding time, as the saperdis, and some bad,
as the sheat-fish. As a general rule, the male fish is better eating
than the female; but the reverse holds good of the sheat-fish. The
eels that are called females are the best for the table: they look
as though they were female, but they really are not so.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

===== BOOK IX =====


==== Part 1 ====


Of the animals that are comparatively obscure and short-lived the
characters or dispositions are not so obvious to recognition as are
those of animals that are longer-lived. These latter animals appear
to have a natural capacity corresponding to each of the passions:
to cunning or simplicity, courage or timidity, to good temper or to
bad, and to other similar dispositions of mind.

Some also are capable of giving or receiving instruction-of receiving
it from one another or from man: those that have the faculty of hearing,
for instance; and, not to limit the matter to audible sound, such
as can differentiate the suggested meanings of word and gesture.

In all genera in which the distinction of male and female is found,
Nature makes a similar differentiation in the mental characteristics
of the two sexes. This differentiation is the most obvious in the
case of human kind and in that of the larger animals and the viviparous
quadrupeds. In the case of these latter the female softer in character,
is the sooner tamed, admits more readily of caressing, is more apt
in the way of learning; as, for instance, in the Laconian breed of
dogs the female is cleverer than the male. Of the Molossian breed
of dogs, such as are employed in the chase are pretty much the same
as those elsewhere; but sheep-dogs of this breed are superior to the
others in size, and in the courage with which they face the attacks
of wild animals.

Dogs that are born of a mixed breed between these two kinds are remarkable
for courage and endurance of hard labour.

In all cases, excepting those of the bear and leopard, the female
is less spirited than the male; in regard to the two exceptional cases,
the superiority in courage rests with the female. With all other animals
the female is softer in disposition than the male, is more mischievous,
less simple, more impulsive, and more attentive to the nurture of
the young: the male, on the other hand, is more spirited than the
female, more savage, more simple and less cunning. The traces of these
differentiated characteristics are more or less visible everywhere,
but they are especially visible where character is the more developed,
and most of all in man.

The fact is, the nature of man is the most rounded off and complete,
and consequently in man the qualities or capacities above referred
to are found in their perfection. Hence woman is more compassionate
than man, more easily moved to tears, at the same time is more jealous,
more querulous, more apt to scold and to strike. She is, furthermore,
more prone to despondency and less hopeful than the man, more void
of shame or self-respect, more false of speech, more deceptive, and
of more retentive memory. She is also more wakeful, more shrinking,
more difficult to rouse to action, and requires a smaller quantity
of nutriment.

As was previously stated, the male is more courageous than the female,
and more sympathetic in the way of standing by to help. Even in the
case of molluscs, when the cuttle-fish is struck with the trident
the male stands by to help the female; but when the male is struck
the female runs away.

There is enmity between such animals as dwell in the same localities
or subsist on the food. If the means of subsistence run short, creatures
of like kind will fight together. Thus it is said that seals which
inhabit one and the same district will fight, male with male, and
female with female, until one combatant kills the other, or one is
driven away by the other; and their young do even in like manner.

All creatures are at enmity with the carnivores, and the carnivores
with all the rest, for they all subsist on living creatures. Soothsayers
take notice of cases where animals keep apart from one another, and
cases where they congregate together; calling those that live at war
with one another 'dissociates', and those that dwell in peace with
one another 'associates'. One may go so far as to say that if there
were no lack or stint of food, then those animals that are now afraid
of man or are wild by nature would be tame and familiar with him,
and in like manner with one another. This is shown by the way animals
are treated in Egypt, for owing to the fact that food is constantly
supplied to them the very fiercest creatures live peaceably together.
The fact is they are tamed by kindness, and in some places crocodiles
are tame to their priestly keeper from being fed by him. And elsewhere
also the same phenomenon is to be observed.

The eagle and the snake are enemies, for the eagle lives on snakes;
so are the ichneumon and the venom-spider, for the ichneumon preys
upon the latter. In the case of birds, there is mutual enmity between
the poecilis, the crested lark, the woodpecker (?), and the chloreus,
for they devour one another's eggs; so also between the crow and the
owl; for, owing to the fact that the owl is dim-sighted by day, the
crow at midday preys upon the owl's eggs, and the owl at night upon
the crow's, each having the whip-hand of the other, turn and turn
about, night and day.

There is enmity also between the owl and the wren; for the latter
also devours the owl's eggs. In the daytime all other little birds
flutter round the owl-a practice which is popularly termed 'admiring
him'-buffet him, and pluck out his feathers; in consequence of this
habit, bird-catchers use the owl as a decoy for catching little birds
of all kinds.

The so-called presbys or 'old man' is at war with the weasel and the
crow, for they prey on her eggs and her brood; and so the turtle-dove
with the pyrallis, for they live in the same districts and on the
same food; and so with the green wood pecker and the libyus; and so
with kite and the raven, for, owing to his having the advantage from
stronger talons and more rapid flight the former can steal whatever
the latter is holding, so that it is food also that makes enemies
of these. In like manner there is war between birds that get their
living from the sea, as between the brenthus, the gull, and the harpe;
and so between the buzzard on one side and the toad and snake on the
other, for the buzzard preys upon the eggs of the two others; and
so between the turtle-dove and the chloreus; the chloreus kills the
dove, and the crow kills the so-called drummer-bird.

The aegolius, and birds of prey in general, prey upon the calaris,
and consequently there is war between it and them; and so is there
war between the gecko-lizard and the spider, for the former preys
upon the latter; and so between the woodpecker and the heron, for
the former preys upon the eggs and brood of the latter. And so between
the aegithus and the ass, owing to the fact that the ass, in passing
a furze-bush, rubs its sore and itching parts against the prickles;
by so doing, and all the more if it brays, it topples the eggs and
the brood out of the nest, the young ones tumble out in fright, and
the mother-bird, to avenge this wrong, flies at the beast and pecks
at his sore places.

The wolf is at war with the ass, the bull, and the fox, for as being
a carnivore, he attacks these other animals; and so for the same reason
with the fox and the circus, for the circus, being carnivorous and
furnished with crooked talons, attacks and maims the animal. And so
the raven is at war with the bull and the ass, for it flies at them,
and strikes them, and pecks at their eyes; and so with the eagle and
the heron, for the former, having crooked talons, attacks the latter,
and the latter usually succumbs to the attack; and so the merlin with
the vulture; and the crex with the eleus-owl, the blackbird, and the
oriole (of this latter bird, by the way, the story goes that he was
originally born out of a funeral pyre): the cause of warfare is that
the crex injures both them and their young. The nuthatch and the wren
are at war with the eagle; the nuthatch breaks the eagle's eggs, so
the eagle is at war with it on special grounds, though, as a bird
of prey, it carries on a general war all round. The horse and the
anthus are enemies, and the horse will drive the bird out of the field
where he is grazing: the bird feeds on grass, and sees too dimly to
foresee an attack; it mimics the whinnying of the horse, flies at
him, and tries to frighten him away; but the horse drives the bird
away, and whenever he catches it he kills it: this bird lives beside
rivers or on marsh ground; it has pretty plumage, and finds its without
trouble. The ass is at enmity with the lizard, for the lizard sleeps
in his manger, gets into his nostril, and prevents his eating.

Of herons there are three kinds: the ash coloured, the white, and
the starry heron (or bittern). Of these the first mentioned submits
with reluctance to the duties of incubation, or to union of the sexes;
in fact, it screams during the union, and it is said drips blood from
its eyes; it lays its eggs also in an awkward manner, not unattended
with pain. It is at war with certain creatures that do it injury:
with the eagle for robbing it, with the fox for worrying it at night,
and with the lark for stealing its eggs.

The snake is at war with the weasel and the pig; with the weasel when
they are both at home, for they live on the same food; with the pig
for preying on her kind. The merlin is at war with the fox; it strikes
and claws it, and, as it has crooked talons, it kills the animal's
young. The raven and the fox are good friends, for the raven is at
enmity with the merlin; and so when the merlin assails the fox the
raven comes and helps the animal. The vulture and the merlin are mutual
enemies, as being both furnished with crooked talons. The vulture
fights with the eagle, and so, by the way, does does swan; and the
swan is often victorious: moreover, of all birds swans are most prone
to the killing of one another.

In regard to wild creatures, some sets are at enmity with other sets
at all times and under all circumstances; others, as in the case of
man and man, at special times and under incidental circumstances.
The ass and the acanthis are enemies; for the bird lives on thistles,
and the ass browses on thistles when they are young and tender. The
anthus, the acanthis, and the aegithus are at enmity with one another;
it is said that the blood of the anthus will not intercommingle with
the blood of the aegithus. The crow and the heron are friends, as
also are the sedge-bird and lark, the laedus and the celeus or green
woodpecker; the woodpecker lives on the banks of rivers and beside
brakes, the laedus lives on rocks and bills, and is greatly attached
to its nesting-place. The piphinx, the harpe, and the kite are friends;
as are the fox and the snake, for both burrow underground; so also
are the blackbird and the turtle-dove. The lion and the thos or civet
are enemies, for both are carnivorous and live on the same food. Elephants
fight fiercely with one another, and stab one another with their tusks;
of two combatants the beaten one gets completely cowed, and dreads
the sound of his conqueror's voice. These animals differ from one
another an extraordinary extent in the way of courage. Indians employ
these animals for war purposes, irrespective of sex; the females,
however, are less in size and much inferior in point of spirit. An
elephant by pushing with his big tusks can batter down a wall, and
will butt with his forehead at a palm until he brings it down, when
he stamps on it and lays it in orderly fashion on the ground. Men
hunt the elephant in the following way: they mount tame elephants
of approved spirit and proceed in quest of wild animals; when they
come up with these they bid the tame brutes to beat the wild ones
until they tire the latter completely. Hereupon the driver mounts
a wild brute and guides him with the application of his metal prong;
after this the creature soon becomes tame, and obeys guidance. Now
when the driver is on their back they are all tractable, but after
he has dismounted, some are tame and others vicious; in the case of
these latter, they tie their front-legs with ropes to keep them quiet.
The animal is hunted whether young or full grown.

Thus we see that in the case of the creatures above mentioned their
mutual friendship or the is due to the food they feed on and the life
they lead.

==== Part 2 ====


Of fishes, such as swim in shoals together are friendly to one another;
such as do not so swim are enemies. Some fishes swarm during the spawning
season; others after they have spawned. To state the matter comprehensively,
we may say that the following are shoaling fish: the tunny, the maenis,
the sea-gudgeon, the bogue, the horse-mackerel, the coracine, the
synodon or dentex, the red mullet, the sphyraena, the anthias, the
eleginus, the atherine, the sarginus, the gar-fish, (the squid,) the
rainbow-wrasse, the pelamyd, the mackerel, the coly-mackerel. Of these
some not only swim in shoals, but go in pairs inside the shoal; the
rest without exception swim in pairs, and only swim in shoals at certain
periods: that is, as has been said, when they are heavy with spawn
or after they have spawned.

The basse and the grey mullet are bitter enemies, but they swarm together
at certain times; for at times not only do fishes of the same species
swarm together, but also those whose feeding-grounds are identical
or adjacent, if the food-supply be abundant. The grey mullet is often
found alive with its tail lopped off, and the conger with all that
part of its body removed that lies to the rear of the vent; in the
case of the mullet the injury is wrought by the basse, in that of
the conger-eel by the muraena. There is war between the larger and
the lesser fishes: for the big fishes prey on the little ones. So
much on the subject of marine animals.

==== Part 3 ====


The characters of animals, as has been observed, differ in respect
to timidity, to gentleness, to courage, to tameness, to intelligence,
and to stupidity.

The sheep is said to be naturally dull and stupid. Of all quadrupeds
it is the most foolish: it will saunter away to lonely places with
no object in view; oftentimes in stormy weather it will stray from
shelter; if it be overtaken by a snowstorm, it will stand still unless
the shepherd sets it in motion; it will stay behind and perish unless
the shepherd brings up the rams; it will then follow home.

If you catch hold of a goat's beard at the extremity-the beard is
of a substance resembling hair-all the companion goats will stand
stock still, staring at this particular goat in a kind of dumbfounderment.

You will have a warmer bed in amongst the goats than among the sheep,
because the goats will be quieter and will creep up towards you; for
the goat is more impatient of cold than the sheep.

Shepherds train sheep to close in together at a clap of their hands,
for if, when a thunderstorm comes on, a ewe stays behind without closing
in, the storm will kill it if it be with young; consequently if a
sudden clap or noise is made, they close in together within the sheepfold
by reason of their training.

Even bulls, when they are roaming by themselves apart from the herd,
are killed by wild animals.

Sheep and goats lie crowded together, kin by kin. When the sun turns
early towards its setting, the goats are said to lie no longer face
to face, but back to back.

==== Part 4 ====


Cattle at pasture keep together in their accustomed herds, and if
one animal strays away the rest will follow; consequently if the herdsmen
lose one particular animal, they keep close watch on all the rest.

When mares with their colts pasture together in the same field, if
one dam dies the others will take up the rearing of the colt. In point
of fact, the mare appears to be singularly prone by nature to maternal
fondness; in proof whereof a barren mare will steal the foal from
its dam, will tend it with all the solicitude of a mother, but, as
it will be unprovided with mother's milk, its solicitude will prove
fatal to its charge.

==== Part 5 ====

Among wild quadrupeds the hind appears to be pre-eminently intelligent;
for example, in its habit of bringing forth its young on the sides
of public roads, where the fear of man forbids the approach of wild
animals. Again, after parturition, it first swallows the afterbirth,
then goes in quest of the seseli shrub, and after eating of it returns
to its young. The mother takes its young betimes to her lair, so leading
it to know its place of refuge in time of danger; this lair is a precipitous
rock, with only one approach, and there it is said to hold its own
against all comers. The male when it gets fat, which it does in a
high degree in autumn, disappears, abandoning its usual resorts, apparently
under an idea that its fatness facilitates its capture. They shed
their horns in places difficult of access or discovery, whence the
proverbial expression of 'the place where the stag sheds his horns';
the fact being that, as having parted with their weapons, they take
care not to be seen. The saying is that no man has ever seen the animal's
left horn; that the creature keeps it out of sight because it possesses
some medicinal property.

In their first year stags grow no horns, but only an excrescence indicating
where horns will be, this excrescence being short and thick. In their
second year they grow their horns for the first time, straight in
shape, like pegs for hanging clothes on; and on this account they
have an appropriate nickname. In the third year the antlers are bifurcate;
in the fourth year they grow trifurcate; and so they go on increasing
in complexity until the creature is six years old: after this they
grow their horns without any specific differentiation, so that you
cannot by observation of them tell the animal's age. But the patriarchs
of the herd may be told chiefly by two signs; in the first place they
have few teeth or none at all, and, in the second place, they have
ceased to grow the pointed tips to their antlers. The forward-pointing
tips of the growing horns (that is to say the brow antlers), with
which the animal meets attack, are technically termed its 'defenders';
with these the patriarchs are unprovided, and their antlers merely
grow straight upwards. Stags shed their horns annually, in or about
the month of May; after shedding, they conceal themselves, it is said,
during the daytime, and, to avoid the flies, hide in thick copses;
during this time, until they have grown their horns, they feed at
night-time. The horns at first grow in a kind of skin envelope, and
get rough by degrees; when they reach their full size the animal basks
in the sun, to mature and dry them. When they need no longer rub them
against tree-trunks they quit their hiding places, from a sense of
security based upon the possession of arms defensive and offensive.
An Achaeine stag has been caught with a quantity of green ivy grown
over its horns, it having grown apparently, as on fresh green wood,
when the horns were young and tender. When a stag is stung by a venom-spider
or similar insect, it gathers crabs and eats them; it is said to be
a good thing for man to drink the juice, but the taste is disagreeable.
The hinds after parturition at once swallow the afterbirth, and it
is impossible to secure it, for the hind catches it before it falls
to the ground: now this substance is supposed to have medicinal properties.
When hunted the creatures are caught by singing or pipe-playing on
the part of the hunters; they are so pleased with the music that they
lie down on the grass. If there be two hunters, one before their eyes
sings or plays the pipe, the other keeps out of sight and shoots,
at a signal given by the confederate. If the animal has its ears cocked,
it can hear well and you cannot escape its ken; if its ears are down,
you can.

==== Part 6 ====


When bears are running away from their pursuers they push their cubs
in front of them, or take them up and carry them; when they are being
overtaken they climb up a tree. When emerging from their winter-den,
they at once take to eating cuckoo-pint, as has been said, and chew
sticks of wood as though they were cutting teeth.

Many other quadrupeds help themselves in clever ways. Wild goats in
Crete are said, when wounded by arrows, to go in search of dittany,
which is supposed to have the property of ejecting arrows in the body.
Dogs, when they are ill, eat some kind of grass and produce vomiting.
The panther, after eating panther's-bane, tries to find some human
excrement, which is said to heal its pain. This panther's-bane kills
lions as well. Hunters hang up human excrement in a vessel attached
to the boughs of a tree, to keep the animal from straying to any distance;
the animal meets its end in leaping up to the branch and trying to
get at the medicine. They say that the panther has found out that
wild animals are fond of the scent it emits; that, when it goes a-hunting,
it hides itself; that the other animals come nearer and nearer, and
that by this stratagem it can catch even animals as swift of foot
as stags.

The Egyptian ichneumon, when it sees the serpent called the asp, does
not attack it until it has called in other ichneumons to help; to
meet the blows and bites of their enemy the assailants beplaster themselves
with mud, by first soaking in the river and then rolling on the ground.

When the crocodile yawns, the trochilus flies into his mouth and cleans
his teeth. The trochilus gets his food thereby, and the crocodile
gets ease and comfort; it makes no attempt to injure its little friend,
but, when it wants it to go, it shakes its neck in warning, lest it
should accidentally bite the bird.

The tortoise, when it has partaken of a snake, eats marjoram; this
action has been actually observed. A man saw a tortoise perform this
operation over and over again, and every time it plucked up some marjoram
go back to partake of its prey; he thereupon pulled the marjoram up
by the roots, and the consequence was the tortoise died. The weasel,
when it fights with a snake, first eats wild rue, the smell of which
is noxious to the snake. The dragon, when it eats fruit, swallows
endive-juice; it has been seen in the act. Dogs, when they suffer
from worms, eat the standing corn. Storks, and all other birds, when
they get a wound fighting, apply marjoram to the place injured.

Many have seen the locust, when fighting with the snake get a tight
hold of the snake by the neck. The weasel has a clever way of getting
the better of birds; it tears their throats open, as wolves do with
sheep. Weasels fight desperately with mice-catching snakes, as they
both prey on the same animal.

In regard to the instinct of hedgehogs, it has been observed in many
places that, when the wind is shifting from north to south, and from
south to north, they shift the outlook of their earth-holes, and those
that are kept in domestication shift over from one wall to the other.
The story goes that a man in Byzantium got into high repute for foretelling
a change of weather, all owing to his having noticed this habit of
the hedgehog.

The polecat or marten is about as large as the smaller breed of Maltese
dogs. In the thickness of its fur, in its look, in the white of its
belly, and in its love of mischief, it resembles the weasel; it is
easily tamed; from its liking for honey it is a plague to bee-hives;
it preys on birds like the cat. Its genital organ, as has been said,
consists of bone: the organ of the male is supposed to be a cure for
strangury; doctors scrape it into powder, and administer it in that
form.

==== Part 7 ====


In a general way in the lives of animals many resemblances to human
life may be observed. Pre-eminent intelligence will be seen more in
small creatures than in large ones, as is exemplified in the case
of birds by the nest building of the swallow. In the same way as men
do, the bird mixes mud and chaff together; if it runs short of mud,
it souses its body in water and rolls about in the dry dust with wet
feathers; furthermore, just as man does, it makes a bed of straw,
putting hard material below for a foundation, and adapting all to
suit its own size. Both parents co-operate in the rearing of the young;
each of the parents will detect, with practised eye, the young one
that has had a helping, and will take care it is not helped twice
over; at first the parents will rid the nest of excrement, but, when
the young are grown, they will teach their young to shift their position
and let their excrement fall over the side of the nest.

Pigeons exhibit other phenomena with a similar likeness to the ways
of humankind. In pairing the same male and the same female keep together;
and the union is only broken by the death of one of the two parties.
At the time of parturition in the female the sympathetic attentions
of the male are extraordinary; if the female is afraid on account
of the impending parturition to enter the nest, the male will beat
her and force her to come in. When the young are born, he will take
and masticate pieces of suitable food, will open the beaks of the
fledglings, and inject these pieces, thus preparing them betimes to
take food. (When the male bird is about to expel the the young ones
from the nest he cohabits with them all.) As a general rule these
birds show this conjugal fidelity, but occasionally a female will
cohabit with other than her mate. These birds are combative, and quarrel
with one another, and enter each other's nests, though this occurs
but seldom; at a distance from their nests this quarrelsomeness is
less marked, but in the close neighbourhood of their nests they will
fight desperately. A peculiarity common to the tame pigeon, the ring-dove
and the turtle-dove is that they do not lean the head back when they
are in the act of drinking, but only when they have fully quenched
their thirst. The turtle-dove and the ring-dove both have but one
mate, and let no other come nigh; both sexes co-operate in the process
of incubation. It is difficult to distinguish between the sexes except
by an examination of their interiors. Ring-doves are long-lived; cases
have been known where such birds were twenty-five years old, thirty
years old, and in some cases forty. As they grow old their claws increase
in size, and pigeon-fanciers cut the claws; as far as one can see,
the birds suffer no other perceptible disfigurement by their increase
in age. Turtle-doves and pigeons that are blinded by fanciers for
use as decoys, live for eight years. Partridges live for about fifteen
years. Ring-doves and turtle-doves always build their nests in the
same place year after year. The male, as a general rule, is more long-lived
than the female; but in the case of pigeons some assert that the male
dies before the female, taking their inference from the statements
of persons who keep decoy-birds in captivity. Some declare that the
male sparrow lives only a year, pointing to the fact that early in
spring the male sparrow has no black beard, but has one later on,
as though the blackbearded birds of the last year had all died out;
they also say that the females are the longer lived, on the grounds
that they are caught in amongst the young birds and that their age
is rendered manifest by the hardness about their beaks. Turtle-doves
in summer live in cold places, (and in warm places during the winter);
chaffinches affect warm habitations in summer and cold ones in winter.

==== Part 8 ====


Birds of a heavy build, such as quails, partridges, and the like,
build no nests; indeed, where they are incapable of flight, it would
be of no use if they could do so. After scraping a hole on a level
piece of ground-and it is only in such a place that they lay their
eggs-they cover it over with thorns and sticks for security against
hawks and eagles, and there lay their eggs and hatch them; after the
hatching is over, they at once lead the young out from the nest, as
they are not able to fly afield for food for them. Quails and partridges,
like barn-door hens, when they go to rest, gather their brood under
their wings. Not to be discovered, as might be the case if they stayed
long in one spot, they do not hatch the eggs where they laid them.
When a man comes by chance upon a young brood, and tries to catch
them, the hen-bird rolls in front of the hunter, pretending to be
lame: the man every moment thinks he is on the point of catching her,
and so she draws him on and on, until every one of her brood has had
time to escape; hereupon she returns to the nest and calls the young
back. The partridge lays not less than ten eggs, and often lays as
many as sixteen. As has been observed, the bird has mischievous and
deceitful habits. In the spring-time, a noisy scrimmage takes place,
out of which the male-birds emerge each with a hen. Owing to the lecherous
nature of the bird, and from a dislike to the hen sitting, the males,
if they find any eggs, roll them over and over until they break them
in pieces; to provide against this the female goes to a distance and
lays the eggs, and often, under the stress of parturition, lays them
in any chance spot that offers; if the male be near at hand, then
to keep the eggs intact she refrains from visiting them. If she be
seen by a man, then, just as with her fledged brood, she entices him
off by showing herself close at his feet until she has drawn him to
a distance. When the females have run away and taken to sitting, the
males in a pack take to screaming and fighting; when thus engaged,
they have the nickname of 'widowers'. The bird who is beaten follows
his victor, and submits to be covered by him only; and the beaten
bird is covered by a second one or by any other, only clandestinely
without the victor's knowledge; this is so, not at all times, but
at a particular season of the year, and with quails as well as with
partridges. A similar proceeding takes place occasionally with barn-door
cocks: for in temples, where cocks are set apart as dedicate without
hens, they all as a matter of course tread any new-comer. Tame partridges
tread wild birds, pecket their heads, and treat them with every possible
outrage. The leader of the wild birds, with a counter-note of challenge,
pushes forward to attack the decoy-bird, and after he has been netted,
another advances with a similar note. This is what is done if the
decoy be a male; but if it be a female that is the decoy and gives
the note, and the leader of the wild birds give a counter one, the
rest of the males set upon him and chase him away from the female
for making advances to her instead of to them; in consequence of this
the male often advances without uttering any cry, so that no other
may hear him and come and give him battle; and experienced fowlers
assert that sometimes the male bird, when he approaches the female,
makes her keep silence, to avoid having to give battle to other males
who might have heard him. The partridge has not only the note here
referred to, but also a thin shrill cry and other notes. Oftentimes
the hen-bird rises from off her brood when she sees the male showing
attentions to the female decoy; she will give the counter note and
remain still, so as to be trodden by him and divert him from the decoy.
The quail and the partridge are so intent upon sexual union that they
often come right in the way of the decoy-birds, and not seldom alight
upon their heads. So much for the sexual proclivities of the partridge,
for the way in which it is hunted, and the general nasty habits of
the bird.

As has been said, quails and partridges build their nests upon the
ground, and so also do some of the birds that are capable of sustained
flight. Further, for instance, of such birds, the lark and the woodcock,
as well as the quail, do not perch on a branch, but squat upon the
ground.

==== Part 9 ====


The woodpecker does not squat on the ground, but pecks at the bark
of trees to drive out from under it maggots and gnats; when they emerge,
it licks them up with its tongue, which is large and flat. It can
run up and down a tree in any way, even with the head downwards, like
the gecko-lizard. For secure hold upon a tree, its claws are better
adapted than those of the daw; it makes its way by sticking these
claws into the bark. One species of woodpecker is smaller than a blackbird,
and has small reddish speckles; a second species is larger than the
blackbird, and a third is not much smaller than a barn-door hen. It
builds a nest on trees, as has been said, on olive trees amongst others.
It feeds on the maggots and ants that are under the bark: it is so
eager in the search for maggots that it is said sometimes to hollow
a tree out to its downfall. A woodpecker once, in course of domestication,
was seen to insert an almond into a hole in a piece of timber, so
that it might remain steady under its pecking; at the third peck it
split the shell of the fruit, and then ate the kernel.

==== Part 10 ====


Many indications of high intelligence are given by cranes. They will
fly to a great distance and up in the air, to command an extensive
view; if they see clouds and signs of bad weather they fly down again
and remain still. They, furthermore, have a leader in their flight,
and patrols that scream on the confines of the flock so as to be heard
by all. When they settle down, the main body go to sleep with their
heads under their wing, standing first on one leg and then on the
other, while their leader, with his head uncovered, keeps a sharp
look out, and when he sees anything of importance signals it with
a cry.

Pelicans that live beside rivers swallow the large smooth mussel-shells:
after cooking them inside the crop that precedes the stomach, they
spit them out, so that, now when their shells are open, they may pick
the flesh out and eat it.

==== Part 11 ====


Of wild birds, the nests are fashioned to meet the exigencies of existence
and ensure the security of the young. Some of these birds are fond
of their young and take great care of them, others are quite the reverse;
some are clever in procuring subsistence, others are not so. Some
of these birds build in ravines and clefts, and on cliffs, as, for
instance, the so-called charadrius, or stone-curlew; this bird is
in no way noteworthy for plumage or voice; it makes an appearance
at night, but in the daytime keeps out of sight.

The hawk also builds in inaccessible places. Although a ravenous bird,
it will never eat the heart of any bird it catches; this has been
observed in the case of the quail, the thrush, and other birds. They
modify betimes their method of hunting, for in summer they do not
grab their prey as they do at other seasons.

Of the vulture, it is said that no one has ever seen either its young
or its nest; on this account and on the ground that all of a sudden
great numbers of them will appear without any one being able to tell
from whence they come, Herodorus, the father of Bryson the sophist,
says that it belongs to some distant and elevated land. The reason
is that the bird has its nest on inaccessible crags, and is found
only in a few localities. The female lays one egg as a rule, and two
at the most.

Some birds live on mountains or in forests, as the hoopoe and the
brenthus; this latter bird finds his food with ease and has a musical
voice. The wren lives in brakes and crevices; it is difficult of capture,
keeps out of sight, is gentle of disposition, finds its food with
ease, and is something of a mechanic. It goes by the nickname of 'old
man' or 'king'; and the story goes that for this reason the eagle
is at war with him.

==== Part 12 ====


Some birds live on the sea-shore, as the wagtail; the bird is of a
mischievous nature, hard to capture, but when caught capable of complete
domestication; it is a cripple, as being weak in its hinder quarters.

Web-footed birds without exception live near the sea or rivers or
pools, as they naturally resort to places adapted to their structure.
Several birds, however, with cloven toes live near pools or marshes,
as, for instance, the anthus lives by the side of rivers; the plumage
of this bird is pretty, and it finds its food with ease. The catarrhactes
lives near the sea; when it makes a dive, it will keep under water
for as long as it would take a man to walk a furlong; it is less than
the common hawk. Swans are web-footed, and live near pools and marshes;
they find their food with ease, are good-tempered, are fond of their
young, and live to a green old age. If the eagle attacks them they
will repel the attack and get the better of their assailant, but they
are never the first to attack. They are musical, and sing chiefly
at the approach of death; at this time they fly out to sea, and men,
when sailing past the coast of Libya, have fallen in with many of
them out at sea singing in mournful strains, and have actually seen
some of them dying.

The cymindis is seldom seen, as it lives on mountains; it is black
in colour, and about the size of the hawk called the 'dove-killer';
it is long and slender in form. The Ionians call the bird by this
name; Homer in the Iliad mentions it in the line:

Chalcis its name with those of heavenly birth, But called Cymindis
by the sons of earth.

The hybris, said by some to be the same as the eagle-owl, is never
seen by daylight, as it is dim-sighted, but during the night it hunts
like the eagle; it will fight the eagle with such desperation that
the two combatants are often captured alive by shepherds; it lays
two eggs, and, like others we have mentioned, it builds on rocks and
in caverns. Cranes also fight so desperately among themselves as to
be caught when fighting, for they will not leave off; the crane lays
two eggs.

==== Part 13 ====


The jay has a great variety of notes: indeed, might almost say it
had a different note for every day in the year. It lays about nine
eggs; builds its nest on trees, out of hair and tags of wool; when
acorns are getting scarce, it lays up a store of them in hiding.

It is a common story of the stork that the old birds are fed by their
grateful progeny. Some tell a similar story of the bee-eater, and
declare that the parents are fed by their young not only when growing
old, but at an early period, as soon as the young are capable of feeding
them; and the parent-birds stay inside the nest. The under part of
the bird's wing is pale yellow; the upper part is dark blue, like
that of the halcyon; the tips of the wings are About autumn-time it
lays six or seven eggs, in overhanging banks where the soil is soft;
there it burrows into the ground to a depth of six feet.

The greenfinch, so called from the colour of its belly, is as large
as a lark; it lays four or five eggs, builds its nest out of the plant
called comfrey, pulling it up by the roots, and makes an under-mattress
to lie on of hair and wool. The blackbird and the jay build their
nests after the same fashion. The nest of the penduline tit shows
great mechanical skill; it has the appearance of a ball of flax, and
the hole for entry is very small.

People who live where the bird comes from say that there exists a
cinnamon bird which brings the cinnamon from some unknown localities,
and builds its nest out of it; it builds on high trees on the slender
top branches. They say that the inhabitants attach leaden weights
to the tips of their arrows and therewith bring down the nests, and
from the intertexture collect the cinnamon sticks.

==== Part 14 ====


The halcyon is not much larger than the sparrow. Its colour is dark
blue, green, and light purple; the whole body and wings, and especially
parts about the neck, show these colours in a mixed way, without any
colour being sharply defined; the beak is light green, long and slender:
such, then, is the look of the bird. Its nest is like sea-balls, i.e.
the things that by the name of halosachne or seafoam, only the colour
is not the same. The colour of the nest is light red, and the shape
is that of the long-necked gourd. The nests are larger than the largest
sponge, though they vary in size; they are roofed over, and great
part of them is solid and great part hollow. If you use a sharp knife
it is not easy to cut the nest through; but if you cut it, and at
the same time bruise it with your hand, it will soon crumble to pieces,
like the halosachne. The opening is small, just enough for a tiny
entrance, so that even if the nest upset the sea does not enter in;
the hollow channels are like those in sponges. It is not known for
certain of what material the nest is constructed; it is possibly made
of the backbones of the gar-fish; for, by the way, the bird lives
on fish. Besides living on the shore, it ascends fresh-water streams.
It lays generally about five eggs, and lays eggs all its life long,
beginning to do so at the age of four months.

==== Part 15 ====


The hoopoe usually constructs its nest out of human excrement. It
changes its appearance in summer and in winter, as in fact do the
great majority of wild birds. (The titmouse is said to lay a very
large quantity of eggs: next to the ostrich the blackheaded tit is
said by some to lay the largest number of eggs; seventeen eggs have
been seen; it lays, however, more than twenty; it is said always to
lay an odd number. Like others we have mentioned, it builds in trees;
it feeds on caterpillars.) A peculiarity of this bird and of the nightingale
is that the outer extremity of the tongue is not sharp-pointed.

The aegithus finds its food with ease, has many young, and walks with
a limp. The golden oriole is apt at learning, is clever at making
a living, but is awkward in flight and has an ugly plumage.

==== Part 16 ====


The reed-warbler makes its living as easily as any other bird, sits
in summer in a shady spot facing the wind, in winter in a sunny and
sheltered place among reeds in a marsh; it is small in size, with
a pleasant note. The so-called chatterer has a pleasant note, beautiful
plumage, makes a living cleverly, and is graceful in form; it appears
to be alien to our country; at all events it is seldom seen at a distance
from its own immediate home.

==== Part 17 ====


The crake is quarrelsome, clever at making a living, but in other
ways an unlucky bird. The bird called sitta is quarrelsome, but clever
and tidy, makes its living with ease, and for its knowingness is regarded
as uncanny; it has a numerous brood, of which it is fond, and lives
by pecking the bark of trees. The aegolius-owl flies by night, is
seldom seen by day; like others we have mentioned, it lives on cliffs
or in caverns; it feeds on two kinds of food; it has a strong hold
on life and is full of resource. The tree-creeper is a little bird,
of fearless disposition; it lives among trees, feeds on caterpillars,
makes a living with ease, and has a loud clear note. The acanthis
finds its food with difficulty; its plumage is poor, but its note
is musical.

==== Part 18 ====


Of the herons, the ashen-coloured one, as has been said, unites with
the female not without pain; it is full of resource, carries its food
with it, is eager in the quest of it, and works by day; its plumage
is poor, and its excrement is always wet. Of the other two species-for
there are three in all-the white heron has handsome plumage, unites
without harm to itself with the female, builds a nest and lays its
eggs neatly in trees; it frequents marshes and lakes and Plains and
meadow land. The speckled heron, which is nicknamed 'the skulker',
is said in folklore stories to be of servile origin, and, as its nickname
implies, it is the laziest bird of the three species. Such are the
habits of herons. The bird that is called the poynx has this peculiarity,
that it is more prone than any other bird to peck at the eyes of an
assailant or its prey; it is at war with the harpy, as the two birds
live on the same food.

==== Part 19 ====


There are two kinds of owsels; the one is black, and is found everywhere,
the other is quite white, about the same size as the other, and with
the same pipe. This latter is found on Cyllene in Arcadia, and is
found nowhere else. The laius, or blue-thrush, is like the black owsel,
only a little smaller; it lives on cliffs or on tile roofings; it
has not a red beak as the black owsel has.

==== Part 20 ====


Of thrushes there are three species. One is the misselthrush; it feeds
only on mistletoe and resin; it is about the size of the jay. A second
is the song-thrush; it has a sharp pipe, and is about the size of
the owsel. There is another species called the Illas; it is the smallest
species of the three, and is less variegated in plumage than the others.

==== Part 21 ====


There is a bird that lives on rocks, called the blue-bird from its
colour. It is comparatively common in Nisyros, and is somewhat less
than the owsel and a little bigger than the chaffinch. It has large
claws, and climbs on the face of the rocks. It is steel-blue all over;
its beak is long and slender; its legs are short, like those of the
woodpecker.

==== Part 22 ====


The oriole is yellow all over; it is not visible during winter, but
puts in an appearance about the time of the summer solstice, and departs
again at the rising of Arcturus; it is the size of the turtle-dove.
The so-called soft-head (or shrike) always settles on one and the
same branch, where it falls a prey to the birdcatcher. Its head is
big, and composed of gristle; it is a little smaller than the thrush;
its beak is strong, small, and round; it is ashen-coloured all over;
is fleet of foot, but slow of wing. The bird-catcher usually catches
it by help of the owl.

==== Part 23 ====


There is also the pardalus. As a rule, it is seen in flocks and not
singly; it is ashen-coloured all over, and about the size of the birds
last described; it is fleet of foot and strong of wing, and its pipe
is loud and high-pitched. The collyrion (or fieldfare) feeds on the
same food as the owsel; is of the same size as the above mentioned
birds; and is trapped usually in the winter. All these birds are found
at all times. Further, there are the birds that live as a rule in
towns, the raven and the crow. These also are visible at all seasons,
never shift their place of abode, and never go into winter quarters.

==== Part 24 ====


Of daws there are three species. One is the chough; it is as large
as the crow, but has a red beak. There is another, called the 'wolf';
and further there is the little daw, called the 'railer'. There is
another kind of daw found in Lybia and Phrygia, which is web-footed.

==== Part 25 ====


Of larks there are two kinds. One lives on the ground and has a crest
on its head; the other is gregarious, and not sporadic like the first;
it is, however, of the same coloured plumage, but is smaller, and
has no crest; it is an article of human food.

==== Part 26 ====


The woodcock is caught with nets in gardens. It is about the size
of a barn-door hen; it has a long beak, and in plumage is like the
francolin-partridge. It runs quickly, and is pretty easily domesticated.
The starling is speckled; it is of the same size as the owsel.

==== Part 27 ====


Of the Egyptian ibis there are two kinds, the white and the black.
The white ones are found over Egypt, excepting in Pelusium; the black
ones are found in Pelusium, and nowhere else in Egypt.

==== Part 28 ====


Of the little horned owls there are two kinds, and one is visible
at all seasons, and for that reason has the nickname of 'all-the-year-round
owl'; it is not sufficiently palatable to come to table; another species
makes its appearance sometimes in the autumn, is seen for a single
day or at the most for two days, and is regarded as a table delicacy;
it scarcely differs from the first species save only in being fatter;
it has no note, but the other species has. With regard to their origin,
nothing is known from ocular observation; the only fact known for
certain is that they are first seen when a west wind is blowing.

==== Part 29 ====


The cuckoo, as has been said elsewhere, makes no nest, but deposits
its eggs in an alien nest, generally in the nest of the ring-dove,
or on the ground in the nest of the hypolais or lark, or on a tree
in the nest of the green linnet. it lays only one egg and does not
hatch it itself, but the mother-bird in whose nest it has deposited
it hatches and rears it; and, as they say, this mother bird, when
the young cuckoo has grown big, thrusts her own brood out of the nest
and lets them perish; others say that this mother-bird kills her own
brood and gives them to the alien to devour, despising her own young
owing to the beauty of the cuckoo. Personal observers agree in telling
most of these stories, but are not in agreement as to the instruction
of the young. Some say that the mother-cuckoo comes and devours the
brood of the rearing mother; others say that the young cuckoo from
its superior size snaps up the food brought before the smaller brood
have a chance, and that in consequence the smaller brood die of hunger;
others say that, by its superior strength, it actually kills the other
ones whilst it is being reared up with them. The cuckoo shows great
sagacity in the disposal of its progeny; the fact is, the mother cuckoo
is quite conscious of her own cowardice and of the fact that she could
never help her young one in an emergency, and so, for the security
of the young one, she makes of him a supposititious child in an alien
nest. The truth is, this bird is pre-eminent among birds in the way
of cowardice; it allows itself to be pecked at by little birds, and
flies away from their attacks.

==== Part 30 ====


It has already been stated that the footless bird, which some term
the cypselus, resembles the swallow; indeed, it is not easy to distinguish
between the two birds, excepting in the fact that the cypselus has
feathers on the shank. These birds rear their young in long cells
made of mud, and furnished with a hole just big enough for entry and
exit; they build under cover of some roofing-under a rock or in a
cavern-for protection against animals and men.

The so-called goat-sucker lives on mountains; it is a little larger
than the owsel, and less than the cuckoo; it lays two eggs, or three
at the most, and is of a sluggish disposition. It flies up to the
she-goat and sucks its milk, from which habit it derives its name;
it is said that, after it has sucked the teat of the animal, the teat
dries up and the animal goes blind. It is dim-sighted in the day-time,
but sees well enough by night.

==== Part 31 ====


In narrow circumscribed districts where the food would be insufficient
for more birds than two, ravens are only found in isolated pairs;
when their young are old enough to fly, the parent couple first eject
them from the nest, and by and by chase them from the neighbourhood.
The raven lays four or five eggs. About the time when the mercenaries
under Medius were slaughtered at Pharsalus, the districts about Athens
and the Peloponnese were left destitute of ravens, from which it would
appear that these birds have some means of intercommunicating with
one another.

==== Part 32 ====


Of eagles there are several species. One of them, called 'the white-tailed
eagle', is found on low lands, in groves, and in the neighbourhood
of cities; some call it the 'heron-killer'. It is bold enough to fly
to mountains and the interior of forests. The other eagles seldom
visit groves or low-lying land. There is another species called the
'plangus'; it ranks second in point of size and strength; it lives
in mountain combes and glens, and by marshy lakes, and goes by the
name of 'duck-killer' and 'swart-eagle.' It is mentioned by Homer
in his account of the visit made by Priam to the tent of Achilles.
There is another species with black Plumage, the smallest but boldest
of all the kinds. It dwells on mountains or in forests, and is called
'the black-eagle' or 'the hare-killer'; it is the only eagle that
rears its young and thoroughly takes them out with it. It is swift
of flight, is neat and tidy in its habits, too proud for jealousy,
fearless, quarrelsome; it is also silent, for it neither whimpers
nor screams. There is another species, the percnopterus, very large,
with white head, very short wings, long tail-feathers, in appearance
like a vulture. It goes by the name of 'mountain-stork' or 'half-eagle'.
It lives in groves; has all the bad qualities of the other species,
and none of the good ones; for it lets itself be chased and caught
by the raven and the other birds. It is clumsy in its movements, has
difficulty in procuring its food, preys on dead animals, is always
hungry, and at all times whining and screaming. There is another species,
called the 'sea-eagle' or 'osprey'. This bird has a large thick neck,
curved wings, and broad tailfeathers; it lives near the sea, grasps
its prey with its talons, and often, from inability to carry it, tumbles
down into the water. There is another species called the 'true-bred';
people say that these are the only true-bred birds to be found, that
all other birds-eagles, hawks, and the smallest birds-are all spoilt
by the interbreeding of different species. The true-bred eagle is
the largest of all eagles; it is larger than the phene; is half as
large again as the ordinary eagle, and has yellow plumage; it is seldom
seen, as is the case with the so-called cymindis. The time for an
eagle to be on the wing in search of prey is from midday to evening;
in the morning until the market-hour it remains on the nest. In old
age the upper beak of the eagle grows gradually longer and more crooked,
and the bird dies eventually of starvation; there is a folklore story
that the eagle is thus punished because it once was a man and refused
entertainment to a stranger. The eagle puts aside its superfluous
food for its young; for owing to the difficulty in procuring food
day by day, it at times may come back to the nest with nothing. If
it catch a man prowling about in the neighbourhood of its nest, it
will strike him with its wings and scratch him with its talons. The
nest is built not on low ground but on an elevated spot, generally
on an inaccessible ledge of a cliff; it does, however, build upon
a tree. The young are fed until they can fly; hereupon the parent-birds
topple them out of the nest, and chase them completely out of the
locality. The fact is that a pair of eagles demands an extensive space
for its maintenance, and consequently cannot allow other birds to
quarter themselves in close neighbourhood. They do not hunt in the
vicinity of their nest, but go to a great distance to find their prey.
When the eagle has captured a beast, it puts it down without attempting
to carry it off at once; if on trial it finds the burden too heavy,
it will leave it. When it has spied a hare, it does not swoop on it
at once, but lets it go on into the open ground; neither does it descend
to the ground at one swoop, but goes gradually down from higher flights
to lower and lower: these devices it adopts by way of security against
the stratagem of the hunter. It alights on high places by reason of
the difficulty it experiences in soaring up from the level ground;
it flies high in the air to have the more extensive view; from its
high flight it is said to be the only bird that resembles the gods.
Birds of prey, as a rule, seldom alight upon rock, as the crookedness
of their talons prevents a stable footing on hard stone. The eagle
hunts hares, fawns, foxes, and in general all such animals as he can
master with ease. It is a long-lived bird, and this fact might be
inferred from the length of time during which the same nest is maintained
in its place.

==== Part 33 ====


In Scythia there is found a bird as large as the great bustard. The
female lays two eggs, but does not hatch them, but hides them in the
skin of a hare or fox and leaves them there, and, when it is not in
quest of prey, it keeps a watch on them on a high tree; if any man
tries to climb the tree, it fights and strikes him with its wing,
just as eagles do.

==== Part 34 ====


The owl and the night-raven and all the birds see poorly in the daytime
seek their prey in the night, but not all the night through, but at
evening and dawn. Their food consists of mice, lizards, chafers and
the like little creatures. The so-called phene, or lammergeier, is
fond of its young, provides its food with ease, fetches food to its
nest, and is of a kindly disposition. It rears its own young and those
of the eagle as well; for when the eagle ejects its young from the
nest, this bird catches them up as they fall and feeds them. For the
eagle, by the way, ejects the young birds prematurely, before they
are able to feed themselves, or to fly. It appears to do so from jealousy;
for it is by nature jealous, and is so ravenous as to grab furiously
at its food; and when it does grab at its food, it grabs it in large
morsels. It is accordingly jealous of the young birds as they approach
maturity, since they are getting good appetites, and so it scratches
them with its talons. The young birds fight also with one another,
to secure a morsel of food or a comfortable position, whereupon the
mother-bird beats them and ejects them from the nest; the young ones
scream at this treatment, and the phene hearing them catches them
as they fall. The phene has a film over its eyes and sees badly, but
the sea-eagle is very keen-sighted, and before its young are fledged
tries to make them stare at the sun, and beats the one that refuses
to do so, and twists him back in the sun's direction; and if one of
them gets watery eyes in the process, it kills him, and rears the
other. It lives near the sea, and feeds, as has been said, on sea-birds;
when in pursuit of them it catches them one by one, watching the moment
when the bird rises to the surface from its dive. When a sea-bird,
emerging from the water, sees the sea-eagle, he in terror dives under,
intending to rise again elsewhere; the eagle, however, owing to its
keenness of vision, keeps flying after him until he either drowns
the bird or catches him on the surface. The eagle never attacks these
birds when they are in a swarm, for they keep him off by raising a
shower of water-drops with their wings.

==== Part 35 ====


The cepphus is caught by means of sea-foam; the bird snaps at the
foam, and consequently fishermen catch it by sluicing with showers
of sea-water. These birds grow to be plump and fat; their flesh has
a good odour, excepting the hinder quarters, which smell of shoreweed.

==== Part 36 ====


Of hawks, the strongest is the buzzard; the next in point of courage
is the merlin; and the circus ranks third; other diverse kinds are
the asterias, the pigeon-hawk, and the pternis; the broaded-winged
hawk is called the half-buzzard; others go by the name of hobby-hawk,
or sparrow-hawk, or 'smooth-feathered', or 'toad-catcher'. Birds of
this latter species find their food with very little difficulty, and
flutter along the ground. Some say that there are ten species of hawks,
all differing from one another. One hawk, they say, will strike and
grab the pigeon as it rests on the ground, but never touch it while
it is in flight; another hawk attacks the pigeon when it is perched
upon a tree or any elevation, but never touches it when it is on the
ground or on the wing; other hawks attack their prey only when it
is on the wing. They say that pigeons can distinguish the various
species: so that, when a hawk is an assailant, if it be one that attacks
its prey when the prey is on the wing, the pigeon will sit still;
if it be one that attacks sitting prey, the pigeon will rise up and
fly away.

In Thrace, in the district sometimes called that of Cedripolis, men
hunt for little birds in the marshes with the aid of hawks. The men
with sticks in their hands go beating at the reeds and brushwood to
frighten the birds out, and the hawks show themselves overhead and
frighten them down. The men then strike them with their sticks and
capture them. They give a portion of their booty to the hawks; that
is, they throw some of the birds up in the air, and the hawks catch
them.

In the neighbourhood of Lake Maeotis, it is said, wolves act in concert
with the fishermen, and if the fishermen decline to share with them,
they tear their nets in pieces as they lie drying on the shore of
the lake.

==== Part 37 ====


So much for the habits of birds.
In marine creatures, also, one In marine creatures, also, one may
observe many ingenious devices adapted to the circumstances of their
lives. For the accounts commonly given of the so-called fishing-frog
are quite true; as are also those given of the torpedo. The fishing-frog
has a set of filaments that project in front of its eyes; they are
long and thin like hairs, and are round at the tips; they lie on either
side, and are used as baits. Accordingly, when the animal stirs up
a place full of sand and mud and conceals itself therein, it raises
the filaments, and, when the little fish strike against them, it draws
them in underneath into its mouth. The torpedo narcotizes the creatures
that it wants to catch, overpowering them by the power of shock that
is resident in its body, and feeds upon them; it also hides in the
sand and mud, and catches all the creatures that swim in its way and
come under its narcotizing influence. This phenomenon has been actually
observed in operation. The sting-ray also conceals itself, but not
exactly in the same way. That the creatures get their living by this
means is obvious from the fact that, whereas they are peculiarly inactive,
they are often caught with mullets in their interior, the swiftest
of fishes. Furthermore, the fishing-frog is unusually thin when he
is caught after losing the tips of his filaments, and the torpedo
is known to cause a numbness even in human beings. Again, the hake,
the ray, the flat-fish, and the angelfish burrow in the sand, and
after concealing themselves angle with the filaments on their mouths,
that fishermen call their fishing-rods, and the little creatures on
which they feed swim up to the filaments taking them for bits of sea-weed,
such as they feed upon.

Wherever an anthias-fish is seen, there will be no dangerous creatures
in the vicinity, and sponge-divers will dive in security, and they
call these signal-fishes 'holy-fish'. It is a sort of perpetual coincidence,
like the fact that wherever snails are present you may be sure there
is neither pig nor partridge in the neighbourhood; for both pig and
partridge eat up the snails.

The sea-serpent resembles the conger in colour and shape, but is of
lesser bulk and more rapid in its movements. If it be caught and thrown
away, it will bore a hole with its snout and burrow rapidly in the
sand; its snout, by the way, is sharper than that of ordinary serpents.
The so-called sea-scolopendra, after swallowing the hook, turns itself
inside out until it ejects it, and then it again turns itself outside
in. The sea-scolopendra, like the land-scolopendra, will come to a
savoury bait; the creature does not bite with its teeth, but stings
by contact with its entire body, like the so-called sea-nettle. The
so-called fox-shark, when it finds it has swallowed the hook, tries
to get rid of it as the scolopendra does, but not in the same way;
in other words, it runs up the fishing-line, and bites it off short;
it is caught in some districts in deep and rapid waters, with night-lines.

The bonitos swarm together when they espy a dangerous creature, and
the largest of them swim round it, and if it touches one of the shoal
they try to repel it; they have strong teeth. Amongst other large
fish, a lamia-shark, after falling in amongst a shoal, has been seen
to be covered with wounds.

Of river-fish, the male of the sheat-fish is remarkably attentive
to the young. The female after parturition goes away; the male stays
and keeps on guard where the spawn is most abundant, contenting himself
with keeping off all other little fishes that might steal the spawn
or fry, and this he does for forty or fifty days, until the young
are sufficiently grown to make away from the other fishes for themselves.
The fishermen can tell where he is on guard: for, in warding off the
little fishes, he makes a rush in the water and gives utterance to
a kind of muttering noise. He is so earnest in the performance of
his parental duties that the fishermen at times, if the eggs be attached
to the roots of water-plants deep in the water, drag them into as
shallow a place as possible; the male fish will still keep by the
young, and, if it so happen, will be caught by the hook when snapping
at the little fish that come by; if, however, he be sensible by experience
of the danger of the hook, he will still keep by his charge, and with
his extremely strong teeth will bite the hook in pieces.

All fishes, both those that wander about and those that are stationary,
occupy the districts where they were born or very similar places,
for their natural food is found there. Carnivorous fish wander most;
and all fish are carnivorous with the exception of a few, such as
the mullet, the saupe, the red mullet, and the chalcis. The so-called
pholis gives out a mucous discharge, which envelops the creature in
a kind of nest. Of shell-fish, and fish that are finless, the scallop
moves with greatest force and to the greatest distance, impelled along
by some internal energy; the murex or purple-fish, and others that
resemble it, move hardly at all. Out of the lagoon of Pyrrha all the
fishes swim in winter-time, except the sea-gudgeon; they swim out
owing to the cold, for the narrow waters are colder than the outer
sea, and on the return of the early summer they all swim back again.
In the lagoon no scarus is found, nor thritta, nor any other species
of the spiny fish, no spotted dogfish, no spiny dogfish, no sea-crawfish,
no octopus either of the common or the musky kinds, and certain other
fish are also absent; but of fish that are found in the lagoon the
white gudgeon is not a marine fish. Of fishes the oviparous are in
their prime in the early summer until the spawning time; the viviparous
in the autumn, as is also the case with the mullet, the red mullet,
and all such fish. In the neighbourhood of Lesbos, the fishes of the
outer sea, or of the lagoon, bring forth their eggs or young in the
lagoon; sexual union takes place in the autumn, and parturition in
the spring. With fishes of the cartilaginous kind, the males and females
swarm together in the autumn for the sake of sexual union; in the
early summer they come swimming in, and keep apart until after parturition;
the two sexes are often taken linked together in sexual union.

Of molluscs the sepia is the most cunning, and is the only species
that employs its dark liquid for the sake of concealment as well as
from fear: the octopus and calamary make the discharge solely from
fear. These creatures never discharge the pigment in its entirety;
and after a discharge the pigment accumulates again. The sepia, as
has been said, often uses its colouring pigment for concealment; it
shows itself in front of the pigment and then retreats back into it;
it also hunts with its long tentacles not only little fishes, but
oftentimes even mullets. The octopus is a stupid creature, for it
will approach a man's hand if it be lowered in the water; but it is
neat and thrifty in its habits: that is, it lays up stores in its
nest, and, after eating up all that is eatable, it ejects the shells
and sheaths of crabs and shell-fish, and the skeletons of little fishes.
It seeks its prey by so changing its colour as to render it like the
colour of the stones adjacent to it; it does so also when alarmed.
By some the sepia is said to perform the same trick; that is, they
say it can change its colour so as to make it resemble the colour
of its habitat. The only fish that can do this is the angelfish, that
is, it can change its colour like the octopus. The octopus as a rule
does not live the year out. It has a natural tendency to run off into
liquid; for, if beaten and squeezed, it keeps losing substance and
at last disappears. The female after parturition is peculiarly subject
to this colliquefaction; it becomes stupid; if tossed about by waves,
it submits impassively; a man, if he dived, could catch it with the
hand; it gets covered over with slime, and makes no effort to catch
its wonted prey. The male becomes leathery and clammy. As a proof
that they do not live into a second year there is the fact that, after
the birth of the little octopuses in the late summer or beginning
of autumn, it is seldom that a large-sized octopus is visible, whereas
a little before this time of year the creature is at its largest.
After the eggs are laid, they say that both the male and the female
grow so old and feeble that they are preyed upon by little fish, and
with ease dragged from their holes; and that this could not have been
done previously; they say also that this is not the case with the
small and young octopus, but that the young creature is much stronger
than the grown-up one. Neither does the sepia live into a second year.
The octopus is the only mollusc that ventures on to dry land; it walks
by preference on rough ground; it is firm all over when you squeeze
it, excepting in the neck. So much for the mollusca.

It is also said that they make a thin rough shell about them like
a hard sheath, and that this is made larger and larger as the animal
grows larger, and that it comes out of the sheath as though out of
a den or dwelling place.

The nautilus (or argonaut) is a poulpe or octopus, but one peculiar
both in its nature and its habits. It rises up from deep water and
swims on the surface; it rises with its shell down-turned in order
that it may rise the more easily and swim with it empty, but after
reaching the surface it shifts the position of the shell. In between
its feelers it has a certain amount of web-growth, resembling the
substance between the toes of web-footed birds; only that with these
latter the substance is thick, while with the nautilus it is thin
and like a spider's web. It uses this structure, when a breeze is
blowing, for a sail, and lets down some of its feelers alongside as
rudder-oars. If it be frightened it fills its shell with water and
sinks. With regard to the mode of generation and the growth of the
shell knowledge from observation is not yet satisfactory; the shell,
however, does not appear to be there from the beginning, but to grow
in their cases as in that of other shell-fish; neither is it ascertained
for certain whether the animal can live when stripped of the shell.

==== Part 38 ====


Of all insects, one may also say of all living creatures, the most
industrious are the ant, the bee, the hornet, the wasp, and in point
of fact all creatures akin to these; of spiders some are more skilful
and more resourceful than others. The way in which ants work is open
to ordinary observation; how they all march one after the other when
they are engaged in putting away and storing up their food; all this
may be seen, for they carry on their work even during bright moonlight
nights.

==== Part 39 ====


Of spiders and phalangia there are many species. Of the venomous phalangia
there are two; one that resembles the so-called wolf-spider, small,
speckled, and tapering to a point; it moves with leaps, from which
habit it is nicknamed 'the flea': the other kind is large, black in
colour, with long front legs; it is heavy in its movements, walks
slowly, is not very strong, and never leaps. (Of all the other species
wherewith poison-vendors supply themselves, some give a weak bite,
and others never bite at all. There is another kind, comprising the
so-called wolf-spiders.) Of these spiders the small one weaves no
web, and the large weaves a rude and poorly built one on the ground
or on dry stone walls. It always builds its web over hollow places
inside of which it keeps a watch on the end-threads, until some creature
gets into the web and begins to struggle, when out the spider pounces.
The speckled kind makes a little shabby web under trees.

There is a third species of this animal, preeminently clever and artistic.
It first weaves a thread stretching to all the exterior ends of the
future web; then from the centre, which it hits upon with great accuracy,
it stretches the warp; on the warp it puts what corresponds to the
woof, and then weaves the whole together. It sleeps and stores its
food away from the centre, but it is at the centre that it keeps watch
for its prey. Then, when any creature touches the web and the centre
is set in motion, it first ties and wraps the creature round with
threads until it renders it helpless, then lifts it and carries it
off, and, if it happens to be hungry, sucks out the life-juices--for
that is the way it feeds; but, if it be not hungry, it first mends
any damage done and then hastens again to its quest of prey. If something
comes meanwhile into the net, the spider at first makes for the centre,
and then goes back to its entangled prey as from a fixed starting
point. If any one injures a portion of the web, it recommences weaving
at sunrise or at sunset, because it is chiefly at these periods that
creatures are caught in the web. It is the female that does the weaving
and the hunting, but the male takes a share of the booty captured.

Of the skilful spiders, weaving a substantial web, there are two kinds,
the larger and the smaller. The one has long legs and keeps watch
while swinging downwards from the web: from its large size it cannot
easily conceal itself, and so it keeps underneath, so that its prey
may not be frightened off, but may strike upon the web's upper surface;
the less awkwardly formed one lies in wait on the top, using a little
hole for a lurking-place. Spiders can spin webs from the time of their
birth, not from their interior as a superfluity or excretion, as Democritus
avers, but off their body as a kind of tree-bark, like the creatures
that shoot out with their hair, as for instance the porcupine. The
creature can attack animals larger than itself, and enwrap them with
its threads: in other words, it will attack a small lizard, run round
and draw threads about its mouth until it closes the mouth up; then
it comes up and bites it.

==== Part 40 ====


So much for the spider. Of insects, there is a genus that has no one
name that comprehends all the species, though all the species are
akin to one another in form; it consists of all the insects that construct
a honeycomb: to wit, the bee, and all the insects that resemble it
in form.

There are nine varieties, of which six are gregarious-the bee, the
king-bee, the drone bee, the annual wasp, and, furthermore, the anthrene
(or hornet), and the tenthredo (or ground-wasp); three are solitary-the
smaller siren, of a dun colour, the larger siren, black and speckled,
and the third, the largest of all, that is called the humble-bee.
Now ants never go a-hunting, but gather up what is ready to hand;
the spider makes nothing, and lays up no store, but simply goes a-hunting
for its food; while the bee--for we shall by and by treat of the nine
varieties--does not go a-hunting, but constructs its food out of gathered
material and stores it away, for honey is the bee's food. This fact
is shown by the beekeepers' attempt to remove the combs; for the bees,
when they are fumigated, and are suffering great distress from the
process, then devour the honey most ravenously, whereas at other times
they are never observed to be so greedy, but apparently are thrifty
and disposed to lay by for their future sustenance. They have also
another food which is called bee-bread; this is scarcer than honey
and has a sweet figlike taste; this they carry as they do the wax
on their legs.

Very remarkable diversity is observed in their methods of working
and their general habits. When the hive has been delivered to them
clean and empty, they build their waxen cells, bringing in the juice
of all kinds of flowers and the 'tears' or exuding sap of trees, such
as willows and elms and such others as are particularly given to the
exudation of gum. With this material they besmear the groundwork,
to provide against attacks of other creatures; the bee-keepers call
this stuff 'stop-wax'. They also with the same material narrow by
side-building the entrances to the hive if they are too wide. They
first build cells for themselves; then for the so-called kings and
the drones; for themselves they are always building, for the kings
only when the brood of young is numerous, and cells for the drones
they build if a superabundance of honey should suggest their doing
so. They build the royal cells next to their own, and they are of
small bulk; the drones' cells they build near by, and these latter
are less in bulk than the bee's cells.

They begin building the combs downwards from the top of the hive,
and go down and down building many combs connected together until
they reach the bottom. The cells, both those for the honey and those
also for the grubs, are double-doored; for two cells are ranged about
a single base, one pointing one way and one the other, after the manner
of a double (or hour-glass-shaped) goblet. The cells that lie at the
commencement of the combs and are attached to the hives, to the extent
of two or three concentric circular rows, are small and devoid of
honey; the cells that are well filled with honey are most thoroughly
luted with wax. At the entry to the hive the aperture of the doorway
is smeared with mitys; this substance is a deep black, and is a sort
of dross or residual by-product of wax; it has a pungent odour, and
is a cure for bruises and suppurating sores. The greasy stuff that
comes next is pitch-wax; it has a less pungent odour and is less medicinal
than the mitys. Some say that the drones construct combs by themselves
in the same hive and in the same comb that they share with the bees;
but that they make no honey, but subsist, they and their grubs also,
on the honey made by the bees. The drones, as a rule, keep inside
the hive; when they go out of doors, they soar up in the air in a
stream, whirling round and round in a kind of gymnastic exercise;
when this is over, they come inside the hive and feed to repletion
ravenously. The kings never quit the hive, except in conjunction with
the entire swarm, either for food or for any other reason. They say
that, if a young swarm go astray, it will turn back upon its route
and by the aid of scent seek out its leader. It is said that if he
is unable to fly he is carried by the swarm, and that if he dies the
swarm perishes; and that, if this swarm outlives the king for a while
and constructs combs, no honey is produced and the bees soon die out.

Bees scramble up the stalks of flowers and rapidly gather the bees-wax
with their front legs; the front legs wipe it off on to the middle
legs, and these pass it on to the hollow curves of the hind-legs;
when thus laden, they fly away home, and one may see plainly that
their load is a heavy one. On each expedition the bee does not fly
from a flower of one kind to a flower of another, but flies from one
violet, say, to another violet, and never meddles with another flower
until it has got back to the hive; on reaching the hive they throw
off their load, and each bee on his return is accompanied by three
or four companions. One cannot well tell what is the substance they
gather, nor the exact process of their work. Their mode of gathering
wax has been observed on olive-trees, as owing to the thickness of
the leaves the bees remain stationary for a considerable while. After
this work is over, they attend to the grubs. There is nothing to prevent
grubs, honey, and drones being all found in one and the same comb.
As long as the leader is alive, the drones are said to be produced
apart by themselves; if he be no longer living, they are said to be
reared by the bees in their own cells, and under these circumstances
to become more spirited: for this reason they are called 'sting-drones',
not that they really have stings, but that they have the wish without
the power, to use such weapons. The cells for the drones are larger
than the others; sometimes the bees construct cells for the drones
apart, but usually they put them in amongst their own; and when this
is the case the bee-keepers cut the drone-cells out of the combs.

There are several species of bees, as has been said; two of 'kings',
the better kind red, the other black and variegated, and twice as
big as the working-bee. The best workingbee is small, round, and speckled:
another kind is long and like an anthrene wasp; another kind is what
is called the robber-bee, black and flat-bellied; then there is the
drone, the largest of all, but devoid of sting, and lazy. There is
a difference between the progeny of bees that inhabit cultivated land
and of those from the mountains: the forest-bees are more shaggy,
smaller, more industrious and more fierce. Working-bees make their
combs all even, with the superficial covering quite smooth. Each comb
is of one kind only: that is, it contains either bees only, or grubs
only, or drones only; if it happen, however, that they make in one
and the same comb all these kinds of cells, each separate kind will
be built in a continuous row right through. The long bees build uneven
combs, with the lids of the cells protuberant, like those of the anthrene;
grubs and everything else have no fixed places, but are put anywhere;
from these bees come inferior kings, a large quantity of drones, and
the so-called robber-bee; they produce either no honey at all, or
honey in very small quantities. Bees brood over the combs and so mature
them; if they fail to do so, the combs are said to go bad and to get
covered with a sort of spider's web. If they can keep brooding over
the part undamaged, the damaged part simply eats itself away; if they
cannot so brood, the entire comb perishes; in the damaged combs small
worms are engendered, which take on wings and fly away. When the combs
keep settling down, the bees restore the level surface, and put props
underneath the combs to give themselves free passage-room; for if
such free passage be lacking they cannot brood, and the cobwebs come
on. When the robber-bee and the drone appear, not only do they do
no work themselves, but they actually damage the work of the other
bees; if they are caught in the act, they are killed by the working-bees.
These bees also kill without mercy most of their kings, and especially
kings of the inferior sort; and this they do for fear a multiplicity
of kings should lead to a dismemberment of the hive. They kill them
especially when the hive is deficient in grubs, and a swarm is not
intended to take place; under these circumstances they destroy the
cells of the kings if they have been prepared, on the ground that
these kings are always ready to lead out swarms. They destroy also
the combs of the drones if a failure in the supply be threatening
and the hive runs short of provisions; under such circumstances they
fight desperately with all who try to take their honey, and eject
from the hive all the resident drones; and oftentimes the drones are
to be seen sitting apart in the hive. The little bees fight vigorously
with the long kind, and try to banish them from the hives; if they
succeed, the hive will be unusually productive, but if the bigger
bees get left mistresses of the field they pass the time in idleness,
and no good at all but die out before the autumn. Whenever the working-bees
kill an enemy they try to do so out of doors; and whenever one of
their own body dies, they carry the dead bee out of doors also. The
so-called robber-bees spoil their own combs, and, if they can do so
unnoticed, enter and spoil the combs of other bees; if they are caught
in the act they are put to death. It is no easy task for them to escape
detection, for there are sentinels on guard at every entry; and, even
if they do escape detection on entering, afterwards from a surfeit
of food they cannot fly, but go rolling about in front of the hive,
so that their chances of escape are small indeed. The kings are never
themselves seen outside the hive except with a swarm in flight: during
which time all the other bees cluster around them. When the flight
of a swarm is imminent, a monotonous and quite peculiar sound made
by all the bees is heard for several days, and for two or three days
in advance a few bees are seen flying round the hive; it has never
as yet been ascertained, owing to the difficulty of the observation,
whether or no the king is among these. When they have swarmed, they
fly away and separate off to each of the kings; if a small swarm happens
to settle near to a large one, it will shift to join this large one,
and if the king whom they have abandoned follows them, they put him
to death. So much for the quitting of the hive and the swarmflight.
Separate detachments of bees are told off for diverse operations;
that is, some carry flower-produce, others carry water, others smooth
and arrange the combs. A bee carries water when it is rearing grubs.
No bee ever settles on the flesh of any creature, or ever eats animal
food. They have no fixed date for commencing work; but when their
provender is forthcoming and they are in comfortable trim, and by
preference in summer, they set to work, and when the weather is fine
they work incessantly.

The bee, when quite young and in fact only three days old, after shedding
its chrysalis-case, begins to work if it be well fed. When a swarm
is settling, some bees detach themselves in search of food and return
back to the swarm. In hives that are in good condition the production
of young bees is discontinued only for the forty days that follow
the winter solstice. When the grubs are grown, the bees put food beside
them and cover them with a coating of wax; and, as soon as the grub
is strong enough, he of his own accord breaks the lid and comes out.
Creatures that make their appearance in hives and spoil the combs
the working-bees clear out, but the other bees from sheer laziness
look with indifference on damage done to their produce. When the bee-masters
take out the combs, they leave enough food behind for winter use;
if it be sufficient in quantity, the occupants of the hive will survive;
if it be insufficient, then, if the weather be rough, they die on
the spot, but if it be fair, they fly away and desert the hive. They
feed on honey summer and winter; but they store up another article
of food resembling wax in hardness, which by some is called sandarace,
or bee-bread. Their worst enemies are wasps and the birds named titmice,
and furthermore the swallow and the bee-eater. The frogs in the marsh
also catch them if they come in their way by the water-side, and for
this reason bee-keepers chase the frogs from the ponds from which
the bees take water; they destroy also wasps' nests, and the nests
of swallows, in the neighbourhood of the hives, and also the nests
of bee-eaters. Bees have fear only of one another. They fight with
one another and with wasps. Away from the hive they attack neither
their own species nor any other creature, but in the close proximity
of the hive they kill whatever they get hold of. Bees that sting die
from their inability to extract the sting without at the same time
extracting their intestines. True, they often recover, if the person
stung takes the trouble to press the sting out; but once it loses
its sting the bee must die. They can kill with their stings even large
animals; in fact, a horse has been known to have been stung to death
by them. The kings are the least disposed to show anger or to inflict
a sting. Bees that die are removed from the hive, and in every way
the creature is remarkable for its cleanly habits; in point of fact,
they often fly away to a distance to void their excrement because
it is malodorous; and, as has been said, they are annoyed by all bad
smells and by the scent of perfumes, so much so that they sting people
that use perfumes.

They perish from a number of accidental causes, and when their kings
become too numerous and try each to carry away a portion of the swarm.

The toad also feeds on bees; he comes to the doorway of the hive,
puffs himself out as he sits on the watch, and devours the creatures
as they come flying out; the bees can in no way retaliate, but the
bee-keeper makes a point of killing him.

As for the class of bee that has been spoken of as inferior or good-for-nothing,
and as constructing its combs so roughly, some bee-keepers say that
it is the young bees that act so from inexperience; and the bees of
the current year are termed young. The young bees do not sting as
the others do; and it is for this reason that swarms may be safely
carried, as it is of young bees that they are composed. When honey
runs short they expel the drones, and the bee-keepers supply the bees
with figs and sweet-tasting articles of food. The elder bees do the
indoor work, and are rough and hairy from staying indoors; the young
bees do the outer carrying, and are comparatively smooth. They kill
the drones also when in their work they are confined for room; the
drones, by the way, live in the innermost recess of the hive. On one
occasion, when a hive was in a poor condition, some of the occupants
assailed a foreign hive; proving victorious in a combat they took
to carrying off the honey; when the bee-keeper tried to kill them,
the other bees came out and tried to beat off the enemy but made no
attempt to sting the man.

The diseases that chiefly attack prosperous hives are first of all
the clerus-this consists in a growth of little worms on the floor,
from which, as they develop, a kind of cobweb grows over the entire
hive, and the combs decay; another diseased condition is indicated
in a lassitude on the part of the bees and in malodorousness of the
hive. Bees feed on thyme; and the white thyme is better than the red.
In summer the place for the hive should be cool, and in winter warm.
They are very apt to fall sick if the plant they are at work on be
mildewed. In a high wind they carry a stone by way of ballast to steady
them. If a stream be near at hand, they drink from it and from it
only, but before they drink they first deposit their load; if there
be no water near at hand, they disgorge their honey as they drink
elsewhere, and at once make off to work. There are two seasons for
making honey, spring and autumn; the spring honey is sweeter, whiter,
and in every way better than the autumn honey. Superior honey comes
from fresh comb, and from young shoots; the red honey is inferior,
and owes its inferiority to the comb in which it is deposited, just
as wine is apt to be spoiled by its cask; consequently, one should
have it looked to and dried. When the thyme is in flower and the comb
is full, the honey does not harden. The honey that is golden in hue
is excellent. White honey does not come from thyme pure and simple;
it is good as a salve for sore eyes and wounds. Poor honey always
floats on the surface and should be skimmed off; the fine clear honey
rests below. When the floral world is in full bloom, then they make
wax; consequently you must then take the wax out of the hive, for
they go to work on new wax at once. The flowers from which they gather
honey are as follows: the spindle-tree, the melilot-clover, king's-spear,
myrtle, flowering-reed, withy, and broom. When they work at thyme,
they mix in water before sealing up the comb. As has been already
stated, they all either fly to a distance to discharge their excrement
or make the discharge into one single comb. The little bees, as has
been said, are more industrious than the big ones; their wings are
battered; their colour is black, and they have a burnt-up aspect.
Gaudy and showy bees, like gaudy and showy women, are good-for-nothings.

Bees seem to take a pleasure in listening to a rattling noise; and
consequently men say that they can muster them into a hive by rattling
with crockery or stones; it is uncertain, however, whether or no they
can hear the noise at all and also whether their procedure is due
to pleasure or alarm. They expel from the hive all idlers and unthrifts.
As has been said, they differentiate their work; some make wax, some
make honey, some make bee-bread, some shape and mould combs, some
bring water to the cells and mingle it with the honey, some engage
in out-of-door work. At early dawn they make no noise, until some
one particular bee makes a buzzing noise two or three times and thereby
awakes the rest; hereupon they all fly in a body to work. By and by
they return and at first are noisy; then the noise gradually decreases,
until at last some one bee flies round about, making a buzzing noise,
and apparently calling on the others to go to sleep; then all of a
sudden there is a dead silence.

The hive is known to be in good condition if the noise heard within
it is loud, and if the bees make a flutter as they go out and in;
for at this time they are constructing brood-cells. They suffer most
from hunger when they recommence work after winter. They become somewhat
lazy if the bee-keeper, in robbing the hive, leave behind too much
honey; still one should leave cells numerous in proportion to the
population, for the bees work in a spiritless way if too few combs
are left. They become idle also, as being dispirited, if the hive
be too big. A hive yields to the bee-keeper six or nine pints of honey;
a prosperous hive will yield twelve or fifteen pints, exceptionally
good hives eighteen. Sheep and, as has been said, wasps are enemies
to the bees. Bee-keepers entrap the latter, by putting a flat dish
on the ground with pieces of meat on it; when a number of the wasps
settle on it, they cover them with a lid and put the dish and its
contents on the fire. It is a good thing to have a few drones in a
hive, as their presence increases the industry of the workers. Bees
can tell the approach of rough weather or of rain; and the proof is
that they will not fly away, but even while it is as yet fine they
go fluttering about within a restricted space, and the bee-keeper
knows from this that they are expecting bad weather. When the bees
inside the hive hang clustering to one another, it is a sign that
the swarm is intending to quit; consequently, occasion, when a bee-keepers,
on seeing this, besprinkle the hive with sweet wine. It is advisable
to plant about the hives pear-trees, beans, Median-grass, Syrian-grass,
yellow pulse, myrtle, poppies, creeping-thyme, and almond-trees. Some
bee-keepers sprinkle their bees with flour, and can distinguish them
from others when they are at work out of doors. If the spring be late,
or if there be drought or blight, then grubs are all the fewer in
the hives. So much for the habits of bees.

==== Part 41 ====


Of wasps, there are two kinds. Of these kinds one is wild and scarce,
lives on the mountains, engenders grubs not underground but on oak-trees,
is larger, longer, and blacker than the other kind, is invariably
speckled and furnished with a sting, and is remarkably courageous.
The pain from its sting is more severe than that caused by the others,
for the instrument that causes the pain is larger, in proportion to
its own larger size. These wild live over into a second year, and
in winter time, when oaks have been in course of felling, they may
be seen coming out and flying away. They lie concealed during the
winter, and live in the interior of logs of wood. Some of them are
mother-wasps and some are workers, as with the tamer kind; but it
is by observation of the tame wasps that one may learn the varied
characteristics of the mothers and the workers. For in the case of
the tame wasps also there are two kinds; one consists of leaders,
who are called mothers, and the other of workers. The leaders are
far larger and milder-tempered than the others. The workers do not
live over into a second year, but all die when winter comes on; and
this can be proved, for at the commencement of winter the workers
become drowsy, and about the time of the winter solstice they are
never seen at all. The leaders, the so-called mothers, are seen all
through the winter, and live in holes underground; for men when ploughing
or digging in winter have often come upon mother-wasps, but never
upon workers. The mode of reproduction of wasps is as follows. At
the approach of summer, when the leaders have found a sheltered spot,
they take to moulding their combs, and construct the so-called sphecons,-little
nests containing four cells or thereabouts, and in these are produced
working-wasps but not mothers. When these are grown up, then they
construct other larger combs upon the first, and then again in like
manner others; so that by the close of autumn there are numerous large
combs in which the leader, the so-called mother, engenders no longer
working-wasps but mothers. These develop high up in the nest as large
grubs, in cells that occur in groups of four or rather more, pretty
much in the same way as we have seen the grubs of the king-bees to
be produced in their cells. After the birth of the working-grubs in
the cells, the leaders do nothing and the workers have to supply them
with nourishment; and this is inferred from the fact that the leaders
(of the working-wasps) no longer fly out at this time, but rest quietly
indoors. Whether the leaders of last year after engendering new leaders
are killed by the new brood, and whether this occurs invariably or
whether they can live for a longer time, has not been ascertained
by actual observation; neither can we speak with certainty, as from
observation, as to the age attained by the mother-wasp or by the wild
wasps, or as to any other similar phenomenon. The mother-wasp is broad
and heavy, fatter and larger than the ordinary wasp, and from its
weight not very strong on the wing; these wasps cannot fly far, and
for this reason they always rest inside the nest, building and managing
its indoor arrangements. The so-called mother-wasps are found in most
of the nests; it is a matter of doubt whether or no they are provided
with stings; in all probability, like the king-bees, they have stings,
but never protrude them for offence. Of the ordinary wasps some are
destitute of stings, like the drone-bees, and some are provided with
them. Those unprovided therewith are smaller and less spirited and
never fight, while the others are big and courageous; and these latter,
by some, are called males, and the stingless, females. At the approach
of winter many of the wasps that have stings appear to lose them;
but we have never met an eyewitness of this phenomenon. Wasps are
more abundant in times of drought and in wild localities. They live
underground; their combs they mould out of chips and earth, each comb
from a single origin, like a kind of root. They feed on certain flowers
and fruits, but for the most part on animal food. Some of the tame
wasps have been observed when sexually united, but it was not determined
whether both, or neither, had stings, or whether one had a sting and
the other had not; wild wasps have been seen under similar circumstances,
when one was seen to have a sting but the case of the other was left
undetermined. The wasp-grub does not appear to come into existence
by parturition, for at the outset the grub is too big to be the offspring
of a wasp. If you take a wasp by the feet and let him buzz with the
vibration of his wings, wasps that have no stings will fly toward
it, and wasps that have stings will not; from which fact it is inferred
by some that one set are males and the other females. In holes in
the ground in winter-time wasps are found, some with stings, and some
without. Some build cells, small and few in number; others build many
and large ones. The so-called mothers are caught at the change of
season, mostly on elm-trees, while gathering a substance sticky and
gumlike. A large number of mother-wasps are found when in the previous
year wasps have been numerous and the weather rainy; they are captured
in precipitous places, or in vertical clefts in the ground, and they
all appear to be furnished with stings.

==== Part 42 ====


So much for the habits of wasps.
Anthrenae do not subsist by culling from flowers as bees do, but for
the most part on animal food: for this reason they hover about dung;
for they chase the large flies, and after catching them lop off their
heads and fly away with the rest of the carcases; they are furthermore
fond of sweet fruits. Such is their food. They have also kings or
leaders like bees and wasps; and their leaders are larger in proportion
to themselves than are wasp-kings to wasps or bee-kings to bees. The
anthrena-king, like the wasp-king, lives indoors. Anthrenae build
their nests underground, scraping out the soil like ants; for neither
anthrenae nor wasps go off in swarms as bees do, but successive layers
of young anthrenae keep to the same habitat, and go on enlarging their
nest by scraping out more and more of soil. The nest accordingly attains
a great size; in fact, from a particularly prosperous nest have been
removed three and even four baskets full of combs. They do not, like
bees, store up food, but pass the winter in a torpid condition; the
greater part of them die in the winter, but it is uncertain whether
that can be said of them all, In the hives of bees several kings are
found and they lead off detachments in swarms, but in the anthrena's
nest only one king is found. When individual anthrenae have strayed
from their nest, they cluster on a tree and construct combs, as may
be often seen above-ground, and in this nest they produce a king;
when the king is full-grown, he leads them away and settles them along
with himself in a hive or nest. With regard to their sexual unions,
and the method of their reproduction, nothing is known from actual
observation. Among bees both the drones and the kings are stingless,
and so are certain wasps, as has been said; but anthrenae appear to
be all furnished with stings: though, by the way, it would well be
worth while to carry out investigation as to whether the anthrena-king
has a sting or not.

==== Part 43 ====


Humble-bees produce their young under a stone, right on the ground,
in a couple of cells or little more; in these cells is found an attempt
at honey, of a poor description. The tenthredon is like the anthrena,
but speckled, and about as broad as a bee. Being epicures as to their
food, they fly, one at a time, into kitchens and on to slices of fish
and the like dainties. The tenthredon brings forth, like the wasp,
underground, and is very prolific; its nest is much bigger and longer
than that of the wasp. So much for the methods of working and the
habits of life of the bee, the wasp, and all the other similar insects.

==== Part 44 ====


As regards the disposition or temper of animals, as has been previously
observed, one may detect great differences in respect to courage and
timidity, as also, even among wild animals, in regard to tameness
and wildness. The lion, while he is eating, is most ferocious; but
when he is not hungry and has had a good meal, he is quite gentle.
He is totally devoid of suspicion or nervous fear, is fond of romping
with animals that have been reared along with him and to whom he is
accustomed, and manifests great affection towards them. In the chase,
as long as he is in view, he makes no attempt to run and shows no
fear, but even if he be compelled by the multitude of the hunters
to retreat, he withdraws deliberately, step by step, every now and
then turning his head to regard his pursuers. If, however, he reach
wooded cover, then he runs at full speed, until he comes to open ground,
when he resumes his leisurely retreat. When, in the open, he is forced
by the number of the hunters to run while in full view, he does run
at the top of his speed, but without leaping and bounding. This running
of his is evenly and continuously kept up like the running of a dog;
but when he is in pursuit of his prey and is close behind, he makes
a sudden pounce upon it. The two statements made regarding him are
quite true; the one that he is especially afraid of fire, as Homer
pictures him in the line-'and glowing torches, which, though fierce
he dreads,'-and the other, that he keeps a steady eye upon the hunter
who hits him, and flings himself upon him. If a hunter hit him, without
hurting him, then if with a bound he gets hold of him, he will do
him no harm, not even with his claws, but after shaking him and giving
him a fright will let him go again. They invade the cattle-folds and
attack human beings when they are grown old and so by reason of old
age and the diseased condition of their teeth are unable to pursue
their wonted prey. They live to a good old age. The lion who was captured
when lame, had a number of his teeth broken; which fact was regarded
by some as a proof of the longevity of lions, as he could hardly have
been reduced to this condition except at an advanced age. There are
two species of lions, the plump, curly-maned, and the long-bodied,
straight maned; the latter kind is courageous, and the former comparatively
timid; sometimes they run away with their tail between their legs,
like a dog. A lion was once seen to be on the point of attacking a
boar, but to run away when the boar stiffened his bristles in defence.
It is susceptible of hurt from a wound in the flank, but on any other
part of its frame will endure any number of blows, and its head is
especially hard. Whenever it inflicts a wound, either by its teeth
or its claws, there flows from the wounded parts suppurating matter,
quite yellow, and not to be stanched by bandage or sponge; the treatment
for such a wound is the same as that for the bite of a dog.

The thos, or civet, is fond of man's company; it does him no harm
and is not much afraid of him, but it is an enemy to the dog and the
lion, and consequently is not found in the same habitat with them.
The little ones are the best. Some say that there are two species
of the animal, and some say, three; there are probably not more than
three, but, as is the case with certain of the fishes, birds, and
quadrupeds, this animal changes in appearance with the change of season.
His colour in winter is not the same as it is in summer; in summer
the animal is smooth-haired, in winter he is clothed in fur.
==== Part 45 ====


The bison is found in Paeonia on Mount Messapium, which separates
Paeonia from Maedica; and the Paeonians call it the monapos. It is
the size of a bull, but stouter in build, and not long in the body;
its skin, stretched tight on a frame, would give sitting room for
seven people. In general it resembles the ox in appearance, except
that it has a mane that reaches down to the point of the shoulder,
as that of the horse reaches down to its withers; but the hair in
its mane is softer than the hair in the horse's mane, and clings more
closely. The colour of the hair is brown-yellow; the mane reaches
down to the eyes, and is deep and thick. The colour of the body is
half red, half ashen-grey, like that of the so-called chestnut horse,
but rougher. It has an undercoat of woolly hair. The animal is not
found either very black or very red. It has the bellow of a bull.
Its horns are crooked, turned inwards towards each other and useless
for purposes of self-defence; they are a span broad, or a little more,
and in volume each horn would hold about three pints of liquid; the
black colour of the horn is beautiful and bright. The tuft of hair
on the forehead reaches down to the eyes, so that the animal sees
objects on either flank better than objects right in front. It has
no upper teeth, as is the case also with kine and all other horned
animals. Its legs are hairy; it is cloven-footed, and the tail, which
resembles that of the ox, seems not big enough for the size of its
body. It tosses up dust and scoops out the ground with its hooves,
like the bull. Its skin is impervious to blows. Owing to the savour
of its flesh it is sought for in the chase. When it is wounded it
runs away, and stops only when thoroughly exhausted. It defends itself
against an assailant by kicking and projecting its excrement to a
distance of eight yards; this device it can easily adopt over and
over again, and the excrement is so pungent that the hair of hunting-dogs
is burnt off by it. It is only when the animal is disturbed or alarmed
that the dung has this property; when the animal is undisturbed it
has no blistering effect. So much for the shape and habits of the
animal. When the season comes for parturition the mothers give birth
to their young in troops upon the mountains. Before dropping their
young they scatter their dung in all directions, making a kind of
circular rampart around them; for the animal has the faculty of ejecting
excrement in most extraordinary quantities.

==== Part 46 ====


Of all wild animals the most easily tamed and the gentlest is the
elephant. It can be taught a number of tricks, the drift and meaning
of which it understands; as, for instance, it can taught to kneel
in presence of the king. It is very sensitive, and possessed of an
intelligence superior to that of other animals. When the male has
had sexual union with the female, and the female has conceived, the
male has no further intercourse with her.

Some say that the elephant lives for two hundred years; others, for
one hundred and twenty; that the female lives nearly as long as the
male; that they reach their prime about the age of sixty, and that
they are sensitive to inclement weather and frost. The elephant is
found by the banks of rivers, but he is not a river animal; he can
make his way through water, as long as the tip of his trunk can be
above the surface, for he blows with his trunk and breathes through
it. The animal is a poor swimmer owing to the heavy weight of his
body.

==== Part 47 ====


The male camel declines intercourse with its mother; if his keeper
tries compulsion, he evinces disinclination. On one occasion, when
intercourse was being declined by the young male, the keeper covered
over the mother and put the young male to her; but, when after the
intercourse the wrapping had been removed, though the operation was
completed and could not be revoked, still by and by he bit his keeper
to death. A story goes that the king of Scythia had a highly-bred
mare, and that all her foals were splendid; that wishing to mate the
best of the young males with the mother, he had him brought to the
stall for the purpose; that the young horse declined; that, after
the mother's head had been concealed in a wrapper he, in ignorance,
had intercourse; and that, when immediately afterwards the wrapper
was removed and the head of the mare was rendered visible, the young
horse ran way and hurled himself down a precipice.

==== Part 48 ====


Among the sea-fishes many stories are told about the dolphin, indicative
of his gentle and kindly nature, and of manifestations of passionate
attachment to boys, in and about Tarentum, Caria, and other places.
The story goes that, after a dolphin had been caught and wounded off
the coast of Caria, a shoal of dolphins came into the harbour and
stopped there until the fisherman let his captive go free; whereupon
the shoal departed. A shoal of young dolphins is always, by way of
protection, followed by a large one. On one occasion a shoal of dolphins,
large and small, was seen, and two dolphins at a little distance appeared
swimming in underneath a little dead dolphin when it was sinking,
and supporting it on their backs, trying out of compassion to prevent
its being devoured by some predaceous fish. Incredible stories are
told regarding the rapidity of movement of this creature. It appears
to be the fleetest of all animals, marine and terrestrial, and it
can leap over the masts of large vessels. This speed is chiefly manifested
when they are pursuing a fish for food; then, if the fish endeavours
to escape, they pursue him in their ravenous hunger down to deep waters;
but, when the necessary return swim is getting too long, they hold
in their breath, as though calculating the length of it, and then
draw themselves together for an effort and shoot up like arrows, trying
to make the long ascent rapidly in order to breathe, and in the effort
they spring right over the a ship's masts if a ship be in the vicinity.
This same phenomenon is observed in divers, when they have plunged
into deep water; that is, they pull themselves together and rise with
a speed proportional to their strength. Dolphins live together in
pairs, male and female. It is not known for what reason they run themselves
aground on dry land; at all events, it is said that they do so at
times, and for no obvious reason.

==== Part 49 ====


Just as with all animals a change of action follows a change of circumstance,
so also a change of character follows a change of action, and often
some portions of the physical frame undergo a change, occurs in the
case of birds. Hens, for instance, when they have beaten the cock
in a fight, will crow like the cock and endeavour to tread him; the
crest rises up on their head and the tail-feathers on the rump, so
that it becomes difficult to recognize that they are hens; in some
cases there is a growth of small spurs. On the death of a hen a cock
has been seen to undertake the maternal duties, leading the chickens
about and providing them with food, and so intent upon these duties
as to cease crowing and indulging his sexual propensities. Some cock-birds
are congenitally so feminine that they will submit patiently to other
males who attempt to tread them.

==== Part 50 ====


Some animals change their form and character, not only at certain
ages and at certain seasons, but in consequence of being castrated;
and all animals possessed of testicles may be submitted to this operation.
Birds have their testicles inside, and oviparous quadrupeds close
to the loins; and of viviparous animals that walk some have them inside,
and most have them outside, but all have them at the lower end of
the belly. Birds are castrated at the rump at the part where the two
sexes unite in copulation. If you burn this twice or thrice with hot
irons, then, if the bird be full-grown, his crest grows sallow, he
ceases to crow, and foregoes sexual passion; but if you cauterize
the bird when young, none of these male attributes propensities will
come to him as he grows up. The case is the same with men: if you
mutilate them in boyhood, the later-growing hair never comes, and
the voice never changes but remains high-pitched; if they be mutilated
in early manhood, the late growths of hair quit them except the growth
on the groin, and that diminishes but does not entirely depart. The
congenital growths of hair never fall out, for a eunuch never grows
bald. In the case of all castrated or mutilated male quadrupeds the
voice changes to the feminine voice. All other quadrupeds when castrated,
unless the operation be performed when they are young, invariably
die; but in the case of boars, and in their case only, the age at
which the operation is performed produces no difference. All animals,
if operated on when they are young, become bigger and better looking
than their unmutilated fellows; if they be mutilated when full-grown,
they do not take on any increase of size. If stags be mutilated, when,
by reason of their age, they have as yet no horns, they never grow
horns at all; if they be mutilated when they have horns, the horns
remain unchanged in size, and the animal does not lose them. Calves
are mutilated when a year old; otherwise, they turn out uglier and
smaller. Steers are mutilated in the following way: they turn the
animal over on its back, cut a little off the scrotum at the lower
end, and squeeze out the testicles, then push back the roots of them
as far as they can, and stop up the incision with hair to give an
outlet to suppurating matter; if inflammation ensues, they cauterize
the scrotum and put on a plaster. If a full-grown bull be mutilated,
he can still to all appearance unite sexually with the cow. The ovaries
of sows are excised with the view of quenching in them sexual appetites
and of stimulating growth in size and fatness. The sow has first to
be kept two days without food, and, after being hung up by the hind
legs, it is operated on; they cut the lower belly, about the place
where the boars have their testicles, for it is there that the ovary
grows, adhering to the two divisions (or horns) of the womb; they
cut off a little piece and stitch up the incision. Female camels are
mutilated when they are wanted for war purposes, and are mutilated
to prevent their being got with young. Some of the inhabitants of
Upper Asia have as many as three thousand camels: when they run, they
run, in consequence of the length of their stride, much quicker than
the horses of Nisaea. As a general rule, mutilated animals grow to
a greater length than the unmutilated.

All animals that ruminate derive profit and pleasure from the process
of rumination, as they do from the process of eating. It is the animals
that lack the upper teeth that ruminate, such as kine, sheep, and
goats. In the case of wild animals no observation has been possible;
save in the case of animals that are occasionally domesticated, such
as the stag, and it, we know, chews the cud. All animals that ruminate
generally do so when lying down on the ground. They carry on the process
to the greatest extent in winter, and stall-fed ruminants carry it
on for about seven months in the year; beasts that go in herds, as
they get their food out of doors, ruminate to a lesser degree and
over a lesser period. Some, also, of the animals that have teeth in
both jaws ruminate; as, for instance, the Pontic mice, and the fish
which from the habit is by some called 'the Ruminant', (as well as
other fish).

Long-limbed animals have loose faeces, and broad-chested animals vomit
with comparative facility, and these remarks are, in a general way,
applicable to quadrupeds, birds, and men.

49B

A considerable number of birds change according to season the colour
of their plumage and their note; as, for instance, the owsel becomes
yellow instead of black, and its note gets altered, for in summer
it has a musical note and in winter a discordant chatter. The thrush
also changes its colour; about the throat it is marked in winter with
speckles like a starling, in summer distinctly spotted: however, it
never alters its note. The nightingale, when the hills are taking
on verdure, sings continually for fifteen days and fifteen nights;
afterwards it sings, but not continuously. As summer advances it has
a different song, not so varied as before, nor so deep, nor so intricately
modulated, but simple; it also changes its colour, and in Italy about
this season it goes by a different name. It goes into hiding, and
is consequently visible only for a brief period. The erithacus (or
redbreast) and the so-called redstart change into one another; the
former is a winter bird, the latter a summer one, and the difference
between them is practically limited to the coloration of their plumage.
In the same way with the beccafico and the blackcap; these change
into one another. The beccafico appears about autumn, and the blackcap
as soon as autumn has ended. These birds, also, differ from one another
only in colour and note; that these birds, two in name, are one in
reality is proved by the fact that at the period when the change is
in progress each one has been seen with the change as yet incomplete.
It is not so very strange that in these cases there is a change in
note and in plumage, for even the ring-dove ceases to coo in winter,
and recommences cooing when spring comes in; in winter, however, when
fine weather has succeeded to very stormy weather, this bird has been
known to give its cooing note, to the astonishment of such as were
acquainted with its usual winter silence. As a general rule, birds
sing most loudly and most diversely in the pairing season. The cuckoo
changes its colour, and its note is not clearly heard for a short
time previous to its departure. It departs about the rising of the
Dog-star, and it reappears from springtime to the rising of the Dog-star.
At the rise of this star the bird called by some oenanthe disappears,
and reappears when it is setting: thus keeping clear at one time of
extreme cold, and at another time of extreme heat. The hoopoe also
changes its colour and appearance, as Aeschylus has represented in
the following lines:-

The Hoopoe, witness to his own distress, Is clad by Zeus in variable
dress:- Now a gay mountain-bird, with knightly crest, Now in the white
hawk's silver plumage drest, For, timely changing, on the hawk's white
wing He greets the apparition of the Spring. Thus twofold form and
colour are conferred, In youth and age, upon the selfsame bird. The
spangled raiment marks his youthful days, The argent his maturity
displays; And when the fields are yellow with ripe corn Again his
particoloured plumes are worn. But evermore, in sullen discontent,

He seeks the lonely hills, in self-sought banishment.

Of birds, some take a dust-bath by rolling in dust, some take a water-bath,
and some take neither the one bath nor the other. Birds that do not
fly but keep on the ground take the dust-bath, as for instance the
hen, the partridge, the francolin, the crested lark, the pheasant;
some of the straight-taloned birds, and such as live on the banks
of a river, in marshes, or by the sea, take a water-bath; some birds
take both the dust-bath and the waterbath, as for instance the pigeon
and the sparrow; of the crooked-taloned birds the greater part take
neither the one bath nor the other. So much for the ways of the above-mentioned,
but some birds have a peculiar habit of making a noise at their hinder
quarters, as, for instance, the turtle-dove; and they make a violent
movement of their tails at the same time that they produce this peculiar
sound.

THE END